Rant on Adobe Reader

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dr_st · #1 Post by **dr_st** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:21 am

I've been growing increasingly irritated with this software. It has been becoming increasingly bloated (like everything) and lately has been picking up bugs.

I've been using version 6 for a while, then moved to 7. Now, version 7 has a nasty bug, where you can't properly Alt-Tab out of it if there is more than one document open (you need to Alt-Tab-Tab if you want to get anywhere). I've been living with it for a while, but at some point I was constantly opening and comparing multiple PDF documents, and it really got to me. The most annoying thing is that this bug existed from Adobe 7.0.0 and propagated all the way to 7.0.9.

So I tried the new Adobe Reader 8, hoping that it was somehow fixed there. And it was. I was so happy, until I discovered the new issues. I'm now in the process of finishing my M.Sc. thesis and preparing a presentation, and I do it in LaTeX, for which I use WinEdt and directly compile to PDF. Now, with Adobe 7, there is a feature that allows you to recompile and have it automatically reopen the document at the last page it was open, to allow you to examine just the changes, without having to find that particular page and line.

Not surprisingly, it doesn't work in Adobe 8. I had to install a new version of WinEdt, just so I could recompile my source without having to close Adobe manually each time. And even now, despite the "switch to last view when reopening documents" being enabled, it doesn't work. It works with normal documents, but not with these that are regenerated by WinEdt.

Add to that, but lately the Adobe Auto-Updater has gone berserk. It was downloading updates and then crashing. At some point it would crash whenever I started/restarted the program. And strangely, the option to disable it from the Preferences, which existed in Version 7 is gone in Version 8. Attempting to access it manually also failed - I'd get the same crash message.

So reluctantly I went back to Version 7, thinking that now its view-restore ability is a bigger benefit to me than its Alt-Tab bug is an annoyance.

Why can't they just do it right?

#2 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:38 am

I don't think what you described is a bug - rather, it is normal Windows behaviour.

I have two Adobe 7.0.9 documents open currently. Both occur in the task bar. I also have Explorer open typing this note. Explorer occurs in the task bar as well.

So if I Alt-Tab once, I land in the "next" task bar document which happens to be Adobe. If I Alt-Tab again, I return directly to Explorer. If I want the second Adobe document, I must Alt-Tab-Tab.

What Adobe does (and Excel, and Word) is seem to place a "placeholder" in the Alt sequence as well as the two open documents. So occasionally, an extra -Tab is needed. Press and hold Alt-Tab and review the sequence and you will see what I mean.

Perhaps Adobe could avoid this - I don't know, but it does seem consistent with other applications.
... JD Hurst

#3 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:06 am

The updater is terrible, though. Adobe releases fairly frequent updates, and the updater wants to reboot your system after installing each one -- but then it adds the older updates back to the list and starts the cycle all over again.

I have turned off updates on mine.

dr_st · #4 Post by **dr_st** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:08 am

It's not normal Windows behavior, and Adobe Reader 7 is the only application that does it.

You are right that lots of applications open a taskbar item per document (like new Office versions), and then you Alt-Tab between documents, like between external applications.

But this additional placeholder thing is the culprit, and I consider it a bug, since it _breaks_ the normal Windows behavior.

Open one Adobe document.
Open another Adobe document.
Alt-Tab from one to the other.
Now press Alt-Tab once. You will not go _anywhere_. You'll stay at the same document. If you Alt-Tab out of Adobe, then you can switch back and forth with one Alt-Tab. But as soon as you try to Alt-Tab between multiple documents inside Adobe, you hit this awful awful behavior, which I cannot describe except as a bug, or a terrible design flaw.

#5 Post by **gator** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:08 pm

I use adobe reader 5. It is much faster than the other versions of adobe. dr_st, use gsview to see the changes in the pdf file - you can keep the file open when you compile and the changes will be automatically reflected. You can also use a DVI viewer like Yap to see the DVI file directly before it is converted to pdf by LaTeX. I typically create the pdf as the last step when I use LaTeX to create any document.

#6 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:19 pm

dr_st wrote:It's not normal Windows behavior, and Adobe Reader 7 is the only application that does it.
<snip>

Sorry, Incorrect. Excel does the same thing as Adobe (I am in Excel now). Word doesn't appear to, but then it opens documents differntly than Excel. I have seen this in other applications. There is a Windows term for this but I have lived with it so long, I don't care any more. I have bigger fish to fry.
... JD Hurst

#7 Post by **tomh009** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:42 pm

jdhurst wrote:Sorry, Incorrect. Excel does the same thing as Adobe (I am in Excel now). Word doesn't appear to, but then it opens documents differntly than Excel. I have seen this in other applications. There is a Windows term for this but I have lived with it so long, I don't care any more. I have bigger fish to fry.
... JD Hurst

MDI -- Multiple Document Interface. This was new in Windows 3.0, as I recall ...

Miller88 · #8 Post by **Miller88** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:31 pm

I know whenever I click on a pdf link my computer locks up.

#9 Post by **GomJabbar** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:49 pm

Miller88 wrote:I know whenever I click on a pdf link my computer locks up.

I have had problems viewing .pdf files in my browser. I suggest you uncheck the boxes under: Edit > Preferences > Internet >
1. Display PDF in browser
2. Allow fast web view

With these 2 boxes unchecked I do not have any crashes.

Miller88 · #10 Post by **Miller88** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:34 pm

I'm definitely going to try that.

dr_st · #11 Post by **dr_st** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:22 am

jdhurst wrote:Sorry, Incorrect. Excel does the same thing as Adobe (I am in Excel now).

OK, I stand corrected. But even here there are differences. Apparently, it's not only having the placeholder that creates the problem, but the implementation of the program.

PowerPoint, like Excel and Adobe also have this place holder thing. But at least when you have multiple PPT presentations open, you can switch correctly between them with a single Alt-Tab. Always! With Excel you can also do it, but sometimes it gets confused (namely if you complete a full Alt-Tab cycle and come back to the current document, the next time you need two Alt-Tabs, and then it behaves correctly again). Adobe Reader is always broken and always needs two Alt-Tabs to escape the currently open document.

gator wrote:I use adobe reader 5. It is much faster than the other versions of adobe. dr_st, use gsview to see the changes in the pdf file - you can keep the file open when you compile and the changes will be automatically reflected. You can also use a DVI viewer like Yap to see the DVI file directly before it is converted to pdf by LaTeX. I typically create the pdf as the last step when I use LaTeX to create any document.

Thanks for the suggestions. I quite hate GSView, its interface and its page handling method. Yap, however is nice, having the inverse search function take you right back to WinEdt at the proper spot. I may start using it more.

Rant on Adobe Reader

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