Skip to main content
November 6, 2014
Answered

Can I lock in a zoom level (e.g. Page View) so it won't change?

  • November 6, 2014
  • 4 replies
  • 43280 views

I'm wondering if there is a way to prevent Adobe Reader from changing my zoom level.  I prefer to read with the zoom level set to Fit Page.  Every time I click on a bookmark to jump to another page in the document, the zoom level changes to Fit Width (I think).  This is extremely annoying because I have to keep changing the view back to Fit Page.  In preferences I have put the default zoom to Fit Page, but that only determines how it comes up initially.  When I click on a bookmark it changes again.

I don't understand why the zoom changes when you click a bookmark at all.  Why would I want the zoom to change on me?

FYI, I'm using Reader XI (11.0.08).

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer CtDave

Using Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) you can set the page magnification (and many other things) for Bookmarks, links, Comment annotations and more.
As well, using Acrobat (but not the free Adobe Reader) you can create Bookmarks.

Need to know for Adobe Reader:

The free Adobe Reader cannot create PDF.
The free Adobe Reader cannot export PDF page content.
The free Adobe Reader cannot manipulate PDF page content or add/remove features such as links, bookmarks, etc.


Using Acrobat you'd have to configure the properties of Bookmarks to provide the desire page magnification / page view.
Sometimes placing a feature (Bookmark, whatever) results in a default setting that you may have to reconfigure back in the feature's Properties dialog.

Remember, at its core, Adobe Reader is a "viewer". 


Be well...

4 replies

Participant
December 10, 2021

I don't think the answers below show a real solution, but a trick is to adjust the size of acrobat reader so that the width of the window becomes smaller and fit to width becomes similar to fit to page.

April 23, 2019

Ok, here is a reverse logic trick that works for me using reader DC free

"Dennis says

November 5, 2018 at 1:23 pm

Mursel and Obi, try de-selecting the “Always use zoom setting” checkbox in the Accessibility tab and it should default to whatever you have selected on the “Page Display” setting."

I hope this saves you the untold hours of frustration I & many others have lost trying to resolve this idiotic oversight by Adobe developers.

burgemark
Participant
September 16, 2020

That sounds genius. Where is the "Accessibility tab"? 

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 16, 2020

Under Edit (or the Reader menu on an Mac) - Preferences.

pwillener
Legend
November 7, 2014

Does that also happen if you set the Zoom Preferences to 'Fit Page'?

November 7, 2014

Pat,

Yes, it does.  That setting tells Acrobat what zoom level to use by default when you first bring up the file.  I actually have the Fit Page setting in my preferences just like you show.  But once you hit the bookmark, the zoom level changes to whatever the PDF was created with for that bookmark.

I did find that I had a bunch of PDF files that have the bookmarks set to Fit Page, but in a file that has its bookmarks set to something else (like Fit Width), it will always change the zoom when you click the bookmark.

If you are interested, I just posted a crude way to modify this in your PDF files.

Thanks.

Participant
September 15, 2015

Rnoonan, where is that post? I have the same problem.

CtDave
CtDaveCorrect answer
Participating Frequently
November 7, 2014

Using Acrobat (not the free Adobe Reader) you can set the page magnification (and many other things) for Bookmarks, links, Comment annotations and more.
As well, using Acrobat (but not the free Adobe Reader) you can create Bookmarks.

Need to know for Adobe Reader:

The free Adobe Reader cannot create PDF.
The free Adobe Reader cannot export PDF page content.
The free Adobe Reader cannot manipulate PDF page content or add/remove features such as links, bookmarks, etc.


Using Acrobat you'd have to configure the properties of Bookmarks to provide the desire page magnification / page view.
Sometimes placing a feature (Bookmark, whatever) results in a default setting that you may have to reconfigure back in the feature's Properties dialog.

Remember, at its core, Adobe Reader is a "viewer". 


Be well...

November 7, 2014

Thanks CtDave.  I don't have anything besides the free reader, so I did some further research on the web and found a solution that is pretty "brute force", but is an option for others that only have the free reader.  Here is a link to the full description:

http://superuser.com/questions/306803/zooming-size-of-pdf-files-and-bookmarks

Here is the basics:  You can use a text editor and edit the PDF file.  Once in the text editor you can search for /FitH or /Fit (there surely are other codes, but those are the only ones I know of).  These are codes that tell Acrobat what kind of zoom level to apply to the destination of a jump.  So the bookmarks should all have these.  Simply do a search and replace with /XYZ.  The /XYZ code tells Acrobat to leave the zoom level as it already is.

It might sound a bit weird, but I tried it on multiple files I was having trouble with and it worked great.  Of course, my suggestion would be to make backup copy of the file before doing this in case something goes wrong.

Thanks.

Participant
October 15, 2019
Thank you very much, moonan. This helped me a lot. Throughout the years I had this zoom problem and I am glad this issue got solved on the bookmarks, however I still have the same problems on the links. I will try to find a way (and share it here) to mark all the links so one can keep the same zoom level when jumping between the bookmarks/links. Thanks again, this helped me a lot! ^_^