Settings and privacy

All of vivePDF’s preferences live in Settings: appearance, startup, where results are saved, reading, presentation, tools, updates and data. vivePDF collects no personal data; Help › Privacy lists when the app touches the network and what it keeps on this computer, and Settings › Data removes it.

Opening Settings

Open Settings from the top bar. The list on the left gathers the sections into three groups: Application, Viewing and System and data. If you do not know where a setting lives, type its name into Search settings… at the top. Language and theme changes apply immediately.

The sections

Application

• Appearance: language, theme (Light, Dark, or System to follow the Windows theme), Interface scale, Interface zoom and Reduce motion.
• Startup and privacy: Continue where I left off, Remember recent files, Keep operation history, Ask before closing, Keep a backup before saving, Keep running in the tray and Start with the system.
• Files: whether tools write their result Next to the source or to a Fixed folder, the file Name pattern, and what happens After an operation (do nothing, show in Explorer or open the file).
• Web: the Search engine for the Viewer’s right-click menu, the online check for new passwords, and Offline mode.

Viewing

• Viewer: thumbnail size, default side panels, Opening zoom, two-page view, text selection colour, Author name for comments and Reload when the file changes.
• Reading & read aloud: reading mode defaults, speech rate, default voice, offline voice models and translation languages.
• Presentation: pen, laser pointer and spotlight defaults, and whether drawings are Temporary or kept as Permanent notes. See Present a PDF for more.

System and data

• Tools: OCR language packs, the LibreOffice-based Office converter, the default OCR language and the default compression.
• Updates: the installed version, Check for updates and Check automatically at startup. Installing always asks you first; see Installation.
• System (Windows): Open PDF files with vivePDF, Windows default apps, an Explorer Context menu and a “Send to” shortcut.
• Data: everything stored on this computer, described below.
• Feedback: Report a bug, Suggest a feature, the Log folder and Diagnostics, which copies version details to the clipboard.

Help › Privacy

Open Privacy from the Help menu in the top bar. The page shows two lists:

• Network access: documents, passwords and certificates never leave this computer. Only things you start go online: update checks, voice models, language packs, fonts and LibreOffice when you click Download or Install, web search, turning a web page into a PDF, DOI lookups, the optional leaked-password check and a timestamp while signing. Bug reports are never sent automatically.
• Stored on this computer: recent files, the session snapshot, settings, the path of the certificate you signed with (never its password), backups, the search index, operation history, watch-folder rules, saved signatures, downloaded packs and the local log file.

The top of the page also shows whether Offline mode is on or off; Open setting takes you straight to the switch.

Settings › Data

This section shows everything that is stored, with a count, and lets you remove each item:

• Recent files and Operation history: Clear.
• Session snapshot: Delete.
• Remembered certificate path: Forget.
• Search index: Clear all; indexed folders then have to be indexed again from the Search page.
• Search history, Saved signatures, Watch-folder rules and Saved batch chains: Clear.
• Remembered chain passwords: Forget all removes them from the system keychain.

Reset all settings returns your preferences to their defaults only; recent files, history, saved signatures, chains and watch rules are kept. If you tick Also delete saved signatures, chains, watch rules and presets in the confirmation, those are deleted for good as well.

Downloaded language packs and voice models are removed in their own sections (Tools, Reading & read aloud); backups and the log file stay in their folders. More about the log file is on Troubleshooting.