[OS X TeX] TeXShop 4.75 feedback, revised

[Richard Koch]

Folks,

Let me discuss the double-page and double-multipage changes in TeXShop 4.75. PDFkit has two Boolean properties which can be set to control two page display:

displaysRTL
BookMode

TeXShop 4.75 sets the first of these with its "Page One On Left" and "Page One On Right" preference. The setting displaysRTL = NO is for languages written from left to right, and orders pairs of pages that way as well. The setting displaysRTL = YES is for languages written from right to left, and orders pairs of pages that way too. Thus the NO setting puts page one on the left, and the YES setting puts page one on the right.

When BookMode = YES, the first page is shown alone, and the double pages begin with pages 2 and 3. When BookMode = NO, the double pages begin immediately with pages 1 and 2. Previous versions of TeXShop set this by mistake, but TeXShop 4.75 does not. So the pairs begin immediately. I am very reluctant to add a new preference and new menu for this property, for a feature which only a few people need. If you are writing a book and you really want the left and right pages on the screen to display the pages a user will see when the book is open, just add an extra empty page before the main text begins. Remove that page when the book finally goes to your publisher.

This issue was discussed in a stackexchange question about Preview:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/99769/control-odd-even-page-pairing-in-preview-in-two-page-mode

According to the entry, Preview sets BookMode to YES, Adobe Acrobat sets it to NO, and Skim has a preference setting allowing users to decide. This answer was written several years ago and I haven't checked if it is still true.

Richard Koch
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