Hi there,
Student here, recently switched to using DTTG for all lecture annotations. I really appreciate the organised nature of DT and DTTG and I plan to continue using it as a knowledge base, whether I do markup in DTTG or in an external app (Goodnotes 5?)
The writing tool is almost perfect for my needs except for the lack of a lasso select tool. As I take math classes, I typically find myself having to select specific parts of what I’ve written to move to i.e. make space for an added equation. From my experience, this doesn’t seem possible using the current set of PDF annotation tools available.
Would it be feasible to implement such a feature? Alternatively, does anyone know of a PDF writer which integrates nicely with DT/DTTG (a key selling point would be allowing annotations to be changed retrospectively) and supports lasso selection? I’ve tried other PSPDFkit engines such as PDF Expert, but unfortunately they suffer from the same problem…
Thanks for your help & keep up the good work developing DT/DTTG!
Welcome @denosawr and thank you for the kind words!
There isn’t a lasso but there is a marquee selection tool that works with freeform annotations, like those made with the pen…
It does not select text or text highlights.
Hi, thanks for your reply and very prompt response! Yes, I’ve noticed the selection tool and it’s handy at times. Apologies though, I believe I should have been more detailed in my original response to outline my issues with the marquee tool. Perhaps that would be a better topic for this post - I absolutely would be OK with a selection tool, if it behaved the way I’d expect from other annotation apps.
The issue I’m having is that it seems to aggressively ‘group’ together annotations, whereas I’d expect only the writing I’ve selected to be… selected. An example (the dark blue is the selection I’ve drawn out with my Apple Pencil, the light blue is what is actually selected):
I would expect only the “is filled by blood or fluid” to be selected in this case as opposed to the ‘whole annotation’.
This is a particular issue as when doing math, oftentimes I want to move around part of an equation so I can insert other things within. An example of that workflow:
<see next post>
In this case I’d much rather be able to select the dark blue bit, shift it over to the right, and add in the ln( instead of having to erase the whole thing, add in the relevant change, and rewrite the original. From what I can tell, this kind of ‘partial selection’ (as opposed to selecting an annotation ‘object’ of sorts) isn’t available in DTTG.
, as I couldn’t upload this in my past post due to being a new user
You’re welcome
The marquee tool only requires touching the edge of an annotation to select it. It does not require fully enclosing it. Also, freeform annotations placed close together will be joined as one. I don’t know if we have any control over that as it’s a third-party framework we use.
Ah, that’s a shame. Yes, my main question was about that ‘joining together’ nature of the freeform annotations. Thanks for your help though, and please keep me updated if that ever changes!
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