Reading and navigating

Everything on this page changes how you look at a document, not the document itself — except adding, renaming and deleting bookmarks, which are saved with the document.

Moving through a document

• Scroll through the pages with a trackpad, mouse wheel or the scroll bar.
• Go to the first page: ⌘↑ (Ctrl+↑ on Windows and Linux).
• Go to the last page: ⌘↓ (Ctrl+↓ on Windows and Linux).
• Go to any page: click its thumbnail in the Pages view of the side panel.
• Go to a section: click its entry in the Contents view of the side panel.

The page indicator on the window’s bar, Page 3 of 12, shows the current page — the page most of the view is showing. Commands such as Delete page, Turn left and Bookmark this page act on the current page.

Printed page numbers

Many books and reports number their pages differently from their position in the file: the front matter is i, ii, iii and page 1 is the fifth page. When a document says so, the page indicator shows both, such as Page iv · 4 of 20, and its tooltip spells it out: Page iv — the 4th page of 20. When the two agree, only the position is shown.

You can type a printed page number, such as iv, in the Pages box of the Print and Save the pages as pictures dialogs. To set the numbers a document prints, see Organising pages.

Zooming

Zoom goes up and down in steps.

Page layouts

The Layout button on the View tab shows the current layout — Layout: Continuous, for example. Each click moves to the next layout, in this order:

In the two-page layouts, pages of different heights in one spread are lined up on a shared centre line. A document that asks for a particular layout opens in it.

Turning the view

A page that reads sideways — a wide table or a landscape plan — is easier to read turned round.

1. On the View tab, click Turn the view.
2. Click again to turn a further quarter turn. Four clicks bring it back.

The view turns a quarter turn clockwise each time, and the button stays lit while the view is turned. Its tooltip says how far, for example Turned 90° — the document is not changed.

Turning the view doesn’t change the document, and it isn’t saved. To turn a page for everyone who opens the document, use Pages › Turn left or Turn right instead. See Organising pages.

Read mode

Read mode shows the document and nothing else: the window’s bar, the ribbon, the tool strip, the find bar, the side panel and the selection bar are all hidden.

1. On the View tab, click Read mode.
2. To come back, press Esc.

There is no button on screen in read mode, so Esc is the way out. Entering or leaving read mode stops auto-scroll.

Presentation mode

A document can ask to open full screen. Nixt PDF opens such a document in presentation mode: no buttons, and one page to a row even if the document also asks for two-page spreads. Press Esc to leave presentation mode and bring the buttons back.

Presentation mode shows the document within the window. To make the window fill the screen, use your operating system’s own full-screen control.

Scrolling by itself

Auto-scroll moves down the document at a steady speed, for reading without touching anything.

1. On the View tab, click Scroll by itself. The button reads Scrolling and the document starts moving.
2. Click Scrolling to go faster. There are four speeds: 12, 30, 60 and 120 points a second. The tooltip shows the current speed.
3. Click again at the fastest speed to stop.

Switching into or out of read mode also stops it.

The Pages view

The Pages view of the side panel shows a thumbnail of every page, with its page number underneath. The current page is outlined.

• Click a thumbnail to go to that page.
• Drag a thumbnail up or down to move the page. This changes the document; see Organising pages.

Bookmarks and the contents list

Many documents carry their own contents list, called bookmarks. When a document has any, the side panel adds a Contents view and opens on it.

In the Contents view:

• Entries are indented to show their level; top-level entries are in bold.
• The page number an entry goes to is shown at the right.
• The entry for the current page is highlighted.
• Click an entry to go to its page.
• An entry that goes nowhere — its page was deleted, for example — is shown in grey and can’t be clicked.

Bookmarks point at a page rather than a page number, so they follow their pages when you reorder them.

Adding a bookmark

1. Go to the page you want to bookmark.
2. Press ⌘D (Ctrl+D on Windows and Linux), or click Bookmark this page at the bottom of the Contents view.
3. In the Bookmark page 3 dialog, type a name in What should it be called?. The first line of text on the page is filled in for you, because it is usually the heading.
4. Click Add.

The bookmark takes its place in page order, not at the end of the list. The Contents view appears once a document has its first bookmark, so use ⌘D to add the first one.

Renaming or deleting a bookmark

1. In the Contents view, click the More button (three dots) on the bookmark’s row.
2. Choose Rename… to give it a new name in the Rename bookmark dialog and click Save, or choose Delete to remove it.

Adding, renaming and deleting bookmarks are changes to the document. Undo takes them back.

Following links

With the Select tool in use, click a link on the page. Links that go somewhere are tinted blue.

Links are never followed without you clicking them. To see every link in a document and where each goes, use Edit › Links…; see Document information.

Layers

Some documents, such as engineering drawings, put their content on layers that can be shown or hidden. Use Edit › Layers… to switch them. See Document information.