Someone just sent me a couple of PDF files in Adobe Reader format along with the following message: “Please email me if you encounter problems opening the mail.”
I did encounter problems – they won’t open whether I double-click on the file, or right click and click on open, or save the file and try to open it. Theres an Adobe Reader symbol at the bottom of the screen indicating that file is open, but I can’t figure out how to view it.
Go to the task manager and kill the ADOBE.exe process and try again, as it sometimes “hangs.” This is a mini version of rebooting your computer, which is the sacred knowledge of all IT freaks. Now you know too, you can fire the lot of them. Best do it when they’re bonus expectations are high.
You’re right, it;s a pice of shit. Although the geeks in my office try and assuage my frustration by explaining that it does lots of funky and difficult things, but I never listen to them.
Adobe Reader often hangs or crashes; more often it crashes my browser if it open in a browser window. This is why I hate it when people post links that go directly to PDF files without adequate warning. If I click on it, my browser is in serious risk of crashing; if I have a chance to downlaod it and read it, at least I can continue to use the Internet while I wait for the file to load.
Never mind, I figured it out. I tried to restart the computer but it refused to do so. I tried to turn it off but it wouldn’t do so. So I did ctrl-alt-delet, saw Task Manager, cancelled the AdbRdr process and now it’s back to normal. I was also able to print the files using right-click Print. What a hassle though. One would think they would eventually work the bugs out.
I find it’s much more reliable to save the file somewhere and then open it. I think it’s something in the way that the reader tries to open the first page of the file before the others have arrived, trying to stream it. Download it to desktop etc., then open.
Actually I think the only decent Adobe product is Photoshop. Everything else is garbage.
It still sucks and I’m still baffled why such a crappy program is still so commonly used. What happened to evolution? What happened to the marketplace of ideas? One would think either they would have worked out the kinks or people would have abandoned them for a superior alternative.
But that’s not possible when someone sends me a doc in Adobe format, is it? And I keep receiving crappy Adobe files from others.
In any event, I’ve now learned that when encountering trouble opening Adobe docs, as is often the case, one simply does ctrl-alt-delete, goes to Task Mgr, then Processes, and end the aborted task that is causing the trouble. Phew . . .
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]It still sucks and I’m still baffled why such a crappy program is still so commonly used. What happened to evolution? What happened to the marketplace of ideas? One would think either they would have worked out the kinks or people would have abandoned them for a superior alternative.
But that’s not possible when someone sends me a doc in Adobe format, is it?.[/quote]
Yes it is. Try it. There are many alternatives. It may crap out with Chinese text though, but only one way to find out.
I think there is some confusion regarding those files… It’s not quite an “Adobe format”, it’s called “PDF”. And PDF files are not “crappy” by default, that only applies to the current Adobe PDF viewing software.
PDF is a really nice format, a published standard. So, if you are a programmer and you don’t like the way the Adobe software handles your PDF files - you can write your own. And some people were actually frustrated enough to do right that.
OK, there are some features now that were not supposed to be included when the format was created. PDF is basically modified Postscript, which is a printer language. So when you create a PDF, you actually print into a file. This should allow the file to be viewed and printed on almost any platform, which is something you learn to value when you use a system different from the one a document was created on.
Unfortunately, quite a few people didn’t understand this concept and wanted to edit PDF files by all means. It’s not completely impossible, but it was not supposed to happen originally. For editing, there are lots of other formats. (RTF, DOC, ODF) It’s a bit like someone designed a tool to get people safely from great heights to the ground, just for that one purpose, and called it a parachute. It worked great for that purpose, with all kinds of people and even heavy objects. But then people came and said “I also want to go up with it! I don’t want to use a plane or a helicopter or the like, I want to use this one to go up!”
And that’s when PDF editors were created…
Just use PDF for the original purpose and enjoy how nicely it works there. You might need to get rid of Adobe junk to be able to enjoy. They may have designed most of the PDF specs, but other people write much better PDF viewers…
Yes, I installed Foxitreader a long time ago. It is much more slim and small and does not lock up the whole computer when displaying a stupid 3 pages pdf file. Adobe is making a hassle about it when all it should do is display a bit of text.
^ Fact #1: This man works for a hi-technology company.
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| Fact #2: The year is 2008.
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Fact #3: Windows is over 20 years old. (1992 if you count from 3.1)
