GNU ELPA - doc-view-follow

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Description
Synchronize windows showing the same document
Latest
doc-view-follow-0.3.1.tar (.sig), 2025-Apr-15, 30.0 KiB
Maintainer
Paul D. Nelson <ultrono@gmail.com>
Website
https://github.com/ultronozm/doc-view-follow.el
Browse ELPA's repository
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To install this package from Emacs, use package-install or list-packages.

Full description

1. Overview

doc-view-follow.el provides a minor mode, doc-view-follow-mode, that automatically synchronizes page navigation between multiple windows displaying the same document (PS/PDF/DVI/DjVu, etc.). This is essentially an analogue of Emacs' built-in follow-mode, but for document buffers instead rather than text buffers.

In particular, this allows for a convenient "book view," with two windows showing consecutive pages side-by-side.

This package supports the built-in doc-view-mode as well as pdf-view-mode from pdf-tools.

2. Installation

doc-view-follow.el should soon be available on ELPA, so you can install it from there via M-x packages-install.

Alternatively, download the source file and run: 

M-x package-install-file RET /path/to/doc-view-follow.el RET

3. Usage

After installation, you can activate the mode:

  • Globally: M-x global-doc-view-follow-mode
  • Locally: M-x doc-view-follow-mode

To enable synchronization by default, add to your Emacs configuration: 

(global-doc-view-follow-mode 1)

3.1. Example workflow:

  1. Open a supported document in doc-view-mode or pdf-view-mode. (doc-view-mode is built-in; pdf-view-mode requires pdf-tools.)
  2. Split the frame vertically (with default bindings, via C-x 3).
  3. Activate doc-view-follow-mode if not already enabled.
  4. Navigate pages in either window with standard commands (e.g., n, p).

Both windows will automatically stay synchronized.

3.2. Convenience

Since doc-view-follow-mode works with document files (PDF, PS, etc.) and follow-mode works with text buffers, you might want M-x follow-mode to activate the appropriate mode based on your current buffer. You can do this by customizing the user option doc-view-follow-hijack, or adding (setopt doc-view-follow-hijack t) to your config.

3.3. Prefix Key Commands

When doc-view-follow-mode is active, you can use the following commands with the prefix key (by default C-c ., the same as follow-mode's prefix):

Key Function Description
C-c . 1 follow-delete-other-windows-and-split Delete other windows and split current one
C-c . b follow-switch-to-buffer Switch to another buffer in the current window
C-c . C-b follow-switch-to-buffer-all Switch to another buffer in all follow windows
C-c . < follow-first-window Select the first window in the follow chain
C-c . > follow-last-window Select the last window in the follow chain
C-c . n follow-next-window Select the next window in the follow chain
C-c . p follow-previous-window Select the previous window in the follow chain

The prefix key can be customized by changing follow-mode-prefix-key.

4. Extensibility

The package uses generic functions, making it straightforward to add support for additional document viewing modes.

Old versions

doc-view-follow-0.3.tar.lz2025-Apr-144.82 KiB