Does Acrobat suck or is it just me?

[skybytch 273]

Hey all you geeks, help me out here.

I'm running Mozilla Firefox 1.5 on Windoze XP. Nearly every time I open a pdf document using Acrobat the browser freezes for a minute or two (sometimes longer). It happens when I close a pdf document as well. Frustrating to say the least; downright irritating when I have to end the program using the task manager.

Does this happen with IE and/or Netscape - i.e. is it only an issue with Firefox and Acrobat? Is there a better pdf reader to use with Firefox (or with any browser for that matter)? Am I doomed to cursing at my 'puter every time I want to look at or close a pdf document?

[MrBrant 0]

I've noticed that Firefox has pretty shitty .pdf support.

IE handles them pretty well. It just pisses me off that Adobe takes a minute and a half to load, to read a bunch of text

[pilotdave 0]

Easy solution:

Go to tools, options, then downloads. Hit the plugins button. Then disable the acrobat plugin. Now when you try to open a pdf, it'll give you the option to open it or save it. When you open it, it opens in acrobat reader instead of the acrobat plugin. The file will have to download completely before it opens though.

Dave

[bob.dino 1]

In Firefox 1.5, the process is slightly different:

Tools | Options | Downloads.

Then click on View & Edit Actions. Scroll down to and select PDF. Click on Change Action. In the resultant dialog box, select the top radio button - Open in Default Application - rather than the currently-selected Use Plugin.

[Guest 1010]

I'd start by turning off the "check for updates" option in acrobat (especially on a dialup connection?) ... in Reader v7 it's at Edit/Preferences/Updates ... before turning off the functionality mentioned above, I'd also play with the Internet dialog in the same area in acrobat before just whacking the whole thing from the browser. (.02 ya got what you paid for )

You can have it good, fast, or cheap: pick two.

[Amazon 7]

Uh... its just U

[riddler 0]

In general, it's always better to use the Reader application than the crappy plugins for the browsers. The Reader application is pretty solid, and I would be surprised if you had any trouble with it.

As far as I can tell, one of the big problems with the plugins to the browsers is memory management. Some of the PDF files get pretty big, and that seems to cause problems with the plugin container on some browsers.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[bob.dino 1]

Quote

Uh... its just U

That's not always a problem in a woman.

[skybytch 273]

You guys are awesome. My problem has been solved.

Thanks.

[Fireflyer 0]

Ditch Adobe all together... I'm in computers part time (not that that matters ;-) and anyone I know in the industry abhors Adobe Acrobat. Use FoxIt Reader. It's free, integrates with Firefox and IE and your system to become the default reader, and loads almost instantly.

You can also download the open-source program PDFCreator to make your own PDFs for free, or do it online for nothing at PDF Online too.