[Zubersoft]

If anyone with a Boox Max 3 or Lumi is willing to help me test a new build of the e-ink version, please send an email to mike@zubersoft.com so I can send you the link to the apk. Onyx sent me the latest version of their library so I want to see if it fixes many of the issues being reported. The problem turned out to be that they had added 64-bit support in version 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 for me (due to problems I reported back in October 2019), but had removed 64-bit support with 1.1.4, so they've added it back now with 1.1.5. 

eichelbe - I wouldn't have expected the initialization to take more than a minute at most. The changes I made with version 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 related to the synchronization were so minor in nature that I'm really struggling to come up with an explanation for why you are never seeing it get past the initialization part. I can make a new build for you that outputs status as it goes through the initialization so we can understand what's happening if you'd be willing to test it. 

palosanto - I'm not sure how to programmatically add a border to the icon (or if that is even possible). I'm trying to think of other possible solutions, such as having a darker background behind the tool icon if the color of the tool is light enough to require it. The number indicates the size of the tool. So if you have a size 80 highlighter, it will show 80. That is to make it possible to easily distinguish between different sizes of pen favorites with the same color, for example.

Thanks,
Mike

[palosanto]

palosanto - I'm not sure how to programmatically add a border to the icon (or if that is even possible). I'm trying to think of other possible solutions, such as having a darker background behind the tool icon if the color of the tool is light enough to require it. 
Thanks,
Mike

That's probably a good solution and on the e-ink version the icon seems to be always black regardless of the color chosen anyway

[smw]

smw - I'm guessing the overlap issue might be due to annotations created with version 2.X unless you are also seeing that with version 3.X. I'm still not sure how to reproduce that yet but I'll keep looking for answers. The logic is set up so that MobileSheetsPro looks for the bottom most pixel of the rectangle that defines a bounding box around all selected annotations. So for some reason, it's determining that the bottom most pixel is directly over that annotation. So something is very off there. There is no setting that I can think of that would have any impact on this. If you can long press the song, tap Share->Export as .msf and send the .msf to mike@zubersoft.com, I can see if the problem is with the annotations in the song.

I'm afraid I'm not noticing any difference in behaviour between annotations created in 2.X and those created in 3.0.X.

The logic seems sound, assuming that the top of the toolbar and nudge tool share the same Y coordinate as the bottom of the bounding box, but that's definitely not what's happening on my tablet.

I can't think of any relevant settings either, but I also have no other explanation of why it would work for Palosanto and not work for me, when we're both using the same tablet.

I've just sent you an email message with an attached .msf file, containing annotations from version 2.X (in blue) and new ones created just now (in red).  I can't see any difference in the selection and nudge tool behaviour for either type; the only distinction is that smaller annotations are covered completely, while larger ones are still partly visible.

[DaniP]

DaniP - I have no idea what was going on with the opacity slider in 1b. I can slide the value back and forth over and over without ever running into what you were showing there. The touch circle that shows where you are tapping in the video made it look like you were tapping all around the slider and not on it. As far as 3b, I'll continue looking into that, as it does seem there are some adjustments I can make to the page offset but I will say that the problem looks worse on your device, so this one may be device-dependent, and it may have something to do with either different OS versions or the keyboard in use. As a workaround, you can just scroll the page up with the panning tool before editing. With 7, I can't reproduce that at all on my Samsung Tab S4. I'll test on some other devices to see if I have more luck on them. The issues of latency with #11 and 12 are definitely device specific. I'm not seeing that in the slightest on my device, but I will repeat tests on my older model tablets to see if that might be part of the issue. Almost nothing changed between 3.0.0 and 3.0.2 that would impact performance with the Android version. Have you tried rebooting the device if it hasn't been rebooted lately?

Hello Mike, I have rebooted the device (although I do it frequently), but no difference.

1b: In relation to the opacity slider, it seems that the problem is the selection, with the finger, of the point in the slider, when my selection it is not exact. It is as if the selection had to be very accurate. Well, this is not important. I'll try to take care when using the sliders. Perhaps it is something specific of my device, although I din't notice something similar in older versions of MSP.

3b: Ok. At least it seems that in 3.0.2 is better, and knowing the issue, I'll try to avoid it (with panning, for example)

7: It is very strange that you can't reproduce the problem. Are you considering the video 7b? In my case the problem is extremely clear: when I *select/activate* the panning tool in annotation mode, from another tool, panning works perfect. The incorrect behaviour occurs when I enter in annotation mode **and panning tool is already active** (that is, when I leaved before the annotation with the pan tool selected). I hope to have explained it correctly. In the video I think it is very clear.

Issues of latency:
I was under the impression that it was slightly faster, that's the feeling I got when I started testing version 3.0.0 (or 3.0.1). But it could have been an error of my perception. Anyway, in general it goes very well, that latency is very subtle, and only in certain cases.

12: I still believe that this is a bug. But look at the new video I have uploaded, which I think is more clear now ("12b -  3 strokes in stamp mode.mp4") as the problem seems to occur only when the three finger stroke is done spanning two pages.  Instead of exiting annotation mode, it is placing two stamps.
While you identify it or not, I'll be careful to get out of edit mode by doing that gesture over one only page.

Thanks

[Harry777]

Harry777 - What type of device are you using? Did you enable the setting to "Enable editing of embedded annnotations"? If so, that's going to have a performance impact because it has to re-render the page after entering or leaving the annotations editor. Similarly, if you save the annotations to the PDF itself, MobileSheets is going to have to save out the changes to the PDF and then re-render the page. This causes the saving dialog you mentioned. In general, it's advised to leave those settings off unless you absolutely need to have access to the PDF annotations or you need to have all annotations written to the file. As far as the black pages, after 3.0.2 is available (hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest after Microsoft approves it), I would like to see if you are still seeing those. I am still working on identifying potential issues that can cause black pages. MobileSheets now uses Win2D for all rendering, which is using Direct2D for all drawing. It's possible this is not working well with your device depending on the hardware. Most of what you are describing so far sounds like there are some major performance issues with your device. How much RAM does it have? How large are the PDFs you are loading? It seems crazy to me that it's taking 8-10 seconds to save changes to a PDF, but I guess if the PDF is 200+ MB, that might be possible. I did not test with files of that size. As far as the zooming, it would be great if you can test that again with 3.0.2 as I recall making a lot of bug fixes while testing. 

As far as the last issue you reported, can you please try tapping the top left or top right corner when the annotations aren't showing after exiting the annotations editor? This skips to the previous or next layer, which will hide all of the annotations in the current layer. This is the only thing I can guess as to what might be happening, because I'm definitely not seeing any issues with annotations disappearing unless that action is triggered. If that is the issue and you don't plan to skip between annotation layers, you can turn those touch actions off under Settings->Touch & Pedal Settings->Touch Actions

Hi Mike,

So I'm using a Surface Book 3 15' for all my work.

I disabled all the options having to do with working with embedded PDF info and saving annotations to the PDF, and it dramatically increased save times (basically instant now)!

I will definitely check out the black pages issue when I get my hands on 3.0.2.

It's definitely disheartening to to hear that the SB3 might be too slow for some MobileSheets tasks, but what can you do? Either way, I have 16gb of ram, and the PDFs I use are typically around 50mb or more.

I'll also test the zoom lag on 3.0.2.

As far as touch actions, I have it set so that I only use 3 of them, and those are for starting/stopping the metronome, and resetting the zoom. I haven't been able to recreate that specific bug yet, but I think it had to do with saving annotations to the PDF, so I think I'm safe from them now that I disabled those options.

If you know any ways I can speed up MobileSheets in general on any Windows PC, let me know!

Keep up the great work, Mike! We all appreciate it

[Zubersoft]

Thanks DaniP - I'll look at those issues again with the new information.

smw - I received your file but am currently unable to reproduce the issue still. I'd like to have you test something - can you turn off the option to "Always Show the Title Bar" in the settings and then enter the annotations editor and see if the problem goes away? I have a theory that it's somehow related to that as it shifts the page down in the annotations mode, and the offset for where the edit bar should be is about the size of the toolbar at the top. I turned that setting on, but still could not reproduce the problem, but I'm not sure if that has something to do with fixes in 3.0.2 or if the problem still exists but there is a setting I haven't adjusted yet.

Harry777 - If the problem had to do with saving to the PDF, it's possible there is a bug there with the page not re-rendering with the annotations after they've been written to the file. I'll have to look into that some more. I'll continue to look for ways to optimize the application, but it would be great if you can try loading a small PDF (3-5 pages let's say), and see if the same performance issues are present when loading that. 

Thanks,
Mike

[smw]

smw - I received your file but am currently unable to reproduce the issue still. I'd like to have you test something - can you turn off the option to "Always Show the Title Bar" in the settings and then enter the annotations editor and see if the problem goes away? I have a theory that it's somehow related to that as it shifts the page down in the annotations mode, and the offset for where the edit bar should be is about the size of the toolbar at the top. I turned that setting on, but still could not reproduce the problem, but I'm not sure if that has something to do with fixes in 3.0.2 or if the problem still exists but there is a setting I haven't adjusted yet.

In other words, https://xkcd.com/583/  

Seriously, I'm not surprised that it works for you; if it didn't you wouldn't have released 3.0.0 without fixing it first.

I just tested "Always Show the Title Bar" turned off, and you're right that it changes what happens.  In this case the toolbar consistently pops up immediately below the annotation, as you intended.  The nudge tool also pops up lower than it did, but not by enough; it still covers most of a small annotation, where before it covered the whole thing.  Video demonstrating this is here:

       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y6cy6U8...sp=sharing

Is there an easy way for me to share all my settings with you without having to share the whole database?  I don't mind sharing the whole thing, but it's quite large (a full backup occupies 4.3 Gb on my computer, although to be fair that includes audio files).

[Zubersoft]

smw - I actually did find a way to reproduce the issue on one of my devices. I just hadn't tested the most recent builds on all of them. So I'll look into getting this fixed as soon as possible.

Thanks.
Mike

[smw]

smw - I actually did find a way to reproduce the issue on one of my devices. I just hadn't tested the most recent builds on all of them. So I'll look into getting this fixed as soon as possible.

Great!  Thank you so much for looking into this.

[meszian88]

Hi, the new update seems like it improves many areas but it has absolutely ruined my workflow. In the past I would use text to add a fingering annotation, and the box to adjust it would pop up automatically. I now have to go through 3 clicks to get to select item, selecting the annotation, clicking the move button, and finally moving the annotation to its presice location, which is Impossible to do with accuracy when placing the text box. Can I possibly go back to the old version as the way this one works is far inferior in this regard.

[McAroni]

You could add a two or three finger tap gesture to swich between the tools you often use. Just tap anywhere on the screen and you got the Tool you need.

[meszian88]

It used to work perfectly though. I put in a fingering, the nudge tool is ready to move it immediately in place, 3 second task, done. now im looking at an extra 4-5 seconds for every single fingering, which over the course of my 5 hours a day practicing is going to get annoying, fast. Im just wondering if i can not just go back to the old build that worked perfectly for what i needed it to do.

Alternatively just a mode that operates the same way, when i have entered my number in the text box and clicked out, the nudge tool is ready waiting for me immediately, instead of inside multiple menu options.

[Zubersoft]

If it will help you, I can add an option to the settings that says, "Select annotations after creation". Then you can enter your text, tap away, MobileSheets will switch to the selection tool and select your annotation. Then you can adjust it, but you'll have to switch back to the text tool if you want to enter more text after that. I'm not going to allow annotations to be selected while other tools are active, because that caused major workflow problems with users that wanted to place a lot of stamps as MobileSheets would select each stamp after it was created, preventing more stamps from being placed. 

I've already mentioned that I'm adding changes to allow the nudge window to stay visible while the selection tool is active. I'm also willing to support having the nudge tool displayed while the text tool is active and a text annotations is being actively edited. In that scenario, the nudge tool would allow the actively edited text annotation to be repositioned before tapping away. Then you wouldn't have to switch tools at all.

I'd rather focus on making the new design work for people rather than users just giving up on it immediately and wanting to switch to the old design due to workflow issues. I'm always open to feedback and things can easily be adjusted and/or improved as needed. Most of these changes were to help one group of users that had problems with the old design. I think that group is happy with the changes based on feedback I've received. So now I just need to make some adjustments for those that work with text a lot and relied on the nudge tool for positioning.

Thanks,
Mike

[STEELBAS]

Hi Mike,

Congratulations on the new release, the new annotation mode looks very promising and will probably be a big improvement. I love the new radial menu, seems to work quite nicely and looks great. I also think adding options to select what two- and three-finger taps do in the quick settings menu is a great choice, allowing people to figure out the two-finger tap to switch to panning more easily. And of course the vector images for stamps are a great improvement, and you even added custom stamp support!

I actually wrote a blog post on using an Android tablet for sheet music last year where I tested different apps and ended up recommending yours. I forgot to share it with you, so I'll do that here: https://bammerlaan.nl/posts/Android-tabl...l-musician.

I also wrote a post about how to use your app and some tips for it in Dutch, here: https://bammerlaan.nl/posts/Mobilesheets-voor-bladmuziek-op-Android-tablet. Guess I'll have to write an update for it with the new version at some point, though!

I have some feedback for the new version, though. Just my opinions, do with it what you will:

1. The new icon for the selection tool is less intuitive for me. A regular cursor like it was before seems more universal.
   
2. Speaking of icons, I always confuse the icon for going to annotation mode and the icon for going to the meta-information editor on the top-left of the screen in the sheetmusic overlay. Don't know if that's something you would want to change, but I just can't remember the different functions of a pencil and a brush in this context
   
3. I guess you'll probably get around to this eventually anyway, as it does work as expected with the top bar in annotation mode, but: having toast pop-ups explaining what each button does when long-pressing it would be nice. The new Command Bar could still use these, for instance.
   
4. Adding an entire piano staff (so two staves with clefs already added) is not very useful to me, not playing the piano. Much more universally useful would be to have a single staff, without any bar lines or clefs or anything already added.
   
5. I read about the resizing function of the piano staff by keeping it pressed for a second without moving. Very useful! I don't think I would've figured that out without reading the manual, though. Perhaps this could also be elucidated with a toast popup message, or a first-time-use message or something?
   
6. When resizing the piano staff using the selection tool, the lower handle works as expected (i.e. dragging down makes the staff larger, dragging up makes it smaller), but the upper handle just copies the behaviour of the lower handle. I think it would be more intuitive to mirror the behaviour, so dragging up would then make the staff bigger.
   

Also I found the same bug DaniP writes about above (#7), where entering annotation mode while the panning tool is still active makes it misbehave.

I also found your post about horizontal panning not working in verticalling scrolling display mode. I used this quite a lot however, when I zoomed in in annotation mode and then wanted to move to the edge of the paper. I think in the previous versions, annotation mode switched to single page viewing mode to solve this? I wouldn't mind going back to that, as vertical scrolling is less of a necessity when annotating anyway.

I noticed that I can move to the edge of the paper by moving my fingers while zooming, though, so I think that will be enough to solve this. I'll just have to change my workflow a bit.

Also, I'm still hoping that you'll one day add a simple single-octave piano pop-up to Mobilesheets, but until that time I'd like to show off a workaround I managed to work out: using Tasker, I can now double press my tablet's power-off button to open Android's split-screen mode with TonalEnergy Tuner (see attached screenshot). A pop-up would've been nicer, but I can't get Tasker to play ball with that. Oh well.

   

[smw]

If it will help you, I can add an option to the settings that says, "Select annotations after creation". Then you can enter your text, tap away, MobileSheets will switch to the selection tool and select your annotation. Then you can adjust it, but you'll have to switch back to the text tool if you want to enter more text after that. I'm not going to allow annotations to be selected while other tools are active, because that caused major workflow problems with users that wanted to place a lot of stamps as MobileSheets would select each stamp after it was created, preventing more stamps from being placed. 

I've already mentioned that I'm adding changes to allow the nudge window to stay visible while the selection tool is active. I'm also willing to support having the nudge tool displayed while the text tool is active and a text annotations is being actively edited. In that scenario, the nudge tool would allow the actively edited text annotation to be repositioned before tapping away. Then you wouldn't have to switch tools at all.

I'm somewhat in the middle here:  I really love the new annotation features in general, but like meszian88 I almost always find myself having to move new annotations immediately after they're placed because I can never quite get them in the right place on the first try.  So I'm definitely in favour of a "Select annotations after creation" as you describe, along with having the nudge tool automatically displayed while text annotations are being edited. Really, anything that makes it easier to get to the nudge tool is a win in my opinion.