[POLL]: Do you want Steinberg to supply UN-locked .pdf docs?

Do you want Steinberg to supply us with UN-locked .pdf “Documents”?

  • 1. YES - I learn MUCH better if I can use my .pdf Viewer to highlight, put comments on, and otherwise mark up the documents. I can’t do ANY of that now, since the documents are “locked” and password-protected!
  • 2. No. Silly question!

0 voters

I’m hamstrung … resorting to printing them out on paper is for the birds IMO!

Hasn’t really bothered me yet, sorry :frowning:
There’s no such thing as a silly question though, so I won’t vote that one either.

You’re too kind, Mr. Strophoid!

Thanks for answering! :smiley:

I have voted NO “Silly Question”, not because I think it is a silly question, but because I would never want to edit the pdf

Same here.

/A

A definitive yes from me!
Why?
I would save a lot of time by not having to transcribe by hand the little pieces of info I want to extract from different sections of the PDF for future reference when I’ll be working in my next Cubase session.
I’m still learning the marvelous useful details of this fantastic DAW and I frequently read chapters of the manual, and very often I just want to take notes or google a new concept and it is frustating to not be able to use copy-and-paste for that. It adds to the learning curve…!

Strangely, in Preview on Mac you can add annotations and copy stuff, but in Adobe Reader you cannot.

I can’t believe anyone would vote “No” or think that it’s a silly question! That’s like saying “well, I never use OMF import, so why should Cubase have it”, in my mind.

Documentation that comes with a piece of software should be free to allow you to do whatever you want with it. Steinberg’s addition of protection to it smacks of a closed and controlling mindset; I have found that being unable to make alterations and additions to the documentation is a pain. We already have the “your software? YOUR LICENCE” jerky to put up with, and now it’s spread to the documentation for it too. It’s about time the software industry got a wake-up call.

Well, some think, this is also be true for music that comes with a piece of CD…

Cue the conspiracy theorists!!


Good point in general, but I don’t think it applies to this situation. Since we are able to print out the documents on “hard” paper (and theoretically rescan as an unlocked .pdf to then take digital notes on those pages at will), I can’t help but think it was not Steinberg’s intention to keep PC users from digitally annotating the supplied documents.

Indeed. I am pretty sure this has something to do with the grassy knoll, and Elvis still being alive, which btw is true.

But seriously, I was thinking that if one is on Windows they could try a different pdf reader to to possibly be able to make annotations.

I haven’t used Acrobat for yrs, much prefer Foxit Reader, which does allow annotations etc, at least it does with Samplitude docs, haven’t tried with a Cubase file yet.

How’s about they make a custom PDF for everyone? :mrgreen:

How about the workaround for now? C & P (ctrl+ C & ctrl + V) and DIY your own. Paste to the clipboard etc.

Well, the fact that I can rip an audio CD, and circumvent copy protection measures and then take any kind of processing at will does not mean I am allowed to. I do understand that some things are only good as long as they only affect others not one self. And though I am no lawyer, I think, what really applies here is copyright, so if the author doesn´t want you to change its work, then he doesn´t need to…

I think this might have more to do with the way security is implemented in the various pdf readers. Copyright law is not concerned with annotating documents, whether in hard copy or software, so disallowing annotations souinds like a kind of bug, or an unintended limitation. (in the pdf reader)

Like I mentioned before Mac Preview.app permits annotation, and copying, but no pasting, of course.

Yes, of course you´re correct, I was under the impression we were talkin about making changes to the original documents… - my bad

Yeah, thinkingcap-- It was intended as a general note, more than a “critique”… Anyway, I wanted to add that Adobe’s software is noisy - it has it’s own update app which launches separately from Apple Software Update, and is annoying in other ways, one of which is this copy/annotation issue.

I always do a custom install of adobe reader which excludes the adobe update software.

I find adobe reader very sluggish and slow in general, foxit ftw :slight_smile:

The program is like 200MB in size as well, for a reader! :open_mouth:

I tried Foxit editor and foxit phantom, but neither one allowed highlighting/underlining of the .pdf docs. Any other ideas, anyone? I’ve PM’d Steinberg, and they said …

… oh, actually they haven’t responded. How can that be?