Opening pdf Files with Acrobat Reader 5.1

I have Adobe Acrobat 4.0 installed and running on my Win 98SE machine. Acrobat 4.0 won't open certain new pdf files - the formats aren't compatible - got to love Adobe for this one. I installed Acrobat Reader 5.1 sucessfully. If I double click on a pdf file from Windows Explorer, the pdf file will open with Acrobat 4.0. Some files need to be opened with Acrobat Reader 5.1, so I thought that I would highlight the file and shift - right click - open with. That was OK but the Acrobat Reader 5.1 wasn't on the list .


I can open Acrobat Reader 5.1 from the start menu and open the required filke with it but I was wondering why Acrobat Reader 5.1 doesn't appear on the list and waht to do about it.


Mark

"I thought that I would highlight the file and shift - right click - open with. That was OK but the Acrobat Reader 5.1 wasn't on the list ."

Once there click on the Browse button to locate AR5.1.

Click the box to always use AR5.1 for .pdf file types.

Markgc--I have Acrobat Reader 5.05. If I click Start|Run|Folder Options|File Types tab, I find a listing for Acrobat Acrobat Document. When I highlight and click Edit|Edit (again), in the line "Application used to perform action", I find the following
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" "%1"
(including quotes).-
Perhaps the association for Acrobat Reader 4 is still in that line and you should change the line to read appropriately for Acrobat Reader 5.1, which I am just guessing might be
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.1\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" "%1", but of course you should check the actual path and command file name.
P.S. In the Open With... window you should find AcroRd.32, but indeed there is no reference to Adobe as such.

Thanks for the info

Report_2 - yes good idea the button is called Other but it is the Browse function - after that it appeared on the list but will only stay on the list if I click on the "always open with". If I then go back to always open with Acrobat 4 then the Acro32exe disappears from the list again - strange. I wonder what it takes to make it stay on the list -


Jim - yes I got the path from the properties of the Desktop icon and it is

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"

even though it is 5.1

Can I edit the registry, so that AcrRD32 will appear on the "open with" list. Does anyone know what the entry should look like


thanks Mark

Excellent page showing you how to do THIS

Markgc--AcroRd32 should appear in your "Open With..." window by default if you have Acrobat Reader installed, which appears to be the case.
Are you sure you are looking at the "Open With..." window and not an "Open" window? You reach "Open With..." when you hold down Shift and then right click on a .pdf (or actually any) file icon.
However, I think you might go back to original problem, which is that you apparently have Acrobat Reader 4 and 5.1 installed. I think you can uninstall both by uninstalling 5.1 from Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs. Then reinstall 5.1.
Or, from the AR 5.0 Read Me file
"If the Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 installer or uninstaller fails to work properly, manually delete the file Uninst.isu from Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\98 or NT then reinstall Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 and uninstall.
"

Yes I am looking at the right list - it should be there but it isn't. I did uninstall it all and do an install of Adobe Acrobat and then the Reader 5.1 and this is what I ended up with.

I am running Adobe Acrobat - that isn't the reader but the expensive package that has Adobe Distiller, PDF writer and Adobe Acrobat in it. Acrobat reads and allows certain editing of the pdf file. Of course after you buy it, Adobe changes the format, so now Adobe Acrobat can't read certain pdf files and you have to install the Rader 5.0 to read those....which brings me to mess that I have now.


Mark

"If I then go back to always open with Acrobat 4 then the Acro32exe disappears from the list again - strange."

You do not need to have AR4 anymore. Just leave it at AR5.
I have v3, v4 and v5. I have it set to V5 and all works just fine when I click on a .pdf file.

V5 is not listed in my Start, Programs menu but since I never need to open the program (other than by clicking on a .pdf file) then I am not concerned about that.

V5 is the one you want and need as the default reader.

HTH

Quote

V5 is the one you want and need as the default reader.

_____________________________________________

Agreed - how to I get IE 6 to use V5 , it is still opening Acrobat 4.0 to read pdf files. When I open V5, I get a message about it not being able to open web files. When I click OK to fix, nothing happens and when I close and open V5, I get the same message again. Can I hand fix the registry and tell it to let IE use V5


Mark

Markgc--
I only have Acrobat Reader, not Acrobat, itself. Therefore I would not know if Acrobat does different things for .pdf files than does Acrobat Reader.
However,

Quote:

---

how to I get IE 6 to use V5 , it is still opening Acrobat 4.0 to read pdf files.

---

Perhaps you are talking about the Web Browser feature for Acrobat (and plug in for Acrobat Reader) that opens a IE window around an Acrobat window when you open a .pdf file. And maybe that feature has not been activated. (That would explain why you can open a .pdf file after opening Acrobat5.1.)
See
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/newfeatures.html
last paragraph or the .pdf file on top left for info on Web Browser.
In any event, it sounds to me as is you have Acrobat Reader v4 still installed on your PC and it is still the program associated with .pdf files. So I would again suggest uninstalling v4, which may, however, only be possible by uninstalling v5 as well.
Forgive me if I am only showing my ignorance.
P.S. Have you asked your question on Adobe's website forum?

Murf - thank you for the page on editing the registy - great stuff

Jim - yes you are right when I installed Reader 5, it warned me that if I uninstall it, it will take Acrobat 4.o with it and I would need an original disk with serial number to put Acrobat 4 back.

I will do some reading of the information that you have posted


Adobe has always been a bit weird on this machine. If I open a pdf file on-line using IE, then if I double click on a pdf file using Windows Explorer, nothing happens. I have to ctrl alt delete into the Program Manager and close Acrobat. Then when I click on a pdf file Acrobat will open correctly strange - when Zone Alarm Pro is not running - it doesn't do this. Adobe has always done weird things, even on my pc at work. I am sort of used to it. The Adobe distiller and pdf writer even get into the printer page, so that you can direct a print file tobe turned into a pdf file


Mark


Mark

Markgc--After digging very hard through your posts, do I understand that you have Acrobat v4 installed and think you also have Acrobat Reader v5.1 installed? Since Acrobat includes Acrobat Reader, and I gather you have not uninstalled Acrobat v4, that might explain your problem.
See my earlier post on uninstalling Reader (hopefully only Reader). Then maybe you can keep Acrobat 4 and install and use Reader 5.1.
Perhaps the folks at Adobe Forum can help.
http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/main.html

Thanks Jim,

I think I am in a pretty good shape now.

Yes, to recap, what I originally had was Acrobat 4.0 - this is not Acrobat Reader 4 but the expensive Acrobat package which comes with Acrobat 4.0 which is a reader/editor for pdf files, Adobe Distiller and Adobe PDF writter. The distiller and pdf writer can be seen in the windows print menu, so print files can be sent to them instead of to the printer. I can therefore print a word file and it will be made into a pdf file and stored in a directory of my choice. For these reasons adobe get's it claws into a lot of things. When the pdf format was changed. I found that the Acrobat 4.0 reader/editor would no longer open the new pdf format. Now I had to install the reader 5 over the top of 4.0 because I wanted to keep the features that i already had with Acrobat 4.0.

I think that I can live with what I have. When using pdf files on the web, I normaly prefer to right click and "save target as" - in this way I can see the download progress. The pdf files can be large and my dial-up takes a while - good to see what is happening as the download procedes


Mark

Markgc--Glad to hear the story has a more or less happy ending. Sometimes you have to settle for a work around.
I have never looked into it, but does Adobe perhaps offer a special price for upgrading Adobe Acrobat4 to AA5? Never hurts to ask, especially since they now seem to have .pdf files that require v5.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yes it is something that I can live with. A good answer might be to use Adober Reader 6. I had that installed and it seemed to work with the IE OK but at the time I have was having some weird scary problems where my download internet link would lock up after about 2 hours. In fact my machine would not shut down properly when I got this connection lockup. I fixed it by using GoBack and I went back about 1 1/2 days before it was OK again. Anyway when I installed Adobe 6.0 - this problem seemed to come back, so I was a bit jumpy about it - of course it might have been something else. Now my machine seems to have settled down again, I may be bold and try 6.0 but what I have now seems a reasoanble compomise for now. Sometimes it is wise to settle for something that is OK than to try for something a little better and ruin the whole machine.

If I didn't have GoBack this 4 yr install of win98se would have been dead years ago.


Mark