That might be but my ipad m1 12.9 is buggy as all get out on 18.x. It is a bit horrific with basic things like having multiple safari windows but touch is off so I can’t engage web buttons. My macbook M4? No issues.
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Preview app vs Files app
- Thread starter Fatyank
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It appears you can highlight text in the new preview app but there is no way to search or easily find text that one highlights? Or is it just mean? I can highlight in Preview and then search or see them in Acrobat but don’t see any way to see/find them in Preview.
? I think you misunderstand my question. I want to find/show “highlights” that i made throughout the document. Not search for the actual words/letters that i “highlighted”. iPad Acrobat will show all the pages that I’ve put highlights on when view comments is selected. But there doesn’t seem to be a similar function on iPad preview… there is a function like this on preview for macOS.
Yes I have just been wondering about this. I have a 300 page PDF that I'd like some AI to pick out my highlights from, but it can't see the highlights probably because they're just colour overlays... Another point it seems why it's not the case that 'Preview has come to the iPad'. I'm still yet to find a single feature in this new Preview app that didn't exist before in the Files app.
one? well, you can scan and add pages directly into a PDF using the camera within Preview.
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According to Gemini:
With iPadOS 26, Apple introduced the standalone Preview app, bringing a more focused and robust experience for viewing, editing, and annotating PDFs and images than what was previously available directly within the Files app
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Here are the key additions Preview brings that the Files app didn't traditionally offer:
- Dedicated PDF and Image Editing: While the Files app allowed basic viewing, Preview provides a centralized hub for more extensive editing of PDFs and images. This includes features like markup, annotations with Apple Pencil, form filling with autofill, and the ability to save multiple signatures.
- Enhanced Performance with Large Files: Preview handles large and complex PDFs more reliably and efficiently than the basic PDF viewing within Files.
- Expanded Editing Capabilities: Beyond basic markup, Preview offers tools for selecting, rotating, and deleting elements within supported files. It also includes features for compressing PDFs and converting image file types.
- Creating from Scratch: Users can create new, empty image documents directly within Preview, or start with a blank page for sketching or handwritten notes.
- Integrated Document Scanner: Preview has a built-in document scanner, eliminating the need for separate scanning apps.
- File Size Reduction: Notably, Preview includes the option to reduce the file size of images and PDFs during export, a feature previously more prominent in the macOS version.
- Direct Access to Files Content: Preview seamlessly integrates with the Files app, allowing users to access and work with PDFs and images stored within Files directly from the Preview interface.
Most of this functionality as others pointed out was available before so. 🤓
tap and hold a file e.g.g, aPDF in Apple Files and select »Open with« to define how it is opened.
I don't understand the existence of the Preview app on iPad. It's nearly exactly the same as what happens when you just open a PDF in Files. The benefit would have been if you could open files with Preview from 3rd party apps like Google Drive. While you can "export" a PDF to Preview from Google Drive, that creates a copy of the document, so now you have two versions of the same document, one stored in Google Drive, and the modified copy stored god knows where (either in a folder called On My iPad > Preview or in iCloud > Preview, but which one will it be? Both folders exist). Why can't we just open files, modify them, then save them back to where they were originally? Why the need to make copies of everything?
Also, open the Preview app, and you're greeted with this... weird abomination of an interface, with a random list of files at the bottom with no way to navigate "up one level". And if you press the "New document" button, a blank PNG gets created into the On my iPad > Preview folder. It doesn't even open or say anything, it just gets created. What the hell is this supposed to be?
Oh and Preview has no problem opening every single document in a brand new window, leaving you with countless versions of Preview open with random documents, that you now have to go find and close one by one. If you were on a Mac this would be fine, but with there being no desktop or window management, this becomes a ridiculous task.
Also, open the Preview app, and you're greeted with this... weird abomination of an interface, with a random list of files at the bottom with no way to navigate "up one level". And if you press the "New document" button, a blank PNG gets created into the On my iPad > Preview folder. It doesn't even open or say anything, it just gets created. What the hell is this supposed to be?
Oh and Preview has no problem opening every single document in a brand new window, leaving you with countless versions of Preview open with random documents, that you now have to go find and close one by one. If you were on a Mac this would be fine, but with there being no desktop or window management, this becomes a ridiculous task.