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Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / May 2004


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How do I change PDF preference to Adobe from Preview?

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Bob Wilson - 23 May 2004 20:36 GMT
Sorry if this the wrong newsgroup but my Google searches have failed to
answer the question:

How do I change the application preferences so my PDF files will open
with Adobe instead of Preview?

Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.

Right now, I'm downloading Adobe to reinstall but I'd like to understand
how to make it happen for other applications too.

Thanks,
Bob Wilson
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John Johnson - 23 May 2004 21:00 GMT
> Sorry if this the wrong newsgroup but my Google searches have failed to
> answer the question:
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Thanks,
> Bob Wilson

One way of making the change is to select a pdf file, hit cmd-I (get
info), and expand the "Open with:" tab. You can then select Acrobat
Reader as your application, and use the "Change all..." button to set
this as a global preference.

HTH

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Later,
John

johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu

'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply

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Bob Wilson - 23 May 2004 21:30 GMT
> One way of making the change is to select a pdf file, hit cmd-I (get
> info), and expand the "Open with:" tab. You can then select Acrobat
> Reader as your application, and use the "Change all..." button to set
> this as a global preference.

Thank YOU!  It works like a charm.

Bob Wilson
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Elliott Roper - 23 May 2004 23:23 GMT
<snip>
> Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
You have not ugraded to Panther then?
Preview in Panther is worth the price all by itself.

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Bob Wilson - 24 May 2004 02:26 GMT
> > Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> > click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
> You have not ugraded to Panther then?
> Preview in Panther is worth the price all by itself.

My Mac is a trusty, old Wallstreet and as reached the "official" end of
life. My wife's TI PowerBook is running Panther and very nicely. Yes, I
did give the new Powerbook to my wife since I want her to 'like it.'

Bob Wilson
Reply to this Message
Elliott Roper - 24 May 2004 12:51 GMT
> > > Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> > > click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> life. My wife's TI PowerBook is running Panther and very nicely. Yes, I
> did give the new Powerbook to my wife since I want her to 'like it.'

Heh! I sense a cunning plan for a G5 Powerbook. My missus got the
Pismo, I don't think that far ahead.

Preview got a major speed-up and fix-up in Panther. Sneak a look while
she's out.

> Bob Wilson

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Bob Wilson - 25 May 2004 01:05 GMT
> > My Mac is a trusty, old Wallstreet and as reached the "official" end of
> > life. My wife's TI PowerBook is running Panther and very nicely. Yes, I
> > did give the new Powerbook to my wife since I want her to 'like it.'
>
> Heh! I sense a cunning plan for a G5 Powerbook.

Hummmm, what an interesting idea.

>My missus got the
> Pismo, I don't think that far ahead.

Been married for 28 years so eventually you learn a few tricks. <grins>

Bob Wilson
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Peter Verdon - 24 May 2004 00:44 GMT
> Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.

I see someone's already told you how to do this, and I'm glad you got it to
do what you want, but I'm curious. What does Preview lack as a PDF viewer?

Pete
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Steven Fisher - 24 May 2004 02:11 GMT
> > Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> > click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
>
> I see someone's already told you how to do this, and I'm glad you got it to
> do what you want, but I'm curious. What does Preview lack as a PDF viewer?

Well, I'm not Bob, but Preview doesn't handle eForms at all. Mind you,
the free Acrobat Reader can't save them, so it's not much good either...

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Steven Fisher; sdfisher@spamcop.net
"Morituri Nolumus Mori."

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Bob Wilson - 24 May 2004 02:26 GMT
> > Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> > click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
>
> I see someone's already told you how to do this, and I'm glad you got it to
> do what you want, but I'm curious. What does Preview lack as a PDF viewer?

1) Adobe brings up a readable version versus the tiny font first page of
Preview.

2) Preview tries to render the 'tumbnails' even though they are
functionally useless for text and barely usable for graphics.

3) When I've gotten the Preview page large enough to read, attempts to
scroll down to the next page drops to the bottom half, not the top of
the next page.

There is one other aspect, speed and responsiveness, that Adobe seems to
have. In contrast, Preview seems a little 'sluggish.' It is an
impression, not something I can document but on my 300 MHz Wallstreet,
it is somewhat noticable.

Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson
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Steven Fisher - 24 May 2004 03:02 GMT
> There is one other aspect, speed and responsiveness, that Adobe seems to
> have. In contrast, Preview seems a little 'sluggish.' It is an
> impression, not something I can document but on my 300 MHz Wallstreet,
> it is somewhat noticable.

Preview on Mac OS X 10.3 is *much* faster than Adobe Acrobat on my
Powerbook.

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Steven Fisher; sdfisher@spamcop.net
"Morituri Nolumus Mori."

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Bob Wilson - 24 May 2004 03:18 GMT
> > There is one other aspect, speed and responsiveness, that Adobe seems to
> > have. In contrast, Preview seems a little 'sluggish.' It is an
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Preview on Mac OS X 10.3 is *much* faster than Adobe Acrobat on my
> Powerbook.

It wasn't speed as much as the other aspects that disappointed me. But
I'm curious, what model of CPU in your PowerBook? Mine is a G3 with a
substantial L2 cache.

Bob Wilson
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Steven Fisher - 24 May 2004 03:30 GMT
> It wasn't speed as much as the other aspects that disappointed me. But
> I'm curious, what model of CPU in your PowerBook? Mine is a G3 with a
> substantial L2 cache.

It's the 1 GHz 12" G4. But I only read about your system later.
Certainly on Jaguar, Preview is bloody useless. Preview on Panther,
though, is like someone went through your gripe list and fixed them.

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Steven Fisher; sdfisher@spamcop.net
"Morituri Nolumus Mori."

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Bob Wilson - 24 May 2004 03:41 GMT
> > It wasn't speed as much as the other aspects that disappointed me. But
> > I'm curious, what model of CPU in your PowerBook? Mine is a G3 with a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Certainly on Jaguar, Preview is bloody useless. Preview on Panther,
> though, is like someone went through your gripe list and fixed them.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll borrow my wife's PowerBook and check it
out.

Bob Wilson
Reply to this Message
Steven Fisher - 24 May 2004 06:08 GMT
> > > It wasn't speed as much as the other aspects that disappointed me. But
> > > I'm curious, what model of CPU in your PowerBook? Mine is a G3 with a
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> Thanks for the heads up. I'll borrow my wife's PowerBook and check it
> out.

Yup. Make sure you look at the preferences stuff. A lot of them are
options, rather than defaults. :)

(If Apple could make it do eForms, I'd be truly happy...)

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Steven Fisher; sdfisher@spamcop.net
"Morituri Nolumus Mori."

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John Johnson - 24 May 2004 07:42 GMT
> > > Preview is a lame viewer of PDF files and I'm tried of having to
> > > click-drag and would prefer Adobe be the default application.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> 1) Adobe brings up a readable version versus the tiny font first page of
> Preview.

Check your preferences. I think that this can be changed. Certainly
setting your default window size helps here, if the application is
zooming to fit the window.

> 2) Preview tries to render the 'tumbnails' even though they are
> functionally useless for text and barely usable for graphics.

Can't you turn the thumbnails off in Panther's Preview?

> 3) When I've gotten the Preview page large enough to read, attempts to
> scroll down to the next page drops to the bottom half, not the top of
> the next page.

On documents that don't have a sideways scroll-bar, try using the
left/right-arrow keys to move up or down a page at a time. I think that
this worked on the Panther version. Of course, changing focus to the
thumbnail drawer allows the up/down arrow keys to shift you one page at
a time, with the page-up/-down keys (fn-up-arrow, etc.) should shift the
page to the top or bottom of the window.

As I say, I think that all this works in the old version. I've not used
it in a while. It will be slow, nothing to do about that except to
upgrade.

Wasn't someone talking here recently about doing/having done this
upgrade to their WS?

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Later,
John

johajohn@indianahoosiers.edu

'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun between @ and .edu to reply

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