Why I hate Adobe and the Awful Adobe Reader...
Okay, hate is a pretty strong word, but for years, I've had an exceptionally strong dislike for Adobe, and I'm always amazed that its caught on. I mean, what is the benefit? That it allows you to print things out consistently? That I understand. But that's always been at the total expense of readability.
Adobe files are so awful to read. I don't know why, but when they appear, they either come up at 250% size, or 25% size. Is there somethign wrong with 100% size so I can read it like it's designed to be read?
And scrolling through adobe is so painful. I mean, you scroll down a quarter page, and then it jumps like an entire page head, or it won't continue at all. And then you have to go and change it to continuous mode, which messes up a bunch of other stuff.
Then, there's the update. Every time Adobe runs, a modal dialog box appears BEHIND all of my open windows, having the effect of freezing my computer, and making me panic that I've lost all my work, until I realize that the intolerable Adobe Reader has been initialized.
But the thing that kills me now is how whenever I hit a pdf in Firefox or IE, my computer completely, totally and intolerably freezes until the file initializes. I know, my computer only runs a P4, 2.5 GHz processor with 2 gigs of RAM, so my configuration obviously isn't powerful enough to properly run Adobe, but still, having to wait literally five minutes for Adobe to initialize is unacceptable. I mean, I can't even browse to different tabs. I mean, if a youtube clip is downloading, I can at least browse other pages, but with Adobe, it freezes everything.
Anyways, I can't stand it, and I never have. But I'm obviously the odd man out, because everyone seems to love it. Must be something wrong with me.
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I use Foxit. But I absolutely loved my adobe. I had to use foxit cause i couldnt (re) install acrobat after I had deleted it. I miss Adobe so much and its nice large screen and......darn it!!!
I also dislike encountering PDFs online, primarily because of Adobe Reader's tendency to hold my browser hostage while it tries to figure out what to do with a file. I was not previously familiar with Foxit, but I'll give it a try.
I think PDFs show up when authors are writing primarily for a printed medium; the format gives them more control. Then they may put up a PDF for the online version as well because they've already done the work of creating it. However I most always prefer to read an HTML version if it's available. But I haven't found a good automated PDF-to-HTML converter, unfortunately. They tend to look like crap.
I believe the main area where PDFs still have an advantage over HTML is when writing mathematical formulas. Seems like the best choice in HTML is to make image files of the formulas. This problem has been around for years though - is there a better solution that I'm unaware of?
For scrolling, select "Page Layout -> Continuous"
For updates, select "Edit -> Preferences -> Updates". I just if you set it properly, it will not as for updates!
But you are right about browser-adobe interoperability. But i guess this is mostly because of threading in browsers. If i open several tabs (like loading saved tabs) my FF becomes unusable too. It looks to me that this is mostly issue with browsers.
I use Foxit. But I absolutely loved my adobe. I had to use foxit cause i couldnt (re) install acrobat after I had deleted it. I miss Adobe so much and its nice large screen and......darn it!!!
I use Foxit too. Much much much better than adobe and many times faster. All the features that you could ever ask for
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Adobe Reader was fine until version 5. From 6 onwards it just got worse and worse.
I didn't know that PDFs could be loaded as fast as text files until I started using Ubuntu. The default PDF viewer, evince, opens PDF files in a snap. Posts: 178 | Registered: Jun 2005 | IP:
On OS X the built-in Preview app is a superb PDF reader.
The Adobe Reader suffers from the typical Adobe "we don't know nuthing about designing UI" syndrome.
Also, the OP seems to be mixing up PDF and the Adobe Reader. I love PDF, but hate the Adobe Reader. Luckily, I never need to use it (see above).
Personally, I think it is just bad code... If Macromedia can do such magic with a SWF file reader (with video and audio), I can't understand why Adobe has to freeze my browser (and sometimes crash it) when it is just displaying static pages.
Henry
Uncheck Adobe->Edit->Preferences->Internet->Display PDF in Browser
Yeah, PDFs display great on the Mac.
Wow! And here I was thinking that I was going to get flamed!
This stuff is great. I never even knew there was an alternative to Acrobat Reader. I'll give these options a try.
Who knows, maybe my dislike will limit itself to the reader. Maybe I can still learn to love pdf files.
-Cameron McKenzie
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Author of What is WebSphere??? and the SCJA Certification Guide
Check out my Free Java and J2EE Tutorials and Free SCJA Java Exam Questions Simulator
Free, JSR168 Portlet Development Tutorials + Test 399 & Test 829 Mock Exams: Portal Tutorials
L e a r n H i b e r n a t e - The Easy Way. Hibernate examples & JPA Tutorials...www.HibernateMadeEasy.com
The worst thing in addition to all these is, whenever Outlook opens, it always initializes Acrobat Reader and it endlessly waits...(at work, all apps open based on my network login and hence this screw up!).
There are a lot of tips to load acrobat faster, on the net. Obviously these are shortcut tips, so beware.
Foxit is pretty slick and I love it a lot. Nowadays end users even demand Foxit compatibility for internet based apps.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
- Dr. Seuss
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