[palosanto]

A few problems related to the layers window and snippets applying to both of my tablets  (listed with my signature):

1. The layers window doesn't refresh until annotation mode is exited and re-entered. So any new elements or pasted snippets don't show up.

2. Snippets always paste underneath all existing annotations even they are listed at the bottom of the list in the layers window so I have no way to cover any annotations, only the pdf page itself.

3. For the same reason selecting pasted snippets is very difficult when there are other annotations in the area.

4. The current layer is supposed to show its name in green but sometimes selecting another layer doesn't deselect the previous one.

5. I would suggest to make the current layer name bold specially because in the e-ink tablet the selected layer name doesn't show because is always black.

6. We can't change the order of the layers. The arrows on the status line only allows you to change the order of the items within the layer which I don't find it very useful. 

7. I assume that the only way to move elements from one layer to another is to copy them and then paste in the new layer?

8. In general (not only with snippets) trying to identify an annotation in the list is almost impossible and a trial and error task. Ideally one should be able to rename some elements with meaningful names if need be to quickly find them.  This is specially necessary when some elements overlap others and it's hard to select them on screen.

Juan

[Zubersoft]

1. That is only true if you are using the pen tool, because all screen refreshing is disabled if you use the pen tool with stylus enabled (that's how Onyx handles the "fast" drawing with the stylus). If I turn off that mode and turn it back on after every annotation (so that elements like the layers window will show updates), it's going to cause the screen to potentially flash as it's redrawing each, which I don't think people would like (and it could interfere with writing if the user is quick). I'm not sure I have a good answer for that on the e-ink devices. In the past, I tried to refresh just a particular portion of the screen using Onyx's library (so I could show these kinds of updates as annotations are created), and it caused user's devices to lock up. So I'm not sure if I want to go down that path again if it could potentially cause that kind of instability.

If you are saying you experience issues with the layers window not updating on your Samsung Note Pro 12.2, that would definitely be a problem, but I'm not seeing that kind of issue on any of my tablets. Snippets won't show up in the layers window unless you enable editing of embedded annotations.

2. Snippets are pasted into the PDF page itself. Annotations created in MobileSheets draw on top of the page. There is no way to have content from the PDF page appear on top of the MobileSheets annotations unless you save the MobileSheets annotations to the PDF itself first, and then paste the snippet, which will then be on top of the other annotations (but you'll lose the ability to edit those annotations quickly in MobileSheets). I have no desire to save snippets in the database - it would require saving massive blobs of data, could negatively impact performance, and would make the database grow in size enormously. This was the best solution I could come up with that wouldn't have huge negative consequences. 

3. You'll have to save everything to the PDF and enable editing of embedded annotations in that case. 

4. You are experiencing this on both tablets? What steps are necessary to reproduce that issue? I'm not seeing issues on my Samsung Tab S4 with the previous layer staying green if I select a new active layer.

5. I can look into making that change for the e-ink version.

6. Can you please provide a scenario where you need to reorder layers? A tree control is not really designed well for reordering. If this is essential and will be used often, I can support an option to long press a layer, and select move up/move down from a context menu. I also don't have any code in place to update the database to reorder layers, so I would need to add that as well if this is important.

7. Correct, to move elements between layers, you would have to cut/paste them. I have considered providing either a context option to "Move to another layer" or an icon, but I would have to disable the icon or provide an error message if the user selects annotations from different pages and/or songs, as I would only support moving annotations between layers within the same page.

8. I'm not against supporting named annotations, but it would require a new field in the database, and UI options for renaming. I'll have to figure out when to fit this in an update.

Thanks,
Mike

[palosanto]

1. That is only true if you are using the pen tool, because all screen refreshing is disabled if you use the pen tool with stylus enabled (that's how Onyx handles the "fast" drawing with the stylus). If I turn off that mode and turn it back on after every annotation (so that elements like the layers window will show updates), it's going to cause the screen to potentially flash as it's redrawing each, which I don't think people would like (and it could interfere with writing if the user is quick). I'm not sure I have a good answer for that on the e-ink devices. In the past, I tried to refresh just a particular portion of the screen using Onyx's library (so I could show these kinds of updates as annotations are created), and it caused user's devices to lock up. So I'm not sure if I want to go down that path again if it could potentially cause that kind of instability.

If you are saying you experience issues with the layers window not updating on your Samsung Note Pro 12.2, that would definitely be a problem, but I'm not seeing that kind of issue on any of my tablets. Snippets won't show up in the layers window unless you enable editing of embedded annotations.

2. Snippets are pasted into the PDF page itself. Annotations created in MobileSheets draw on top of the page. There is no way to have content from the PDF page appear on top of the MobileSheets annotations unless you save the MobileSheets annotations to the PDF itself first, and then paste the snippet, which will then be on top of the other annotations (but you'll lose the ability to edit those annotations quickly in MobileSheets). I have no desire to save snippets in the database - it would require saving massive blobs of data, could negatively impact performance, and would make the database grow in size enormously. This was the best solution I could come up with that wouldn't have huge negative consequences. 

3. You'll have to save everything to the PDF and enable editing of embedded annotations in that case. 

4. You are experiencing this on both tablets? What steps are necessary to reproduce that issue? I'm not seeing issues on my Samsung Tab S4 with the previous layer staying green if I select a new active layer.

5. I can look into making that change for the e-ink version.

6. Can you please provide a scenario where you need to reorder layers? A tree control is not really designed well for reordering. If this is essential and will be used often, I can support an option to long press a layer, and select move up/move down from a context menu. I also don't have any code in place to update the database to reorder layers, so I would need to add that as well if this is important.

7. Correct, to move elements between layers, you would have to cut/paste them. I have considered providing either a context option to "Move to another layer" or an icon, but I would have to disable the icon or provide an error message if the user selects annotations from different pages and/or songs, as I would only support moving annotations between layers within the same page.

8. I'm not against supporting named annotations, but it would require a new field in the database, and UI options for renaming. I'll have to figure out when to fit this in an update.

Thanks,
Mike

I had another look based on your post:
1.- Understood and all makes sense for the e-ink version.  Funny enough, I tried the pen tool and today the names were appearing in the list immediately .... so what can I say, they weren't yesterday, that's why I posted about it.   
There's no problem with the Samsung.
CORRECTION  I just tested with the Samsung: Copied a snippet and pasted it a couple of times and and didn't show in the list. I had to re-enter annot mode for them to show (as  stamps)
2.- Noted.
3.- Noted
4.- Hard to tell with the e-ink because the color doesn't change. One think I noticed: If I create 3 layers and I delete no 2, when I create a new layer I'll have 2 no3 layers.  I guess it's easy enough to rename them on the spot. I'm being too picky? sorry.
For the Samsung, for the life of me, I haven't been able to reproduce the 2 'current' layers shown in green that I encounter yesterday. Sorry.
5.- That'll be great
6.- Nevermind if t's too difficult. I was thinking of a situation where you want to take all the annotations of one layer and put them on top or under the ones on the other layer. I guess I can always cut them and paste them on a different layer rather that reordering the layer itself.
7.-Noted
8.-Again, a nice to have but probably not critical.

Thanks

[Zubersoft]

4. You can always rename the layer if you want. Having said that, it's definitely a flaw in my logic for detecting the name. I think it's just counting the number of current layers, adding 1 and putting that after the translated word for "Layers". I'll have to make it smart enough to detect duplicate layer names and pick a unique one.

Thanks,
Mike

Update:

1) Okay, thanks, I'll see if I can reproduce the issue by pasting a snippet multiple times with the option to enable embedded PDF annotations.