Okular

It is a very good alternative to Sumatra, and evidently its greatest advantage over this are the PDF annotations. Some functions that I use a lot in Sumatra and that are NOT in Okular are:

• Open multiple files in tabs, in a single window. Okular works Office style, it will open one window per file, which is not practical.

• File history, and possibility to reopen them ALL automatically when starting the program.

• In the Windows version, Okular occupies more than 400 Mb, while Sumatra less than 20 Mb.

Finally, a very commented problem is the lack of a "standard" installer in Windows. I had the same problem, and after abandoning all this and trying MuPDF (quite limited) I gave it a last chance, and it turns out that IF THERE IS an installer that is very hidden...the link is below.

There you will find the typical *exe, and also a 7z compressed that will make the portable version (the executable is in the bin folder). If you navigate within that web, you will also find the "Nightly" versions of Okular, and also other applications of the KDE community

Mensaje Original:

Es una muy buena alternativa a Sumatra, y evidentemente su mayor ventaja respecto a esta son las anotaciones en PDF. Algunas funciones que uso bastante en Sumatra y que NO están en Okular son:

• Abrir múltiples archivos en pestañas, en una sola ventana. Okular trabaja al estilo Office, se abrirá una ventana por archivo, lo cual no es práctico.

• Historial de archivos, y posibilidad de reabrirlos TODOS automaticamente al iniciar el programa.

• En la version de Windows, Okular ocupa mas de 400 Mb, en cambio Sumatra menos de 20 Mb.

Finalmente, un problema bastante comentado es la falta de un instalador "estándar" en Windows. Tuve el mismo problema, y tras abandonar todo esto y probar MuPDF (bastante limitado) le di una última oportunidad, y resulta que SI EXISTE un instalador que esta muy oculto...lo encuentran en:

https://binary-factory.kde.org/view/Windows%2064-bit/job/Okular_Release_win64/

Alli encontraran el típico *exe, y tambien un comprimido 7z que hará las veces de versión portable (el ejecutable esta en la carpeta bin). Si navegan dentro esa web, también encontrarán las versiones "Nightly" de Okular, y tambien otras aplicaciones de la comunidad KDE.

I tried to love this, I really did. But to me the only saving grace is that it's open source and free. No ads, nothing bundled, it's just a free, open source app.

The issue - there is no intuitive form filling. The tools that are provided are a poor replacement. For example, I wanted to fill a box on a form with free text, so I selected the text annotation tool and dragged a rectangle the size of the box, so that whatever I typed would fit within the boundaries of this box. Okular completely ignored the boundaries and let the block of text flow out of it, making it look unprofessional. Think I'm just being harsh?

My doctor's secretary called me to resubmit the form - she complained that the text was out of the box. I said she was just being picky, that it was perfectly readable. Until she schooled my a** by saying that they use automated tooling that will only scan what is WITHIN the box on the form, anything outside is not scanned. So my text would be unusable as it would be missing several words that would be cut off. I never felt so humiliated. I just assumed that anyone would be able to read what was spilling out and it would all be fine. Never considered automated tooling would be involved.

So Okular made my document look unprofessional, and unusable, not to mention it was a huge pain to have to specify the places where the text should go - only for the limits to be completely ignored.

All in all, it's like Adobe Reader has not and will not be beaten because reading PDFs any modern browser can do. Adobe Reader shines in form filling and annotation - something Okular is shamefully lacking in any usable and serious implementation.

Is this bashing of the developers - absolutely not. This is bashing the application itself. It's clearly buggy and doesn't work well. A waste of time if you're gonna use for any professional work. If you want form-filling, get Adobe Reader, even old versions without the garbage will do a better job.

If Okular wants a better review, Okular needs to better itself. If Okular wants more stars, Okular has to earn it.

This application is competing for space on the market, if it doesn't become better it will soon be overtaken and be obsoleted. Users don't have to please developers with nice reviews when the app doesn't warrant a nice review. But if developers want good projects in their portfolio they better make the effort.

As said - any browser can display PDFs properly. Okular should handle combining pages from different PDFs and form-filling, annotations before it will gain any more than 1 star from me.