Participant

Answered

Disable "Do you want to save changes before closing"

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
January 12, 2018
12 replies
74695 views

I'd like to know if there's a way to disable the popup that says "Do you want to save changes before closing?"?

For example, I open a multi-page pdf. I extract one page. Click the "Save" icon. "Save as PDF" window opens. Type new file name. Click "Save." Click the "x" to close the newly saved file. Then the prompt for "Do you want to save changes before closing?" pops up....WHY!?

It's the same for just simply opening and closing a file. Open file. Click the "X" to close. BOOM. stupid "save" prompt comes up. I don't have any changes to save.

This is a HUGE time-suck considering how frequently I use these functions. The previous version of the program that I had did not give me this issue. I only got the prompt to save when I'd actually make changes to the document.

This is for Adobe Acrobat Standard 2017. This is on my office computer as well, so I likely won't be able to run scripts or whatever other fancy fixes are suggested. I'll likely be limited to options already preset within the program....so really this post is directed DIRECTLY at Adobe. Please tell me there's a setting to make this awful popup go away! @adobe adobecare

Correct answer Karl Heinz Kremer

Actually, it is true that Acrobat (or Reader) will not prompt you when you close a document that was not modified. If you do get the prompt, that means that something in the document was modified. You may not have modified the document, but behind the scenes, something happened that makes the document different than it was at the time it was loaded into Acrobat. This can be either due to some JavaScript calculation in the document, or due to a problem with the PDF file that was fixed by Acrobat. Without access to the documents, it's impossible to say what happened. You can try to disable JavaScript in Acrobat's preferences to see if that gets rid of the prompt. If it does, then the prompt was due to a change in the document's state caused by a script. If you are still getting the prompt, then chances are that you are dealing with a corrupt PDF file (and there is very likely evidence of that in a very brief message that pops up on the screen, but may go away before you are actually able to read it).

You can file an enhancement request with Adobe for a read-only mode: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Show previous replies

G

gkaiseril

Inspiring

One can use the document's "dirty" property to "false" and prevent any prompt for saving. Note this is not available to Reader.

You should be able to edit the document level scripts within the PDF or for any action within the PDF. Depending upon which directory and what access you have been granted to that directory, you should be able to save your edited PDF.If you cannot, then you need to contact the individual responsible for maintaining that PDF.

natmicwalAuthor

Participant

Thank you for your response, however your notes are a bit above my head and I don't understand what/how to do this.

Karl Heinz Kremer

Community Expert

Acrobat does not prompt you to save a file if you just open it and close it without modifying it.

If it does, then that means that the file was modified. There are different potential causes for that. The most common one is that you are actually dealing with a corrupt PDF file, and Acrobat fixed it for you when you loaded it. This one is very easy to verify: Open the document, close and and save it. Then open it again and close it. Does Acrobat still prompt you to save it? If not, then Acrobat fixed the bad PDF file for you in the first save operation.

If you are not dealing with a bad PDF file, then it's very likely that something inside the PDF file is modifying it. This can e.g. be a form field that shows the current date or time, or some other field that was modified when you opened the file (e.g. via a calculation script associated with that field). You can see if this is causing the save prompt by disabling Acrobat's JavaScript in Preferences (Preferences>JavaScript>uncheck "Enable Acrobat JavaScript"). Now open the document and close it. Does it still prompt you to save the file? If so, then unfortunately I am out of ideas about what it could be.

A

allen___

Participant

It is simply not true to say that "Acrobat does not prompt you to save a file if you just open it and close it without modifying it". I download invoices for my quarterly tax return from a wide range of websites, print them and then try to close them with a quick ^W. 90% of the time, this message comes up to waste my time.

Why can't there be a simple "open read-only" option? The proportion of time that I open a PDF with the intention of editing it must be about 1/1000.

A

allen___

Participant

Actually, it is true that Acrobat (or Reader) will not prompt you when you close a document that was not modified. If you do get the prompt, that means that something in the document was modified. You may not have modified the document, but behind the scenes, something happened that makes the document different than it was at the time it was loaded into Acrobat. This can be either due to some JavaScript calculation in the document, or due to a problem with the PDF file that was fixed by Acrobat. Without access to the documents, it's impossible to say what happened. You can try to disable JavaScript in Acrobat's preferences to see if that gets rid of the prompt. If it does, then the prompt was due to a change in the document's state caused by a script. If you are still getting the prompt, then chances are that you are dealing with a corrupt PDF file (and there is very likely evidence of that in a very brief message that pops up on the screen, but may go away before you are actually able to read it).

You can file an enhancement request with Adobe for a read-only mode: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Right, so Adobe is modifying the document, not me, and it's doing it without asking me. I spent this morning doing my accounts and I must have at least 20 suppliers, so printed off PDF invoices from that many different sources. All but a couple generated the message when I closed them. I do not believe that 90% of companies producing PDF invoices on their websites are creating corrupt PDFs.

There is absolutely no need for it to do this. I should be able to open by default as read-only, the way Adobe Reader used to work. If you added up all the time you are wasting across your entire user base, it must be eye-watering. These are supposed to be productivity tools, not anti-productivity tools.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded