Adobe Reader

Disabling the browser plugin

You can disable the Adobe Reader browser plugin and force .PDF links to open the associated program as an external helper application by using one of the methods below:

Method 1: (Firefox 3 and SeaMonkey 2)

• Firefox 3: Go to "Tools -> Add-ons -> Plugins". Select the Adobe Acrobat entry and click "Disable".
• SeaMonkey 2: Go to "Tools -> Add-on Manager -> Plugins". Select the Adobe Acrobat entry and click "Disable".

Method 2: (Firefox and SeaMonkey 2)

• Firefox 2: Go to "Tools -> Options -> Content / File Types" and click the "Manage..." button. Select "PDF" from the list of extensions and click the "Change Action" button. Select "Open them with the Default Application".
• Firefox 3 Go to "Tools -> Options -> Applications", select the "Adobe Acrobat Document" entry in the list of content types, open the drop-down menu and change the option from "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)" to "Use Adobe Reader (default)" as shown here on Windows XP.
• SeaMonkey 2: Go to "Edit -> Preferences ->Helper Applications", select the "Adobe Acrobat Document" entry, open the drop-down menu and change the option from "Use Adobe Acrobat (in SeaMonkey)" to "Use Adobe Reader (default)".

Method 3: This will disable the Adobe Reader plugin in all browsers.

1. Open the Adobe Reader program and go to the "Edit -> Preferences" dialog.
2. Select the "Internet" category and deselect (uncheck) "Display PDF in browser".

After closing Adobe Reader, open your Mozilla application’s installation directory, open the Plugins folder and ensure that the file "nppdf32.dll" is not present. If it is, remove it (or rename "nppdf32.dll" to "Xnppdf32.dll"). Failing to remove or rename this file may cause the browser to hang when attempting to open a PDF file.

Note that Mozilla applications may use plugin scanning to locate the Acrobat Reader plugin. You can prevent this by finding and renaming all instances of "nppdf32.dll" on your computer. Alternately, you can disable the plugin scan via about:config or via the user.js file by modifying the value of the preference plugin.scan.Acrobat from the default 5.0 to a value greater than the version installed, e.g., to 10.0.

Bypassing the plugin for specific usage

Even if you have not disabled the plugin you can still bypass it's use to read a PDF document directly with the Acrobat Reader regaining features not available in the plugin.

Windows, Paste the url address ("Copy link location" using Link context menu) of the PDF file into "My Computer" address bar, or into Run, or if on Vista into system Search would work.

Using Adobe Reader without the browser plugin

If you have disabled or are bypassing the plugin (above) then you have the full features of the Adobe Reader available to you.

"Reading Adobe Acrobat Files in single column mode" You can reflow most multi-column PDF documents into a single column for easier reading on your screen using View -> Zoom -> ReflowTips for looking at PDF files on a computer as single column. To return to normal uncheck Reflow. Reflow won't work for all files or for all pages, but most PDF documents can be reflowed. May not look the best, but the main thing is that you can simple scroll up and down without having to scroll across to read other columns.

"Full screen viewing" For full screen Ctrl+L, for Reading Mode (eliminates a toolbar) Ctrl+H, both are toggles so to undo hit the same keys again.