[okular] [Bug 404803] New: please restore old behaviour for storing PDF annotations in separate file

[Gerald Weber]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404803

            Bug ID: 404803
           Summary: please restore old behaviour for storing PDF
                    annotations in separate file
           Product: okular
           Version: 1.3.3
          Platform: openSUSE RPMs
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: PDF backend
          Assignee: okular-devel at kde.org
          Reporter: gweberbh at gmail.com
  Target Milestone: ---

After upgrading to OpenSUSE 15.0 I was greeted today with this confusing
message:

"This document contains annotations or form data that were saved internally by
a previous Okular version. Internal storage is no longer supported.
Please save to a file in order to move them if you want to continue to edit the
document."

I could make no sense whatsoever of this message. Only after searching and
finding bug 394917, I understood that actually this message means the exact
opposite: that annotations used to be stored externally in the
.local/share/okular/docdata folder but now will be embedded in the PDF
document.

I must say, it was very disturbing to learn that one of the best features of
Okular (storing annotations externally) was removed. 

I have nearly 2000 PDF documents with annotations dating back to 2012. These
PDFs are scientific articles collected over time as part of my research
activities. In my case these annotations are only for my own use, these is no
reason to store them inside the document. This has always worked very well and
I was relying heavily on this feature. 

Indeed it is very awkward for me to store annotations directly in the PDF. For
example in the case where I need to share one of such articles with one of my
students I do not wish to pass my annotations along. Now I will have to delete
the annotations one by one and save it into a different file. 

It is also problematic in case where these files sit on folders that are shared
with different people, not to mention all the potential conflicts of different
people annotating and saving into the same file.

I believe that both features (saving externally and embedding in the PDF file)
have their uses. For a productivity tool it would make a lot sense to support
them both. 

For this reason I would like to ask you to please restore this feature.

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