[KHS]

I'm a new user and have profited greatly from reading other users' suggestions about PDF bookmarks in interactions with MobileSheets. Given that MobileSheets accesses and does nice things with pre-existing PDF bookmarks, it would be nice if the user could create PDF bookmarks from within MobileSheets whether manually or as part of the .CSV import process.

Here's one way I use them. If I import a .PDF containing an entire book (excellent example would be the books that contain all the songs on an artist's latest album or in a Broadway show), I will of course create individual "songs" from that, either manually or via .CSV import, but I always ALSO leave the entire book as the 1st "song" from it. This makes it vastly easier to play through the book in its original order. Using this "song," it's really nice to be able to view the bookmarks and skip directly to a particular song (more likely OVER a particular song). Given all the work the user often must do to get the .CSV file right, should he really have to download an unsupported program in order to create those bookmarks at the same places the .CSV file splits the book and with the same "Title" and beginning "Page" imported thereby? I suspect that Mike's not able to alter the .PDF file itself, but having the bookmarks available within MobileSheets is all I'm really interested in.

[Zubersoft]

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking for. This is the question that confused me: "Given all the work the user often must do to get the .CSV file right, should he really have to download an unsupported program in order to create those bookmarks at the same places the .CSV file splits the book and with the same "Title" and beginning "Page" imported thereby?"

Which program are you talking about when you say an unsupported program? 

MobileSheets supports a number of options related to PDF bookmarks:

1) You can enable Settings->Import Settings->Convert PDF Bookmarks will import PDF bookmarks and convert them into MobileSheets bookmarks
2) Share->Export files will take all MobileSheets bookmarks and embed them in the PDF that is generated
3) The bookmarks window lets you view and jump to any PDF bookmarks that are found

If none of those get you what you need, please let me know what changes you would like me to make.

Thanks,
Mike

[KHS]

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking for. This is the question that confused me: "Given all the work the user often must do to get the .CSV file right, should he really have to download an unsupported program in order to create those bookmarks at the same places the .CSV file splits the book and with the same "Title" and beginning "Page" imported thereby?"

Which program are you talking about when you say an unsupported program? 

MobileSheets supports a number of options related to PDF bookmarks:

1) You can enable Settings->Import Settings->Convert PDF Bookmarks will import PDF bookmarks and convert them into MobileSheets bookmarks
2) Share->Export files will take all MobileSheets bookmarks and embed them in the PDF that is generated
3) The bookmarks window lets you view and jump to any PDF bookmarks that are found

If none of those get you what you need, please let me know what changes you would like me to make.

Thanks,
Mike

Sorry to be confusing, Mike.

The "unsupported" program to which I was referring was jPDFbookmarks, last updated in 2011 and recommended by a few of your users. Just haven't had time to play with it yet, but someone remarked that it's no longer supported. I also note that it requires a Java Runtime to be installed, which some users prefer not to do.

I was referring solely to .PDF files that don't yet have bookmarks. I now see from your item 2) that if one creates MobileSheets bookmarks (something I haven't done yet), one can embed them into a new .PDF (as PDF bookmarks) via the Export function. That's great!

Now I need to figure out how to automate the process of creating the MobileSheets bookmarks, once I've already done the work of creating a compatible .CSV file for importing my .PDFs to MobileSheets. Or does that import process CREATE MobileSheets bookmarks while it's also creating individual "songs" pointing to the .PDF? And then I can Export to a new PDF that will then have embedded PDF bookmarks and I can then swap that file back into MobileSheets rather than maintain 2 separate PDFs, one with and one without PDF bookmarks? Am I getting it yet?

Sorry to be pedantic, but I'm trying to come up with a workflow in advance to avoid endless experimentation.

[Zubersoft]

It sounds like what you want is for the CSV import to update the source PDF with bookmarks corresponding with what is in the CSV. MobileSheetsPro will certainly not do that, and I think most users wouldn't expect that to happen. That's really outside the scope of what that feature is intended for. The CSV import won't create bookmarks of any kind - only importing a PDF normally (with the setting I mentioned enabled) would. If you imported a single PDF, added MobileSheets bookmarks, then exported that song, the PDF that was generated would contain those bookmarks. 

Mike

[itsme]

jPDFbookmarks is still working fine, I use it every now and then.
Here https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum...p?tid=5298 I described a workflow, how to populate a PDF with bookmarks by applying the data of an existing CSV. This workflow uses jPDFbookmarks.
If you want to use your MSP meta data to create a CSV file or PDF bookmarks, you can export them as CSV.
See https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum...p?tid=5213

[KHS]

It sounds like what you want is for the CSV import to update the source PDF with bookmarks corresponding with what is in the CSV. MobileSheetsPro will certainly not do that, and I think most users wouldn't expect that to happen. That's really outside the scope of what that feature is intended for. The CSV import won't create bookmarks of any kind - only importing a PDF normally (with the setting I mentioned enabled) would. If you imported a single PDF, added MobileSheets bookmarks, then exported that song, the PDF that was generated would contain those bookmarks. 

Mike

Perhaps I've missed an essential point. I've been assuming that MobileSheets bookmarks are created as part of the CSV Import, even when the inputted PDF lacks any PDF bookmarks. If so, then all I'm really asking for is to have MobileSheets do on the way in what it's happy to do on the way out: create PDF bookmarks in the actual PDF that are usable in or out of MobileSheets. That would avoid the "round-Robin" approach you outlined: 
(1) import non-bookmarked PDF using a CSV file; 
(2) Export the songs you just imported, generating a PDF with PDF bookmarks created from the MobileSheets bookmarks; 
(3) swap that new PDF back into MobileSheets to replace the original one that has no PDF bookmarks. 

I'll grant you that creating PDF bookmarks in the user's PDF is not the prime purpose of the program, but sometimes programs crash or whatever, and it would be nice to have the PDF itself be able to be viewed in any PDF viewer with accessible bookmarks. The CSV would contain all the information needed for PDF bookmark creation (again, I'm assuming that CSV info is what creates the MobileSheets bookmarks, which may be the source of my confusion), so I'm just trying to save a step. Whether file permissions or the like would require that you leave alone the user's PDF and offer to create a new bookmark-stuffed one instead is immaterial to me--I'd probably just swap it back in immediately and delete my original to save space.

If I'm obviously making erroneous assumptions, please correct me. Thanks for tolerating all my newbie questions with good cheer.

- Kevin

[Zubersoft]

The CSV import creates individual songs in the library, not bookmarks. I think that's the basis for your confusion.  Each song that is created shares the same file but uses a different range of pages. This is very different from bookmarks which don't show up on the library tab and can't currently define a range of pages.

Mike

[KHS]

The CSV import creates individual songs in the library, not bookmarks. I think that's the basis for your confusion.  Each song that is created shares the same file but uses a different range of pages. This is very different from bookmarks which don't show up on the library tab and can't currently define a range of pages.

Mike

That certainly explains my confusion! Thanks. Can someone give me a quick-and-dirty on what use there is for a MobileSheets bookmark? A practical example of what it can do for me that I can't do in MobileSheets without it? In the meantime, it sounds like Itsme's suggestion, although adding a couple steps to my workflow prior to MobileSheets import, would get me to the desired result and doesn't sound too hard even for an old fool.  Thanks again.- Kevin

[KHS]

jPDFbookmarks is still working fine, I use it every now and then.
Here https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum...p?tid=5298 I described a workflow, how to populate a PDF with bookmarks by applying the data of an existing CSV. This workflow uses jPDFbookmarks.
If you want to use your MSP meta data to create a CSV file or PDF bookmarks, you can export them as CSV.
See https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum...p?tid=5213

Thanks so much! I'm on it! I'm hoping to avoid installing LibreOffice given that I already have a good way of creating any required CSV format, but I'll ask my question on the thread to which you directed me. - Kevin

[Zubersoft]

If you have a single song in your library with a large PDF, you can add MobileSheets bookmarks so that you can jump between pages in the document quickly. These bookmarks can be accessed either through the bookmarks tab (if enabled) or through the bookmarks window in the song overlay.

Mike

[KHS]

If you have a single song in your library with a large PDF, you can add MobileSheets bookmarks so that you can jump between pages in the document quickly. These bookmarks can be accessed either through the bookmarks tab (if enabled) or through the bookmarks window in the song overlay.

Mike

Ah! I think I know where I got confused. When I imported a .PDF that already had PDF bookmarks, and then displayed one song from it (already created as a separate song), I saw in the Bookmarks window a very helpful clickable guide to the entire .PDF that contained that song, allowing me to navigate directly through the rest of that book even though I had opened only one song from it. I thought those were MobileSheets bookmarks, when I see now that even when I uncheck "Show All Songs" (which I take it would use the MobileSheets bookmarks), all the functionality is still there (from the PDF bookmarks) exactly the way I need it [NOPE, see OOPS! below]. Maybe it should say "Show All MS Bookmarks" instead of "Show All Songs?" (in my case, "Show All Songs" showed NO songs because I had created no MS bookmarks). I know these things seem obvious to you, but it can be confusing to a new user who's not entirely sure what a "Song" really means. 

It is VERY cool to able to go from viewing one song directly to exploring the rest of the .PDF without having to back out to the Recent or Songs list! OOPS! I spoke too soon: I can SEE the PDF bookmark data after opening only one song but I CANNOT navigate to it by clicking on one of the PDF bookmark entries. If I open the "song" that is defined as the whole .PDF, I can click on that data and it will go there.

[Zubersoft]

The "Show All Songs" checkbox controls whether bookmarks are shown from all songs in a setlist versus just the song that is currently displayed. It has nothing to do with whether PDF bookmarks are displayed. There is a separate checkbox for that on the window. If you enable PDF bookmarks in that window, you should see them all displayed regardless of the "Show All Songs" settings. I also have to keep the labels as succinct as possible because in some languages, those labels are very long (and MobileSheetsPro is available in 15 languages). 

Mike