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New options for viewing PDFs in Mountain Lion's Preview

Summary: There is good news and not-as-good news with Preview running on Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

David Morgenstern

By for The Apple Core |

There is good news and not-as-good news with Preview running on Mac OS X Mountain Lion. At the Betalogue blog, Pierre Igot reports that he has been annoyed for a long while by Preview's default "Continuous Scroll" setting when opening a PDF file for the first time. Many of us, Igot included, would rather see the view as single letter-size pages, which I would add is often the way that the document was originally formatted.

In Lion, there was no way to change this default setting. When you opened a PDF document for the first time, you could use a toolbar button to switch to the “Single Page” viewing option and then save the PDF with that setting, so that it would remember it the next time you’d open it. But still, it was a significant annoyance to have to do this once for each and every new PDF document.

However, after upgrading to Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8), Igot found that the button was removed and replaced with a pop-up menu. Not as convenient as before.

Digging around, he discovered a new preference that lets users decide between Continuous Scroll, Single Page and Double Page settings when opening a document for the first time.

Like Igot, I don't understand why some of these buttons are removed. They aren't overburdening the user with a wide array of buttons. At least, Apple should make this feature a part of the customization options for the toolbar.

In another recent post, Igot describes issues with the More Info part of the Inspector window. He says that previous problems with Column View in Lion have been fixed but not in the Inspector. If you use the Inspector frequently, check it out.

Topics: Apple, Apps, Laptops, Operating Systems, Software, Software Development

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30 comments
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  • People use OS X?

    I thought they just bought Apple computers for the great hardware and run Windows on it.
    adacosta38
    Reply Vote

    • I thought?

      congrats, you seems able to certain level of neuronal activity, mom should be proud...
      theo_durcan
      Reply 1 Vote

    • Why spend that much money

      When you only plan to run the Worst OS available on it? You'd be better served using a cheap PoS cmputer, o go with the PoS known as Windows lol
      Troll Hunter J
      Reply 1 Vote

  • ...

    Troll attempt = Fail
    gribittmep
    Reply Vote

    • Entitlements

      So when you did you buy ZDNet and decide where others can comment? Please, go shove head up your poop shoot.
      adacosta38
      Reply Vote

      • ...

        Comeback attempt = Bigger Fail
        RationalGuy
        Reply Vote

  • No Adobe!

    On of the great thing about OS X is being able to view and print to PDF without using any Adobe malware.
    gribittmep
    Reply Vote

  • Continual scroll

    still shows each page as an individual page with borders, so I'm not sure what the actual complaint here is.
    baggins_z
    Reply Vote

  • OS X slogan

    The Hurt Is Now
    toddbottom3
    Reply Vote

    • VISTA slogan

      The WOW is now.....

      That was funny
      theo_durcan
      Reply Vote

      • Even funnier

        Vista outsold OS X 10:1.
        toddbottom3
        Reply Vote

        • Still struggling with the difference between

          IT mandated purchases by corporate enterprise and individual consumer choice, I see. Keep working on it. Eventually you'll get it.
          baggins_z
          Reply Vote

          • And you struggle with something far greater

            You now have to explain how the opinion of a professional hired to choose the best OS for people who actually use these tools to provide value to a profit oriented company is meaningless while some yokel wandering down to the Best Buy and picking up the shiniest device they can is some proof of that device's superiority.

            Quite frankly, if I were going to go with the more informed opinion, it would be that of the IT professional.

            Windows - the choice of the professional
            toddbottom3
            Reply Vote

          • IT decisions aren't based on what's good for the user

            They are based on what is good to keep the job of the person making the decision. Windows is on the desktop in the enterprise because it takes a f--king army of people to make it work. The amount of money businesses spend "maintaining" Windows images (and I put the word "maintaining" in quotes, because I've never seen a corporate image that wasn't mired down with old drivers and utilities) probably outstrips the GDP of most third world countries. Microsoft is in the enterprise because better technology would put IT workers out of jobs.
            RationalGuy
            Reply Vote

          • You guys keep saying this

            "They are based on what is good to keep the job of the person making the decision."

            If this were true, companies that went all Mac would have a substantial competitive advantage over companies that stayed with Windows. What you are basically admitting here is that the free market is a failure, that businesses are unable to make decisions that raise profits.

            IT decisions are based on what is good for the company's profits. End of story. If your company is making decisions for the sole purpose of being less efficient than your competitors, you won't be around long. So while I agree wholeheartedly that IT decisions are NOT based on what's good for the user, they absolutely are based on what's good for the user's productivity. So IT departments will not make it easy to surf Facebook, they will absolutely do everything in their power to make decisions that are good for the user's productivity.

            OS X fails in this test. It does not make users productive. How do I know this? Because Windows has 90% marketshare in general and nearly 100% marketshare in the enterprise.
            toddbottom3
            Reply Vote

          • The corollary to my previous point ...

            ... is that IT generally has very little impact on competitive advantage. There was a very interesting study published a few years back in MIT Sloan Management Review called "Avoiding the Alignment Trip in IT" that describes this in much better detail than I can in this small space. Your "marketshare proves productivity" argument is fallacious and oversimplistic.
            RationalGuy
            Reply Vote

          • Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.

            Faulty Reasoning. "after this, therefore because of this".

            You ignore the inertia of a Monopoly.

            And Apple simply didn't pursue the enterprise market; it wasn't worth bothering with.

            Your claim that OSX doesn't make people productive just because enterprise doesn't use it is specious.

            Example:

            Why do we still use QWERTY ?

            It was DESIGNED to slow down typists because they were jamming mechanical typewriters.

            DVORAK works much better; I learned it on a lark years ago and my typing speed picked up.

            Did I stay with it?

            Of course not.

            I can't reset other people's keyboards, and mentally switching back and forth...

            So, we could see considerable gains by switching, but the inertia caused by the de-facto QWERTY monopoly prevents it.

            There was a move toward chording keyboards that didn't take off either; too much inertia.

            With Tablets, I expect the logjam to break.

            People are already used to chording on cellphones.

            With everyone having their own iPad or Tablet, chording or DVORAK will be a much faster way to input on a tablet.

            I see it in my mind's eye... you place all five fingers on the screen, and the gesture activates the chording keyboard, then you begin tapping.
            William Carr
            Reply Vote

          • You should go in for stand up comedy

            I've worked in tech for the past 20 years, and I can tell you right now, users have no input at all on what goes on their desktop.
            baggins_z
            Reply Vote

          • IT professionals choose what goes on the desktop

            Their criteria is what is best for the user's productivity. OS X is a productivity sucking OS. It is bad for user productivity. It is cumbersome, slow, and unintuitive. That is why 9 out of 10 IT professionals, people TRAINED in how to pick good OSs, choose Windows.
            toddbottom3
            Reply Vote

          • IT professionals choose what is known and easy to them.

            There has not been on IT professional in the history of the world who was specifically TRAINED to pick an operating system. This idea is utter garbage.

            9 out of 10 IT professionals, when faced with a Unix console, pretty much just drool on their shoes. 9 out of 10 IT professionals don't understand basic concepts of computer networking. 9 out of 10 IT professionals can't explain to you how binary or hexanumber notations work. 9 out of 10 IT professional are afraid to edit their Windows registry. 9 out of 10 IT professionals are f---ing morons.
            RationalGuy
            Reply Vote
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