Can't combine multiple open windows into one window

Question

I set a tab to “tile horizontally” thinking it would apply to that one open tab and I could open chrome below it. I had a client interview coming up and wanted my adobe questionnaire to be visible while I took notes in google docs. Instead, it tiled all 26 open files I had. I cannot find a way to recombine all the tabs into one window easily. Does adobe not have a “restore” or “combine open tabs into one window” option? Seems ridiculous to me. Thanks.

CORCTON34033231 · Accepted Answer

Hi — frustrating, I know, but you have not missed a setting: Acrobat really has no single "restore" or "combine all windows into one window" command. Window > Tile/Cascade only arrange the open documents, each into its own window, and there is no undo for it.

You have two ways back:

1. Drag the tabs back one by one: drag a document's tab from one of the tiled windows onto the tab bar of the window you want to keep, and drop it when you see the blue line appear in the tab bar. Repeat for each window.

2. With 26 files, restarting is faster: first make sure Preferences (Ctrl+K) > General has "Open documents as new tabs in the same window" ticked. Then close all the Acrobat windows (save any file you have edited), and reopen the files together — they will open as tabs in a single window.

Tip for next time: Tile always applies to all open documents, not just the active one. To work side by side with Chrome/Docs, just resize the Acrobat window itself (or use Windows Snap, Win+Left/Right) instead of Tile.

Hope that gets your 26 tabs back in one place!

CORCTON34033231 · Answer

Thanks for clarifying — that is the missing piece. "Reopen PDFs from last session" restores the previous session exactly as it was, including each file sitting in its own window, so it will keep recreating the 26 separate windows no matter how often you restart.

To break the cycle, open the files in one action instead of restoring the session:

1. Close all Acrobat windows.

2. In File Explorer, select all 26 PDFs at once (Ctrl+click or Shift+click) and press Enter (or right-click > Open).

3. Since "Open documents as new tabs in the same window" is already checked in your settings, files opened together in a single action land as tabs in one window.

The same works inside Acrobat via File > Open if you multi-select the files in the Open dialog. Let me know if they land in one window this time!

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