Enable Single Window Mode in Acrobat 9

Report · Sep 01, 2008

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

Report · Apr 24, 2009

This is the worst thing to happen to acrobat, in my opinion.

The clutter that it creates on my computer and the fact that i cant even see the document title when I have a bunch of them open (because the task bar is too full) is unacceptable.

I never would have changed from Acrobat 8 if I had known, and now I cant switch back (company license).

The latest thing i can find about addressing it is here:

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb405108&sliceId=1

which was in november 2008....

why hasnt any thing else been done about it? I just spent 45 minutes being sent to different departments over the phone, only to be told to submit a feature request.

Please do this if you havent already:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

Report · Jun 24, 2009

Report · Jul 18, 2009

Please count my vote as well - LET US HAVE A CHOICE - allow for both.

An Acrobat user since ver 4.

I use ver 9 for for new functionality, but I still keep ver 7 on one machine as assembly of multi-page, multi-source documents is more efficient for me when done within a single application window.

Report · Sep 14, 2009

I just finally changed AR 8 to 9.1. And now I feel rather frustrated, finding myself in this thread after 20 minutes of search for the most obvious Adobe setting - to being able to read and keep open multiple documents, while avoiding screen mess!

Right now the message from Adobe to me is - bury any pdf as deep as you can and open or read pdf only when it really is important and you can't live without it anymore.

But I see now, that this thread is over 1 year old and indeed, it's difficult to believe, that Adobe Reader single window option still isn't available in version 9.1? If it still isn't in 9.1, what you folk have done, switched to some other competitive pdf reader?

Robert A.

Report · Oct 05, 2009

Absolutely!!! please re-enable MDI in Acrobat 9 -- I read the article explaining the reasons for doing this ( http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html ) but I am sure Adobe can manage to overcome -- who cares about compatibility with the Mac anyway ???? I work with both Mac and PC and do most of the Acrobat work in the PC.

Please please PLEASE re-consider and bring back MDI in the next update!!!! it is essential for imposing documents with Qi and also for applying batch commands over many files.

thanks

Report · Dec 21, 2009

Why on earth would you take this feature out. Nothing more annoying than a million PDF windows

opening up all over your screens. Especially for me as I use multiple screens they pop up everywhere!

Report · Jul 05, 2010

You guys are SO GOD DAMN STUPID for eliminating that MDI feature.

MAKE A GOD DMAN PATCH AND BRING IT BACK NOW, A******HOLES !!!

Report · Aug 16, 2010

http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html

"In Acrobat 9, we dropped support for MDI."

Not a good idea!

Now, please let us have it back.

You have to realize that you break peoples work flow with this ill-thought-through change.

"Feature Parity with Macintosh was desired" -- Not a valid argument from a windows-user point-of-view

"Making SDI default, but still providing MDI in version 8 was done to start the deprecation of MDI." -- That trick didn't work, re-enabling MDI was the first setting I changed in Acrobat 8 (and actually Acrobat 8 broke so many other things, I quickly reverted to Acrobat 7).

"Microsoft advised that to work as good as possible on Vista, applications should avoid MDI." -- Microsoft is not the user, we are! Besides, many W7 users reset their desktop to classical.

"This increases the cost of testing the product and the cost of fixing bugs." -- So it's easier on Adobe, but bad for us... is that an argument at all?

"in a world where larger screen resolutions, multiple monitors and the need to see multiple documents at one time has increased, SDI mode offered higher benefits." -- As someone else already mentioned, on a multi-monitor system SDI is flawed.

So... now that you consider reverting to MDI, please also introduce tabs, that's the only thing MDI applications typically lack, though things are improving.

EDIT: People been asking for this since 2008! Come on, already...

Report · Nov 05, 2010

We automate some Acrobat processes using the jsobj and adi. All of a sudden I have 50 open acrobat windows (It won't open more than 50...though it's trying really hard)?!?!? PLEASE bring back the single window optoin!!!!

Report · Nov 07, 2010

For clarification, the user interface in Acrobat X retains the Acrobat 9 SDI structure. Many of the arguments outlined in the original Acrobat Blog post still stand.

As the new Tools Pane and Quick Tools bars are fixed within the application window, explicit support for multiple-monitor desktops (for example in terms of undocking tools and moving them to a second screen as might be done in Creative Suite apps) is not relevant - SDI windows can of course be positioned wherever a user wishes, and the new UI helps to maximize the screen real estate available to the document pages.

It's important to bear in mind that many of the Tools Pane panels contain processes rather than actions - for example the process of replying to comments or sharing a file using SendNow. In an MDI world, managing the state of these "half-finished" processes when the user tabs to a different document is a lot more complex than it seems. MDI software tends to get round that by putting all their interactive workflows into modal dialog boxes, so until you've completed the task you're locked out of the main window, hence can't change the document under focus. Acrobat and Reader of course use dialogs for some multi-step and system processes, but retaining SDI means every document can have an independent set of panes, panels and dialogs, for example one document in Forms Editing mode and another in comment review mode, so a user can read what changes her peers have requested and implement them in a side-by-side desktop layout. It's this concentration on multi-instance SDI that led Microsoft to bring in the window "snap" feature in Windows 7.

Report · Nov 14, 2010

"the user interface in Acrobat X retains the Acrobat 9 SDI structure"

which is why I will not upgrade to Acrobate X, thank you.

Consider this:

I had to put together a single document from 35 single page pdfs, that were all supposed to be in the same page format, but had to be checked, of course. I opened the first of these pdfs, checked it and it was fine. Now I wanted to add the other 34 pages from the 34 pdfs, so I opened them one by one, checked the page format, and then clicked to see the page icon so I could drag this over to the first document and have the page inserted there.

Here SDI came in my way. Everytime I opened one of the new pdfs, the window opened on top of the window with the document that I wanted to drag the page to. So, first I had to move the window, only then did I have room to grab the page icon and drag it to the first document.

So, the workflow was this:

1. Open new pdf

2. Check page format,if ok

3. Drag window away from the base document window

4. Click to see the page icon

5. Drag the page icon over to the base document.

In an MDI setting, I would simply have tiled the windows with the base document on one side and the newly opened doc on the other and dragged stuff over.

I am seriously looking for something other than Acrobat to fulfill my needs.I still have not found one that has all the features I need, but I keep looking...

Report · Nov 15, 2010

In that workflow I wouldn't advise opening each single-page file in Acrobat before combining them - you can look at the PDFs and their metadata information using Adobe Bridge etc. or use the preview panel in Windows Explorer, select the ones you want, and use Combine Supported Files from the context menu.

Report · Nov 22, 2010

Thanks Dave.

Well of course I can use other apps for this.

Maybe I'll start using Foxit instead, thanks for the hint...

Bottom line is, MDI is flawed and it breaks the work-flows of many, *many* people,just look into this thread.

PS I have no idea what Adobe Bridge is, doesn't seem to have been installer with my Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. Furthermore, the win explorer preview panel shows no useful info. I need to check each document that it has the correct page size, fonts, layout etc. "Combined Supported Files" from what context menu? Is that a Mac thing? I'm on W7x64pro... From my view-point, all your suggestions failed, and MDI would have solved the problem quite nicely.

Now, on to another Acrobat stupidity... "You must restart the system before using Acrobat. Click Restart Now to restart automatically". Stop this madness!

Report · Nov 22, 2010

PS I have no idea what Adobe Bridge is, doesn't seem to have been installer with my Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.

Adobe Bridge is the file browser and management utility installed with Creative Suite. It's not part of the Acrobat installation, but as many Acrobat users have purchased it as part of a CS bundle, they will have Bridge installed by default.

"Combined Supported Files" from what context menu? Is that a Mac thing? I'm on W7x64pro...

Select a bunch of files (not just PDFs - anything that Acrobat can read) in Windows Explorer and right-click.

Report · Nov 23, 2010

"Select a bunch of files (not just PDFs - anything that Acrobat can read) in Windows Explorer and right-click."

Nope, nothing like "Combine Supported Files" there.

There's nothing at all related to Acrobat in my Explorer right-click context menu.

But this is all beside the point.

The point is that MDI is flawed, broken, ill-behaved, not working correctly, breaking well-established workflows, etc...

And all those Acrobat window icons clog the task bar...

Report · Nov 19, 2010

Adobe, Please bring back MDI. It's ridiculous not to...who is the customer, the individual user or Microsoft? It's frustrating to have several windows open. With the technology available today, there has to be a way to make this work. If there's somethign in the work's, we'd like to see it sooner than later...No more excuses...let's see some results. Talk is cheap...

Thanks!

Report · Nov 20, 2010

I think it is a financial issue for Adobe!

They don't want to pay some pennies for an eventual support or bugs that may raise with MDI !

If this is crippling for Adobe in its royal size, how do the developers of the free soft?

Report · Dec 18, 2010

After finding out AcrobatX will not support a proper tab browsing interface my question is why isn't there a "container app" shipped with adobe/acrobat that keeps track of all documents? At the moment I'am using Acrobat together with Firefox... but it’s a pain to drop 20 and more documents at once into FF just to have nice tabs and not a messy taskbar... and even worse: Many functions are not available through the browser plugin so the user is still forced to open certain PDFs in Acrobat again. Why is usability neglected concerning such an important point? If my other apps were oriented like this DjvuReader, FF, Matlab, notepad I would waste half my time during a normal working day with switching while not knowing which window keeps which content...

It would be nice to have such a container!

Kind regards
DragJo

Report · Feb 08, 2011

Hello Adobe,

Can you hear us??? Seems like MDI is kind of essential to a not so small bunch of customers. Looking at the view counts of the regarding threads I suppose there are even more frustrated customers out there. So please bring up a solution to this issue. The smell of this "dead horse" sucks out loud.

Best regards,

Sascha

Report · Feb 24, 2011

Currently I have 16 pdfs open. So I have 16 icons in my W7 task bar. Increadible that Adobe thinks this is a good thing...

In addition to this mess, I now I want to close all Acrobat windows. With MDI I simply closed the parent window and all was hunky dory. Now I need 16 clicks (at least) to close all windows. Who on earth can think that this is a good thing...

Thank god for Google giving Chrome a built-in pdf.viewer with tabs. I have now set that as my default pdf-viewer. Acrobat I only use when I need to comment or otherwise edit the pdfs... Was that the intent of removing MDI, Adobe?

Report · Mar 11, 2011

Hi,

Well, here we are more than 2 and a half years after this thread began and Adobe still has it's back turned to the large crowd that like to work with many files open at once.

I can't imagine how such a bad decision was made. The lack of MDI clearly limits Reader and Acrobat. Don't they want professionals with hundreds and thousands of pages to work efficiently?

We've got more than 25,000 pages off graphics, batch generated, we want to assemble into PDFs for eBooks. So, naturally, we want to load dozens and hundreds of files at once. Put differently, we want to review these individually without watching the OS bog down and crash and without wasting time managing operating system windows.

LBE

Report · Mar 20, 2011

While searching for better solutions than writing batch scripts that place my PDFs in Firefox I came across an argument:

Adobes target is to offer the same user experience on all operating systems.

A desirable aim and since Windows 7 provided an arrangement of windows that can probably work well with SDI one might think it is a good thing to change/remove approved features but why not extend them: Let the user decide at installation process or give an option to switch between both.

What if the expectation that everyone will update to a new underlying systems isn't fulfilled? What if Windows XP is still a very very important system (market share levels off at 55% at the moment since many industry areas are highly interweaved with XP).

The tremendous amount of barriers I was confronted with in my "eight hours Win7 test phase" shocked me and showed me that it will take me month to set up the environment as it operates now (scripts, drivers failing to work; hardware simulations couldn't be run; etc.) additionally the idea to bury well known options behind new dialogs which led me into the "clicking hell".

So I will not/never use a different WinVersion or Mac (even "more closed" though its style and design - hardware and software - is great) and virtualizing desktop environments offers me the opportunity to keep all under the Linux cover. I can’t prove it and I'm not sure but by talking to others I got the feeling that many environments look like that these days.

I know consumer industry has a different flow, it needs to destroy old and reliable concepts to force customers to buy new products otherwise they will keep their old working stuff forever and a day e.g. no DirectX support higher than 9 in XP: ridiculous. I'm not sure if removing MDI from Acrobat 9 is connected to the same tactic. Please bring MDI back.

Kind regards

DragJo

Report · Apr 07, 2011

I too am wondering what they are thinking at Adobe.. Dropping support for useful features because Macs can't use them? Come on, it really would not be that challenging to create a containerized architecture to support MDI as an option.

I have been waiting for several years now to see if Adobe would wake up. They haven't. So I'll keep using the same old Adobe products with MDI support that I always have. It also seems that there are a few new Acrobat-like products responding to the clear market demand. Cheaper, too.

Report · May 20, 2011

This request has been going on since 2008? Recently I noticed that the newest version of Acrobat Pro v9.4.4 is not allowing PDF's in the same window. Did Acrobat bring back MDI and then remove it again?

I cannot get multiple windows open on the same monitor. If I have a PDF open on the Right monitor and click to open a PDF, the PDF opens in a new window on the Left-hand monitor. I do not want my monitors to be taken up by multiple PDF's that I work with. I want one Window and I can then select which PDF I want by going to the Window open in the menu.

Has there been any fix or solution for this yet? I cannot believe that Adobe has yet again removed a feature and has not at least provided something for us Windows users. This is lame.

Report · Jul 26, 2012

Adobe, from your blog http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html it was indcating that you (Adobe) heard the complaints loud and clear and were working on a solution? Really? Where? I find it exteremly annoying one of your reasons was because Mac users could not use this function anyway. I'm sorry, but we Windows users have ALWAYS used this feature. To have you remove this in version 9 and X is insane. You may want to cut costs on programming, but please it is quite obivious from the complaints on your own forums that users are fed up with your issues under Acrobat 9 and now Acrobat X.

It is 2012 and no MDI support still. Funny how you closed the blog on October 7 2008 because you did not want more complaints. You have really disspointed your clients and I am recommending that we do not go with the next version of Acrobat because of the lack of support from Adobe.