Enable Single Window Mode in Acrobat 9

[Guest]

Please re-enable the Single Window (MDI) Mode in Acrobat 9 as it is an un welcome user experience of having dozens of Acrobat windows open in the taskbar. I can suggest to have either of the following:-

1. Give an option to the user whether to open the multiple or single Acrobat windows as is the case with Acrobat 8 with "Preferences->Documents->Show Each document in its own window"

2. Introduce tabbed browsing in Acrobat similar to the one implemented in IE 7.0 to have multiple PDFs opened in a single Acrobat window.

Thanks,
Atin

[Polda1]

Yes please, bring MDI back in any form.

Thanks
Polda

[steve_foxall]

Ditto: unlikely to move from v8 unless implemented.

[_Jim_Platania_]

What on earth were you thinking??? Please enable single-window mode!!!

[_Pat_Ryan_]

Please bring back MDI. Multiple windows is unacceptable. I just deleted V9 and won't recommend it for our firmwide installation until this feature is added.

[_Glenn_Catlin_]

We have 140 Acrobat Pro licenses here, and if you think the loss of MDI is bad on a single monitor system, I can tell you that it's far worse in a dual-screen environment. For our dual-monitor folks, they can hardly do their job anymore. Acrobat 9 without MDI in a dual-monitor environment does not behave in a way that makes sense.

[Bill12]

I do not know if the /n command line parameter still works in AA9, but it might be worth a try to get around the issue you are all having. I do not do enough for it to be an issue for me. If it works, you can simply add it to the AA9 start up icon. Then open the new file in the new AA9 window. It may be worth a try since it seems to be a big problem for many of you. The work flow may be a bit different, but it might help you.

[_Matt99_]

We will probably no migrate from Acrobat 8 unless this feature becomes available. This feature was essential for some in-house programs to work correctly, and it's also a management preference for viewing PDF documents.

We too use dual monitors for all employees, and not having this option makes things difficult.

[Bill12]

Apparently you did not try what I suggested. I do not know if it works in AA9, but I suspect that it does. It used to be that there were no dual screen uses of Acrobat, but there was the option with the /n on the command line. I just tried it in AA8 and it is still there. I suspect it is there in AA9 also, you just have to make a little effort to take care of it. Bill

[Allta Media]

Here is some background on why MDI support was dropped in A9:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html

[jdm5000]

Re: Enable Single Window Mode in Acrobat 9

Here is some background on why MDI support was dropped in A9:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html

You people keep posting this link as if it were the answer to everything.  The only thing it says is "WE HERE AT ADOBE ARE LAZY!"  How about giving us a response that isn't canned?

The removal of MDI has made Acrobat COMPLETELY useless for us.  We have dual-monitor setups and the right monitor is rotated to portrait mode.  With Adobe's lovely coding skills, if you have a PDF open on the right monitor expanded to fill the screen, when you open a 2nd pdf file, it opens up on the left monitor, but with the same dimensions!  That means the window's title bar is off the top of the screen.

You have to right click that pdf's taskbar button, click move, then arrow down until you can grab the title bar.  Every. Single. Time.

Tell me, Adobe:  How is this "better?"

[akioo9]

Yeah. I keep thinking when exactly we'll hear anything more about it. This type of behavior is common for companies that are about to have abrupt changes in their market share and business. It's been 3 years. How about it, Adobe?

[Kelly McCathran]

I'm not sure of Adobe's plans to add back MDI support, but something that may help with these documents opening at the wrong size is Window > Tile > Vertically or Window > Cascade. Instead of trying to reach the top title bar. Cascade has a shortcut of Ctrl Shift J. Tile Horizontally Ctrl Shift K. Tile Vertically Ctrl Shift L. Hope this is of some help.

[Guest]

I tried this option in AA9 but its not working. Believe its something to do with Preferences->Documents->Open each Document in its own window setting thats there in AA7 and 8 but not in AA9

[_John_Stroy_]

The technical reason is compelling; however, they are not "technical limitations." MDI needs to stay; it makes things significantly easier for me as well.

[_CarlB_]

I, too, miss MDI.

The points raised in the "MDI vs. SDI in Acrobat" document seem to indicate Reader 9 is for the benefit of Adobe and MicroSoft. Which is rather odd, since I thought it was the user who used it. And as a software designer and developer I've always believed that the point was to make the users life easier not give developers and testers an easy ride.

Someone at Adobe deserves a rocket and should get their priorities sorted.

[_derdas_]

I really miss MDI, since it is more convenient to switch pdf documents windows using "Ctrl+Tab".

[_Burton_Gamble_]

All the other new Adobe CS4 products in the Design Premium Package I have use a Firefox (or IE7 if you are still in the stone age) tabbed MDI viewing style. Why doesn't Acrobat 9?

Bring back single window mode NOW!
(or make it use tabbed document viewing like CS4/Firefox/IE)

Please!!!

[_Tim_Bohn_]

In the US Courts system, MDI is a must. We open multiple PDFs at a time and to have all those instances of Adobe open is unrealistic. It slows our productivity down and cost the government money. Please bring back MDI support in an update to AA9.

Thanks

[_Dustin_J_]

This was done to save money on testing??!? We have 1000+ licenses and are now severely inconveinenced because Adobe decided to save a couple bucks?

Restore this feature in the next AAP9 update. It's ridiculous, new versions are supposed to add new helpful features. Not take away useful ones.

Dustin

[_Philip_Freeman_]

b Please bring back MDI!
I agree with the above postings that this is a waste of time and I can't believe the time it took to find this posting to explain why Acrobat is moving backwards!

[_Daniel_Friesen_]

Absolutely, MDI must be restored. A lot of my use of pdf consists of flipping back and forth between documents, and SDI has just added a huge amount of time and frustration to my day. Two thumbs down for Adobe, for choosing to ignore the customer.

[_Robert_Scholten_]

I don't care about MDI and SDI. I just don't want my desktop littered with all the documents I open. I don't care how, just make them all disappear bar the (active) one I'm reading. Please.

[_Rob_Cavicchio_]

Over the past few years, browsers have implemented tabbed browsing in order to allow you to view several Web pages in a single window. I love this, because it reduces clutter on my taskbar. It provides for the Web browser the same logical hierarchy of tasks that has been around for other applications since the early days of Windows--first choose the application, then choose the document. If you think about it, this is a lot like organizing files within folders.

At the same time, with the dissolution of the MDI interface, some applications are now moving in the opposite direction, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Are they actually seeking to increase clutter? Going back to the file/folder analogy, this is like getting rid of folders and forcing me to store all my files in a single folder. It's ludicrous.

Adobe, please, bring back MDI. This is not just a "nice-to-have". It is a critical feature for those of us who do any significant amount of work with PDF files.

[steve_foxall]

Just bought NitroPDF for one of our office members where we only needed pdf conversion functionality, digital signing of submitted forms, and stamping (all of which it accomplishes without fuss).
Haven't explored which of the 'bells & whistles' Acrobat functions it can't manage yet, but it has a nice implementation of tabbed browsing, and cost £45 instead of £400. Watch out Adobe.