Preferences for viewing PDFs



The Preferences dialog box defines a default page layout and customizes your application in many other ways. For viewing PDFs, examine the preferences options for Documents, General, Multimedia, and Page Display.

The preferences settings control how the application behaves whenever you use it; they are not associated with any particular PDF document.

Note: If you install any third-party plug-ins, set these preferences using the Third-Party Preferences menu item.

Documents preferences

Open Settings

Restore Last View Settings When Reopening Documents
Determines whether documents open automatically to the last viewed page within a work session.

Open Cross-document Links In Same Window
Closes the current document and opens the document being linked to in the same window, minimizing the number of windows open. If the document being linked to is already open in another window, the current document is not closed when you click a link to the open document. If you do not select this option, a new window opens each time you click a link to a different document.

Allow Layer State To Be Set By User Information
Allows the author of a layered PDF document to specify layer visibility based on user information.

Allow Documents To Hide The Menu Bar, Toolbars, And Window Controls
Allows the PDF to determine whether the menu bar, toolbar, and window controls are hidden when the PDF is opened.

Documents In Recently Used List
Sets the maximum number of documents listed in the File menu.

Remember Files In Organizer History For
Specifies how long PDF files remain in the History list.

Save Settings

Automatically Save Document Changes To Temporary File Every _ Minutes
Determines how often Acrobat automatically saves changes to an open document.

Save As Optimizes For Fast Web View
Restructures a PDF document for page-at-a-time downloading from web servers.

PDF/A View Mode

View Documents In PDF/A Mode
Specifies when to use this viewing mode: Never, or Only For PDF/A Documents.

Examine Document

Examine Document
Examines the PDF for items that may not be apparent, such as metadata, file attachments, comments, and hidden text and layers. The examination results appear in a dialog box, and you can remove any type of item that appears there.
Examine Document When Closing Document
(Not selected by default.)

Examine Document When Sending Document By Email
(Not selected by default.)

Adjust Filename When Applying Redaction Marks
Specifies a prefix or suffix to use when saving a file to which redaction marks have been applied.

Full Screen preferences

Full Screen Setup

Current Document Only
Specifies whether or not the display is limited to a single PDF.

Fill Screen With One Page At A Time
Sets the page view to the maximum screen coverage by a single page.

Alert When Document Requests Full Screen
Displays a message before going into Full Screen mode. Selecting this option overrides a previous selection of Do Not Show This Message Again in that message.

Which Monitor To Use
Specifies the monitor on which full-screen display appears (for users with multiple-monitor configurations).

Full Screen Navigation

Escape Key Exits
Lets you exit Full Screen mode by pressing the Esc key. If this option is not selected, you can exit by pressing Ctrl+L.

Show Navigation Bar
Shows a minimal navigation toolbar regardless of the document settings.

Left Click To Go Forward One Page; Right Click To Go Back One Page
Lets you page through an Adobe PDF document by clicking the mouse. You can also page through a document by pressing Return, Shift-Return (to go backward), or the arrow keys.

Loop After Last Page
Lets you page through a PDF document continuously, returning to the first page after the last. This option is typically used for setting up kiosk displays.

Advance Every _ Seconds
Specifies whether to advance automatically from page to page every set number of seconds. You can page through a document using mouse or keyboard commands even if automatic paging is selected.

Full Screen Appearance

Background Color
Specifies the window’s background color in Full Screen mode. You can select a color from the color palette to customize the background color.

Mouse Cursor
Specifies whether to show or hide the pointer when Full Screen mode is in operation.

Full Screen Transitions

Ignore All Transitions
Removes transition effects from presentations that you view in Full Screen mode.

Default Transition
Specifies the transition effect to display when you switch pages in Full Screen mode and no transition effect has been set for the document.

Direction
Determines the flow of the selected default transition on the screen, such as Down, Left, Horizontal, and so forth. The available options vary according to the transition. If no directional options affect the selected default transition, this option is not available.

Navigation Controls Direction
Mimics the user’s progress through the presentation, such as transitioning from top to bottom when the user proceeds to the next page and from bottom to top when the user backtracks to the previous page. Available only for transitions with directional options.

General preferences

Basic Tools

Use Single Key Accelerators To Access Tools
Enables you to select tools with a single keystroke. This option is unselected by default.

Create Links From URLs
Specifies whether links that weren’t created with Acrobat are automatically identified in the PDF document and become clickable links.

Make Hand Tool Select Text & Images
Enables the Hand tool to function as the Select tool when it hovers over text in an Adobe PDF.

Make Hand Tool Read Articles
Changes the appearance of the Hand tool pointer when over an article thread. Upon the first click, the article zooms to fill the document pane horizontally; subsequent clicks follow the thread of the article.

Make Hand Tool Use Mouse-wheel Zooming
Changes the action of the mouse wheel from scrolling to zooming.

Make Select Tool Select Images Before Text
Changes the order in which the Select tool selects.

Use Fixed Resolution For Snapshot Tool Images
Sets the resolution used to copy an image captured with the Snapshot tool.

Warnings

Do Not Show Edit Warnings
Disables warning boxes that would normally appear when you delete items such as links, pages, page thumbnails, and bookmarks.

Reset All Warnings
Restores default settings for warnings.

Print

Show Page Thumbnails In Print Dialog
Controls the print preview display in the Print dialog box. Deselecting this option speeds up the preview.

Emit Passthrough PostScript When Printing
Enables Adobe® PostScript® XObjects in the PDF file to be emitted when that PDF file is printed to a PostScript printer.

Application Startup

Show Splash Screen
Determines whether the application startup screen appears each time the application starts.

Use Only Certified Plug-Ins
Ensures that only Adobe-certified third-party plug-ins are loaded. The notation Currently in Certified Mode indicates either Yes or No depending on its status.

Check For Updates
When selected, checks for software updates according to the frequency specified in the Adobe Updater Preferences.

Check 2D Graphics Accelerator (Windows only)
(Appears only if your computer hardware supports 2D graphics acceleration.) When selected, allows hardware acceleration usage when the first document is opened. When deselected, hardware acceleration usage starts after the first document is opened. This option can slow startup time, so it is unselected by default.
Note: This option is available only when the option Use 2D Graphics Acceleration in the Page Display preferences is selected.

Page Display preferences

Default Layout And Zoom

Page Layout
Sets the page layout used for scrolling when you first open a document. The default setting is Automatic. The page layout setting in File > Properties > Initial View overrides the page layout setting in Preferences.

Zoom
Sets the magnification level for PDF documents when they are first opened. This value overrides document settings. The default setting is Automatic.

Resolution

Use System Setting
Uses the system settings for monitor resolution.

Custom Resolution
Sets the monitor resolution.

Rendering

Smooth Text
Specifies the type of text-smoothing to apply.

Smooth Line Art
Applies smoothing to remove abrupt angles in lines.

Smooth Images
Applies smoothing to minimize abrupt changes in images.

Use Local Fonts
Specifies whether the application uses or ignores local fonts installed on your system. When deselected, substitute fonts are used for any font not embedded in the PDF. If a font cannot be substituted, the text appears as bullets and an error message appears.

Enhance Thin Lines
When selected, clarifies thin lines in the display to make them more visible.

Use Page Cache
Places the next page in a buffer before the current page is viewed to reduce the time required to page through a document.

Use 2D Graphics Acceleration (Windows only)
(Appears only if your computer hardware supports 2D graphics acceleration.) Speeds up zooming, scrolling, and redrawing of page content, and speeds the rendering and manipulation of 2D PDF content. This option is selected by default.
Note: If this option is not available in the Page Display preferences, you may need to update your GPU card driver to enable this hardware feature. Contact your card vendor or computer manufacturer for an updated driver.

Page Content And Information

Show Large Images
Displays large images. If your system is slow to display image-intensive pages, deselect this option.

Use Smooth Zooming (Windows only)
When deselected, turns off animation effects, which improves performance.

Show Art, Trim, & Bleed Boxes
Displays any art, trim, or bleed boxes defined for a document.

Show Transparency Grid
Displays the grid behind transparent objects.

Use Logical Page Numbers
Enables the Number Pages command for matching the position of the page in the PDF to the number printed on the page. A page number, followed by the page position in parentheses, appears in the Page Navigation toolbar and in the Go To Page and Print dialog boxes. For example, i (1 of 1) if the printed number of the first page is i. If this option is not selected, pages are numbered with arabic numbers starting at 1. Selecting this option helps prevent unexpected behavior when clicking Back or Go Back in your web browser.

Always Show Document Page Size
Displays the page measurements beside the horizontal scroll bar.

Use Overprint Preview
Specifies whether Overprint Preview mode is on only for PDF/X files, never on, always on, or set automatically. When set to Automatic, if a document contains overprints, then Overprint Preview mode is activated. The Overprint Preview mode lets you see (on-screen) the effects of ink aliasing in the printed output. For example, a printer or service provider could create an ink alias if a document contains two similar spot colors and only one is required.

Reference XObjects View Mode

Show Reference XObject Targets
Specifies the type of documents in which reference XObjects can be viewed.

Location Of Referenced Files
(Optional) Specifies a location for the referenced documents.