[reportlab-users] PDF "pop-ups" considered forgotten?

Dinu Gherman reportlab-users@reportlab.com
Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:45:55 +0200


Robin Becker wrote:

> Hide Actions
> A hide action (PDF 1.2)hides or shows one or more annotations on the=20=

> screen by
> setting or clearing their Hidden .ags (see Section 8.4.2,=93Annotation=20=

> Flags =94).This
> type of action can be used in combination with appearance streams and=20=

> trigger
> events (Sections 8.4.4,=93Appearance Streams,=94 and 8.5.2,=93Trigger =
Events=20
> =94)to dis-
> play pop-up help information on the screen.For example,the E=20
> (enter)and X
> (exit)trigger events in an annotation =92s additional-actions =
dictionary=20
> can be used
> to show and hide the annotation when the user rolls the cursor in and=20=

> out of its
> active area on the page;this can be used to pop up a help label,or=20
> =93tool tip,=94
> describing the effect of clicking the mouse at that location on the=20
> page.Table 8.44
> shows the action dictionary entries speci .c to this type of=20
> action.(See implemen-
> tation notes 78 and 79 in Appendix H.)

Interesting. I'm hesitating to really test this as the only possible
annotation to hide or show is still only the link annotation which
looks as a tool-tip should look like. All others are either graphic
(or audio/video) or have ugly widget borders and the pop-up annota-
tion as defined by the PDF spec. is meant for data entry, at least it
says so.

What I want is a tool-tip like on this calendar page for each holiday:

   http://www.holidayfestival.com/netcal/netcal.html

They are coded in a Title attribute (standard or not, so I'm not sure
your browser will display them, but Mozilla 1.1 does):

   <a href=3D"nc06072002.html" Title=3D"Bahamas, Labour Day">

I just don't want the link to "jump" anywhere. In fact, I don't want
to hide an arbitrary annotation, but disable the link one (except
for its visual appearance)... Seems to be pretty tough...

Dinu

--
Dinu C. Gherman
......................................................................
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are
the easiest person to fool." (Richard Feynman)