Behrang Saeedzadeh

Adobe Reader 8: "Search" tool sucks crap

Sunday, 13. May 2007, 04:20:32

Adobe Reader 8's redesigned Search tool sucks crap. In fact, it was much more handy and easier to use in previous versions.

In older versions, the Search tool was just another navigation panel. Pressing Ctrl+F, would open it in the left side of the main Adobe Reader's window and everything was accessible and at hand. Now in Reader 8, the shortcut is changed from Ctrl+F to Ctrl+Shift+F, but that didn't annoy me that much.

The annoying thing about Reader 8 is that the Search tool is not a navigation panel anymore: it opens up in a new seperate window and only God knows why (does he?)! And the worst thing here is that sometimes when you search something in the Search window and hit Enter, it closes, and just acts like the Find command! Crrrap!

Adobe! Pooh-leez! If Reader's interface is mature and user-friendly enough, don't change it just for the sake of having done something! Pooh! Leez!

KoderBlogz is just launchedThe world's thinnest notebook

Comments

james.faction # 29. May 2007, 23:56

Yep agree with you. Reader 8 is what convinced me to find a non-Adobe app for reading PDF files. Not just a poor user interface, but really bloated and slow to start too.

foxit.

behrangsa # 17. June 2007, 21:25

James,

I just tried Foxit. Very fast indeed. But IMHO it is expensive.

james.faction # 18. June 2007, 02:09

expensive? The reader is free.

behrangsa # 18. June 2007, 20:33

Looks like it's $39? http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/pricing.htm

behrangsa # 18. June 2007, 20:38

Looks like it is the pro version. Their site's navigation is a little bit confusing. Yup, the base version is free.

james.faction # 18. June 2007, 20:56

Yeah it is a little confusing on the site. The PDF editor is $39, and there's some "pro" thing you can get with the reader which advertises itself in the free version, but it's not any more obtrusive than the toolbar ads in adobe reader.

The main thing is the free version of foxit reader is much smaller, lighter and faster, and it does everything the adobe reader does with a 2Mb download.

The other thing I found that really turned me off adobe reader for good was the automatic updating. The recent upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1 the program pesters you to update, then tries to download 35Mb! Downloading the program for the first time it's 23Mb! It's just bizarre, and very annoying...

Anonymous # 21. November 2007, 21:45

Anonymous writes:

Completely agree. The new search/find function totally sucks. Doesn't eve seem to return multiple results. Another case of breaking something that's fine.

Anonymous # 6. December 2007, 19:43

Anonymous writes:

Ahh I'm not the only one! Ctrl+Shift+F and separate search window
make the tool unusable.

All the time I click 'Arrange Window' in order to keep the search window on top. But as it is a toggle buuton, in 90% of the cases the search window disappears (the opposition of what I wanted)!

Anonymous # 28. January 2008, 17:15

Anonymous writes:

I've been looking for this community of search-haters for months! So glad we can all agree how Adobe managed to take a perfectly good search function (7) and completely crap it up. And now I can't downgrade to Reader 7 at work because Adobe 8 supposedly fixes 'security concerns' - what a load of crap.

Anonymous # 10. February 2008, 03:40

moen writes:

I agree ... full search is very enoying in release 8. Do you know any other appl. which is a good substitute for the reader?

Anonymous # 4. April 2008, 10:46

gyomilo writes:

I hate it !!!
Does anyone know if it is going to be fixed ?

Anonymous # 10. December 2008, 17:45

pruttm writes:

I hate it so much I looked for a forum where I could bitch about. There you go!

Anonymous # 21. January 2009, 16:49

Jon writes:

ok so I'm not crazy. the fking search is not dockable.

ARE THEY FKING OUT OF THEIR MINDS?????

I shrink the pdf and the fking search still stays up?

I swear adobe developers have had their heads up their asses since reader 5.0

Anonymous # 11. February 2009, 01:42

Jhumbo writes:

I absolutely CANNOT BELIEVE that the search feature still sucks in Reader 9. I really thought they might have realized their mistake and brought back the old search tool, but no such luck.

Anonymous # 18. March 2009, 16:52

HATE IT writes:

I HATE ADOBE WITH SOP MUCH PASSION. AM ON ADOBE REAER 6 AND THE SEARCH ENGINE PICKS AND CHOOSES WHICH PHRASES IT WILL FIND IN THE DOCUMENT. GODDDAAAAAMMMMITTTT

Anonymous # 19. July 2009, 11:45

Anonymous writes:

There is a button on the upper left corner of the Search windows called 'Arrange Windows'
It will arrange the Search windows and Reader windows side by side
But when you just open a new file from Search windows, this new Reader windows might be on top of your Search windows, do alt-tab to switch Search windows to the foreground

Anonymous # 4. September 2009, 14:19

Anonymous writes:

Praise the Lord! I thought it was just me. The full reader search SUCKS. It is now very clumsy to search using this separate window joke. I had gone through every menu and option and preference thinking it was something I had somehow chosen to do. If they would bring back the pane as an option I would be happier.