PDF Editor in Ubuntu

[Paul Johnson]

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 4:30 PM, Sascha Effert <fermat at uni-paderborn.de> wrote:
> Hallo,
>
> sometimes I get some papers or homework of students to proof read it as pdf.
> Then I use jarnal
> (http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm). This tool can
> open a pdf-file and lays it as picture in the background (it works also with
> multi pages). I can place my remarks on it and export it as pdf. Perhaps this
> helps you... I found no better solution.
>
> If you are willing to use wine and non-free (speech) software, the following
> link could help you:
> http://www.gnurou.org/blog/2008/09/09/finally_real_pdf_annotating_under_linux
>

Returning the thread to the original question, can I suggest you try the program

xournal

for opening and making comments & marks on pdf files.  I learned about
it while using my Nokia tablet and I have found it works perfectly in
Ubuntu.  It can do yellow highlighting, type in blank spaces, and do
other stuff you do while grading.

To prove it to you, I wrote a pdf file of the debian cheat sheet from
firefox and then opened it with xournal and drew, colored, and typed
on there.  Please see:

http://pj.freefaculty.org/linux/xournal-demo-2009-05-30-Note-23-56.pdf

I recall that there was some little glitch in the initial settings and
it would lock up unless you re-set it.  Perhaps it does not happen
with the newest, but if you see a problem, be assured there's an easy
fix.  Under "options" there's a menu item "use xinput". make sure that
is not checked, and you are good to go.


Now, concerning the other complaints in this thread about trouble
using latex and pdflatex, well, I have no problems using Emacs or LyX
as my LaTeX front end and putting documents into pdf format.  I have
never used kile, I never saw much benefit there.  I have also good
experience with "texmaker", which is also available in Ubuntu.  Like
you, I was disappointed by KDE 4 and gave up on it very quickly, but
that just channeled my effort back to use programs that are more
neutral to desktop choices.  texmaker, Emacs, Lyx, work under any
Linux desktop.

If you know of better free/open programs for windows, well, let us
know what they are and we can adapt them to Linux.

I'm pretty sure you will not find a better free/open source LaTeX
distribution than TeXlive, though.

pj

-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas