atril configuration

Haines Brown

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Jun 5, 2016, 8:38:15 AM6/5/16

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When I call atril on a PDF, it usually starts in a default mode that I
don't want. Rather, I would like it to display a PDF with no Toolbar, no
Side Pane, with Continuous disabled and with Best Fit enabled.

When these values are set when viewing a PDF, when I view again the
configuration is remembered. When I turn to a different PDF, they are
forgotten and the defaults reassert themselves. This suggest that atril
could be configured always to open with the desired options. But man
atril says nothing about configuration. Is it possible?

I also tried to write an executable bash script named "pdf":

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/atril $1 &
exit 0

Problem with this is that when pdf (atril) is run on a PDF it fails to
display the document it was run on (I know nothing of shell
programming).

Haines Brown

Alastair Black

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Jun 5, 2016, 12:13:57 PM6/5/16

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Is MATE your desktop? The atril package is, I believe, set
up specifically for the MATE desktop. If you are running
a different desktop (such as Xfce or LXDE) then atril may
not be the best .PDF viewer for you. Have you tried the
okular viewer? It has a *lot* more functions and is more
configurable than most of the other viewers...

Alastair

Kara M'bola

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Jun 5, 2016, 5:17:47 PM6/5/16

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2016-06-05, Haines Brown wrote:
> When I call atril on a PDF, it usually starts in a default mode that I
> don't want. Rather, I would like it to display a PDF with no Toolbar, no
> Side Pane, with Continuous disabled and with Best Fit enabled.

I'd try gsettings for starters. In your case:

$ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-toolbar false
$ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-sidebar false
$ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default continuous false
$ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default sizing-mode 'best-fit'

--
:q!

Haines Brown

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Jun 6, 2016, 7:42:45 AM6/6/16

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Alastair Black <abqab...@example.net> writes:

> On 06/05/2016 06:38 AM, Haines Brown wrote:
>> When I call atril on a PDF, it usually starts in a default mode that I
>> don't want. Rather, I would like it to display a PDF with no Toolbar, no
>> Side Pane, with Continuous disabled and with Best Fit enabled.

> Is MATE your desktop? The atril package is, I believe, set
> up specifically for the MATE desktop. If you are running
> a different desktop (such as Xfce or LXDE) then atril may
> not be the best .PDF viewer for you. Have you tried the
> okular viewer? It has a *lot* more functions and is more
> configurable than most of the other viewers...

Alastair,

I'm running no desktop environment. I had not tried okular because it
would drag in a lot of KDE stuff. But I tried it on a junk machine and
was able to select text for copy to clipboard, which is vital for
me. Atril can do it as well, but not as well as xpdf. Okular's method
off hand seems to involve several steps rather than a simple mouse drag
selection, but I can live with that.

Unfortunately, in an effort to get rid of the thumbnail display, I
removed the toolbar (?) that provided access to configuration. It seems
okular has no man page, and not being familiar with desktop environments
I had no idea how to recover access to configuration (revert to Defaults
didn't do it).

Haines

Haines Brown

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Jun 6, 2016, 8:01:14 AM6/6/16

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Kara, thanks.

I wasn't even aware of gsettings. It seems to apply to GNOME
applications, none of which I use on a regular basis. Atril apparently
an exception, and it did manage to clean up its display nicely.

Haines

Kara M'bola

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Jun 6, 2016, 8:54:06 AM6/6/16

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2016-06-06, Haines Brown wrote:
> Kara M'bola <maxu...@in.val.it> writes:
>
>> 2016-06-05, Haines Brown wrote:
>>> When I call atril on a PDF, it usually starts in a default mode that I
>>> don't want. Rather, I would like it to display a PDF with no Toolbar, no
>>> Side Pane, with Continuous disabled and with Best Fit enabled.
>>
>> I'd try gsettings for starters. In your case:
>>
>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-toolbar false
>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-sidebar false
>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default continuous false
>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default sizing-mode 'best-fit'
>
> Kara, thanks.

No problem. Glad you got it sorted.

> I wasn't even aware of gsettings. It seems to apply to GNOME
> applications, none of which I use on a regular basis.

Or rather MATE in this case, but yes, same dconf/gsettings apply.

--
:q!

Haines Brown

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Jun 6, 2016, 9:52:20 AM6/6/16

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Kara M'bola <maxu...@in.val.it> writes:

> 2016-06-06, Haines Brown wrote:
>> Kara M'bola <maxu...@in.val.it> writes:
>>
>>> 2016-06-05, Haines Brown wrote:
>>>> When I call atril on a PDF, it usually starts in a default mode that I
>>>> don't want. Rather, I would like it to display a PDF with no Toolbar, no
>>>> Side Pane, with Continuous disabled and with Best Fit enabled.
>>>
>>> I'd try gsettings for starters. In your case:
>>>
>>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-toolbar false
>>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default show-sidebar false
>>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default continuous false
>>> $ gsettings set org.mate.Atril.Default sizing-mode 'best-fit'
>>
>> Kara, thanks.

I spoke too soon. Worked first time I tried it, but the settings didn't
stick for second use of atril, and reissuing the set of commands no
longer has any effect.

Haines

Kara M'bola

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Jun 6, 2016, 11:08:14 AM6/6/16

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Weird. It works as intended for me though. Could be lack of some package
or two? Couple of greps, if it helps:

$ dpkg -l | grep gsett
ii dconf-gsettings-backend:amd64 0.26.0-1 amd64 simple configuration storage system - GSettings back-end
ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.20.0-3 all GSettings desktop-wide schemas

$ dpkg -l | grep dconf
ii dconf-cli 0.26.0-1 amd64 simple configuration storage system - utilities
ii dconf-gsettings-backend:amd64 0.26.0-1 amd64 simple configuration storage system - GSettings back-end
ii dconf-service 0.26.0-1 amd64 simple configuration storage system - D-Bus service
ii libdconf1:amd64 0.26.0-1 amd64 simple configuration storage system - runtime library

--
:q!

Haines Brown

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Jun 6, 2016, 3:28:29 PM6/6/16

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ii dconf-gsettings-backend:i386 0.12.1-3 i386 simple configuration \

storage system - GSettings back-end

ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.4.2-3 all GSettings deskop-wide \

schemas

$ dpkg -l | grep dconf

ii dconf-gsettings-backend:i386 0.12.1-3 i386 simple configuration \

storage system - GSettings back-end

ii dconf-service 0.12.1-3 i386 simple configuration storage system - \
D-Bus service
ii libdconf0:i386 0.12.1-3 i386 simple configuration storage system -
runtime library

I doubt that the antiquity of these programs is relevant.

Strange! Without describing my experiments, I discover that my test.pdf
does not respond to atril display customization, while any other PDF
does. Obviously something is amiss with my test.pdf. It is the same PDF
version as the others. But it probably is a format conversion from a
simple .txt file.

So, despite the hiccup, you seem to have provided a solution.

Haines Brown