The Knovis Viewers
Knovis includes five built-in viewers: a PDF viewer, a Reader for EPUB and Markdown, a media player for video and audio, a 3D viewer, and a web viewer (Knovis Browser). They're intentionally minimal, with no toolbars full of options you don't need. That simplicity is what makes them work so well inside playlists and inline on the canvas.
Why built-in viewers matter
When you open a PDF in a system viewer, you're leaving Knovis. The canvas goes to the background, the viewer takes over, and the context you built (the spatial layout, the active playlist) disappears from view. With the Knovis viewers, content opens where it belongs: inside your environment.
The viewers do less than a full application, and that's the point. They handle what Knovis needs them to handle (scrolling, zooming, playback, bookmarks) and nothing else gets in the way.
Inline view
Inline view embeds the viewer directly on the canvas, inside the item's bounds. A PDF appears as a scrollable page within the item's frame. A video plays in place. You stay on the canvas the whole time, so your layout stays visible and your spatial context stays intact.
Enable inline view with the item's Play/Read/Open/View inline checkbox. When a playlist reaches that item, it opens inline automatically.
Standalone view
Standalone opens the viewer as a separate window alongside the canvas. Useful when you want more room to read or when you're working with a long document rather than presenting a specific section.
Supported formats
| Format | Viewer | Inline | Standalone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knovis PDF viewer | Yes | Yes | |
| EPUB | Knovis Reader | Yes | Yes |
| Markdown | Knovis Reader | Yes | Yes |
| Video (MP4, MKV, and more) | Knovis media player | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | Knovis media player | Yes | Yes |
| 3D models | Knovis 3D viewer | Yes | Yes |
| Web pages and online video | Knovis Browser | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Displayed directly on canvas | Yes | No |
Clips
Video and audio items can have a clip defined: a start time and an end time. When the item is activated, only that segment plays. The full file is on disk, but Knovis jumps straight to the start point and stops at the end point automatically.
Set clip points in the item's settings. This is particularly useful in playlists: a 2-hour lecture can have several items, each pointing to a different clip, and a playlist can sequence through them in any order.
Opening at a page
PDF and EPUB items can open at a specific place. Type it into the item's Page/Location or Named Destination field, or open the content with Generate Image From Source, go to the right page, tick Always open at this view and close the viewer. When activated, the viewer opens directly at that location.
This works in playlists the same way clips do: a playlist step that triggers such a PDF item opens it at exactly the right page, every time. (The Bookmarks panel in the PDF viewer is the PDF's own table of contents.)