Acrobat Reader window is always On Top

[foochi]

After a recent update to Acrobat Reader DC, now the Acrobat window always stays "On Top" and I cannot fully view windows from any other application on my screen unless I drag the Acrobat window to the edge of the screen to get it out of the way.  It used to be that whenever I clicked on another application, the new application window would ascend to the top of the pile on the screen and everything else would be behind.  Now Acrobat won't go behind, it is always on top.

[AkanchhaS]

Hey there!

What you have explained above, would be more easy to understand if you could share the screenshot of the same?

There seems to be some issue with either application's display size or Windows display settings itself.

You may try adjusting Acrobat's edges once, then it should remains the same when you open next time. 

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[foochi]

Akki_24 -

You seem to completely misunderstand the question.  It has nothing to do with the size of the window or if it comes back the same when opening again.

Are you unfamiliar with the concept that the window of an application that you are working with appears to be on top of the windows of other applications that are in the background on the screen ? 

To call the computer screen a "Desktop" is an analogy to the top of a physical desk that has some pieces of paper on it.  I might be reading one piece of paper that is resting on top of another piece of paper.  Unless the pieces of paper are stacked in perfect alignment, I would see the edges of a lower piece of paper underneath but to one side or another of the top piece of paper that I am reading. Same on the computer screen.  If I am reading a PDF document, but also have a Word document open at the same time, it looks like the PDF is "on top" of the Word document, although I can see an edge of the Word doucment "behind" the PDF.

The way it is supposed to work is, that if I want to start reading the Word document, I can click on the visible edge of the Word document, which then immediately pops up and appears to be "on top" of the PDF document so that I now only see the edges of the PDF "behind" the Word document.

What I am describing is that the PDF will never go "behind", it always stays "on top"

However, never mind.  I rebooted my computer and the problem seems to have gone away.  I am only surprised that you don't seem to know that some documents appear to be on top of others on the screen and that which one is on top will change when the user clicks on one that was behind before.

[ls_rbls]

Hi,

I just wanted to add to the discussion that you are entirely correct in your desktop analogy description.

You're probably an old schooler like me by which back in the day Microsoft and Apple started coining real desktop publishing terms  to make it easier for computer users to associate  actions and productivity features in a graphical user interface environment.

What you've explained is also known as task switching, which can also be accomplished in an easier way by pressing the Alt key and hit the Tab key a few times to cycle through the active windows.

Every operating  system with  a GUI has its own intuitive ways of accomplishing this with keyboard shortcuts, a combination of keyboard and mouse gestures or  by using the long hard way you have explained;

 actually , in a power user work enviornment, hovering the mouse pointer and  try to aim the edge of several overlapping cascaded windows is out of fashion and unproductive.

Most operating system  preferences and personalization settings allows to change how inactive and active windows are positioned in the screen so is a matter of user preference.

On the other hand, Akanchha's recommendation is also correct and on point; the solution Akanchha offer to you very kindly is known as a feature in newer operating systems and web browsers.

The window manager portion of the GUI  can remember the last state of an application window .

When the active window was opened in a specific area of the desktop space, resized, minimized or maximized,  as a floating rolled up title bar, or rolled down, zoomed-in or zoomed-out page, to include other page display capabilities, it will remember its last state once the user closes it.

So that the next time the program is opened it will display the active window in the same exact spot where the user wants it to be.

Whole point is that, in any case, it looks more like you have to catch up with Akanchha since the software industry  have embraced the use of tablets and mobile devices more and more to get away from the ridiculous  and naenderthal way you've just stressed in how a desktop enviornment workflow should be.

If we really want to get in a ridiculuous discussion, when you open an Adobe  application the work environment is not even referred to as the Desktop, it is referred to as the Home View,

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/how-to/new-experience-acrobat-dc.html?playlist=/services/playlist.he... 

and in other operating systems, not from Apple and Microsoft, is referred to as work space.

So I am 100% sure that  as an Adobe employee, Akanchha pretty much understood what you were trying to say the first time.

[AFarrar]

I feel your pain, WFD. I hope someone can offer some guidance on fixing or working around this issue. Personally, I do not care about viewing the desktop/home view. When I'm mobile and working on my laptop, I often keep my programs full-screen, and switch quickly back and forth between them. My main issue is that navigating between Adobe Acrobat Reader and other programs has become an unworkably cumbersome process. 

Here's a description:

If I have any document open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, I cannot easily switch between that document and other programs/apps. Using Alt+Tab is not a solution. Hitting Alt+Tab will allow me to switch between any programs except for Adobe acrobat reader. The only way for me to see anything else on my screen is to minimize Adobe Acrobat Reader entirely. For example, if I'm looking at a document in Acrobat, then hit Alt+Tab, I will see Windows switch the focused program/app until I release the keys. After I release Alt+Tab, Acrobat is still on my screen. Clicking on a different program on my taskbar does not bring up that program, nor does opening a program from the Windows Start menu. In either case, Acrobat remains on my screen.

It is very disruptive to my work to not be able to easily switch back and forth between two documents. I do not have this problem with any other program or app.

I would appreciate any solutions that fix this issue!

[steve39113654]

Adobe Reader XI (11.0.20)

I found that the first instance of Reader I opened in any new Reader session (i.e. from a state when no other Reader windows are open) was stuck on top of other windows; always in front and blocking the view of other windows. I could not find a setting in software to fix. Even a second instance of Reader created by opening another document in Reader would not go in front (was still being occluded from view) by the first invoked instance of Reader. I closed the first instance and re-opened the same first-instance document in what would now be the third instance of Reader and the Reader window then behaved normally: going behind the still open second instance of reader as well as going behind othe applicaton windows such as FireFox.