pdf viewing

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cassio

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In Preview, it always seems like my PDFs appear too small when I download and open them. Is Preview not supposed to be a full-fledged PDF reader? How do I fix this?

Also, Dashboard is slow to open and I seem to have lost the Wikipedia widget I installed. Is there anyway to reset Dashboard back to its defaults (ie. no note widgets).

--Sam
 
For Preview, you can set the default zoom in the preferences. I recommend "Auto size". 100% is usually too small, because OS X treats screens as though they're 72DPI even though most modern monitors are 96DPI or higher.
 
As for Dashboard, simply click the plus sign symbol in the lower left-hand corner, and drag the Wikipedia widget back onto your Dashboard.

If you would like to remove a widget, hold down the 'option' key, and click the close symbol ('x' in a circle) in the upper left-hand corner of the widget.
 
cassio said:
In Preview, it always seems like my PDFs appear too small when I download and open them.
Click to expand...
You could download Acrobat Reader and set this as your default PDF viewer instead: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html (you would still be able to view images, such as jpegs, in Preview).

When you first open Acrobat Reader it should give you the option to set it as your default PDF viewer, if you so wish. Alternatively, select a Preview PDF file, press Apple+I to open GET INFO. Under OPEN WITH, select Acrobat Reader and below that click on CHANGE ALL. Then all your PDF docs will open with Acrobat (and of course you can reverse the entire process if you want to use Preview again for viewing PDF files).

I mostly use Acrobat Reader to view PDF files (just a personal choice thing). However, one good thing about Preview is that you can copy and paste text from it, which you can't do with the Adobe product.
 
Preview loads very much faster than Acrobat Reader. After finding out that I can use Preview to extract text as can be done with AR, I hardly ever use AR.
 
I only used Adobe Reader for full screen PDF reading mainly, but I've found that pressing Zoom In a couple times while viewing a PDF in Preview is good enough. I haven't opened Adobe Reader in months, and considering how slow it is there's really no need to.
 
Porce, you should try View > Full Screen in Preview. I find it much easier to read eBooks in that than in Adobe Reader.
 
I agree with Snags40, Acrobat is so bloated. Nothing beats Preview for quick PDF viewing.

I'm not a fan of how PDFs now open inside Safari windows; I always save them to the desktop.
 
Since Preview handles PDF files so well, I don't have AB reader on my computer. In certain circumstances I'm sure it would be necessary to have it installed.
 
Thank The Cheese said:
I'm not a fan of how PDFs now open inside Safari windows; I always save them to the desktop.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a pain. Go to Hard Drive -> Library -> Internet Plug-Ins
Trash AdobePDFViewer.plugin

Now when you click on a .pdf link the file will automatically be saved to the desktop.
 
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