Working with documents

Open and read a PDF

How to open documents in vivePDF, move between pages, search the text, zoom, change the page display, split the window and read comfortably.

To open a PDF in vivePDF, click Open PDF on Home or in the top bar, or press Ctrl+O. The document opens in its own tab in the Viewer, where you can move between pages, search the text and zoom.

Open a document

  1. On Home, click Open PDF or press Ctrl+O, then choose your file.
  2. Or drag files straight onto the window. If you drop several, each one opens in its own tab.
  3. If the document is encrypted, Password required appears; type the password and the document opens.

You are not limited to PDFs: Office documents, e-books, e-mails and pictures dropped on the window open as a PDF copy. Changes to that copy stay temporary until you keep them with Save as PDF…. If you have copied a picture or some text, Ctrl+Shift+V turns it into a PDF.

Very large files open too: vivePDF reads the document in pieces instead of loading it into memory all at once.

Recent documents and sessions

Documents you open stay in the Recent documents list on Home. Pin the ones you use often and they are kept in a group of their own at the top. The Restore last session action in the command palette brings back the tabs that were open when you last closed the app. When you reopen a document, vivePDF continues where you left off; to read from the start, click Go to page 1 in the notice.

Move between pages

  • Type a page number in the box at the bottom of the right-hand strip, or use its arrows to go to the previous or next page. If the document has page labels such as iii or A-1, you can type those as well.
  • Page Up/Page Down and the left and right arrow keys change page, and Home/End go to the first and last page.
  • After jumping to another page through a link or the outline, Alt+← takes you back and Alt+→ forward again.
  • The Thumbnails panel on the left shows every page, and the Outline panel lists the document’s bookmarks.

Search the document

Ctrl+F opens the search bar. Type the word you are looking for; the results are listed grouped by page. Match case and Whole word narrow them down. F3 moves to the next result and Shift+F3 to the previous one.

Searching scanned pages

Search only works on pages that have a text layer. If a scanned document returns no results, make its pages searchable with OCR first.

Zoom and page display

Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-, or the mouse wheel with Ctrl held down, zoom in and out. Ctrl+0 picks Actual size, Ctrl+1 Fit width and Ctrl+2 Fit page. To move the page around, hold Space and drag.

The Page display menu in the right-hand strip offers:

  • Single page, Two pages side by side or Two pages, cover page alone
  • Vertical scrolling or Horizontal scrolling
  • Automatic scrolling (Ctrl+Shift+H); while it runs, the up and down arrows change the speed and Esc stops it
  • Page colours: Sepia, Dark (inverted) or easy-on-the-eyes options such as white, yellow or green text on black

Split window

Ctrl+Shift+E splits the window in two. From Page display › Split window you can place the panes Side by side or Stacked, and Compare with another document… opens a different file in the second pane. Sync scrolling keeps both panes moving together.

Comfortable reading

  • Reading mode shows the text of the page in a single column. You can make the text larger or smaller and choose the column width and the Paper, Sepia or Dark theme.
  • Read aloud reads the document in the voice and at the speed you choose.
  • F11 switches to immersive mode and shows the document full screen. If you want to present it, see Present a PDF.
  • Ctrl+P opens the print dialog.

Every Viewer shortcut is listed on the Keyboard shortcuts page, and the overall layout of the screen is described under Interface.