BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat

Subject: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 01:24 PM

1. Recently I received an e-mail message telling me a new version of Adobe Acrobat is available. Adobe says at Adobe.com that these e-mails are phishing scams. Don't even open them. If you open them, don't click on any links.

2. Now for my question. Does anybody know how to delete an unwanted pdf file? I can't even get my computer to find them, even though they are under File in Adobe Reader.

Right clicking the file name does not bring up the Delete option.

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 01:25 PM

I delete them all of the time.

Drag it to your recycle bin if you can't right click it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 01:46 PM

They don't drag. Your software must be different from mine.

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 02:03 PM

It looks like you are trying to drag from a list displayed by Acrobat rather than from the folder listing provided by your file system.

It also seems you don't know where that folder is.

One way to find it might be to open one of the files, attempt to re-save it, and look at the save dialog to identify the location. (I've written those instructions in such a way that they should apply equally well to MacOS and Windows - I've never done that sort of thing under Linux).

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 02:56 PM

Jack: yep.

I asked my brother-in-law, who used to work for Silicon Graphics.

Start
Search
Search assistant (little yellow dog)
Documents
part of name = .pdf
when list appears, right click and Delete.

However, the computer insists that certain pdf's do not exist, even though I'm looking right at them. However, I definitely have made progress.

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: Newport Boy
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 03:27 PM

I've submitted this twice, with no effect. Here goes for a 3rd time!

Can you read the file now using Acrobat Reader? If you can, it is somewhere on your computer and Jack's suggestion may help. If you can't read it now, it is probably no longer on your computer - this often happens when you use a pdf reader to read a file via your browser. The file is downloaded to a 'temporary' folder, which is sometimes cleared when the computer is shut down.

I currently have 2 pdf files in my /tmp folder, which will not be there tomorrow.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 06:24 PM

Do you have your windows explorer set to show full filenames and show file extensions?

When a file "acts strangely" it's a good idea to suspect malware, although there are a few non-sinister things that can cause unusual behavior. Although not used a lot recently, malware still sometimes disguises itself with "double dot" filenames. A file named document.pdf.exe may display as a pdf but actually is an executable file. With the "show all file extensions" turned on, you should see both extensions. Until you solve your problem, you may also want to turn on display of all hidden and system files.

[Probably not directly applicable here, but Microsoft has been known to us a similar trick with files with names that appear to start with a "~". The beginning ~ character frequently indicates a temp file, but in this usage a different (unknown except by Microsoft) character that defaults to display the ~ because it's unrecorded in character maps was used. Explorer couldn't delete those, because you can't "spell the filename" correctly. At a command prompt, you could, however, rename ~file.xxx using the wild-card ? and the command "REN ?file.xxx afile.xxx" and then delete afile.xxx.]

PDF files can be "locked" to prevent changes, and a locked file may block deletion. For this reason, most sites that post them in locked form block saving of those PDFs, but allow you to open them and "save a copy." The copy will generally not be locked.

Most people have Adobe Reader rather than Adobe Acrobat, and I don't recall whether Reader even shows whether a file is locked(?). Acrobat generally refers to the expensive versions that can create and edit pdf files, although Adobe had changed the name of the "editing" versions seven times the last time I looked, about two years ago. It's probably been changed again since then.

John

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 06:29 PM

Thanks for the tip. I opened one, hit File, and found Properties. The remaining files (songs from the Levy sheet music site) were hiding under c:/owner/documents/temporary...

Clearing my internet history didn't get rid of them, but I was able to delete them one at a time.

I have a feeling they were pretty big files.

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 10:27 PM

3 things about Adobe Reader...

#3 You usually do NOT need it to open, read ...and often to edit PDF files. I have only encountered 2-3 PDF files in 5-6 years that required Adobe.

PDFExchange reader (even the free version) will do 97.461% of PDF stuff....and it loads much faster.

You can even view them in the free file manager named... "Free Commander" (for those who are unfamilar, this is a better replacement for Windows Explorer)

I have this hobby/mission to steer folks away from Adobe & Real Audio.

PDF and FLV (flash) files do NOT require the original programs.....

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 03:28 AM

I have been using Nuance PDF Converter Pro for some time now. An intro version came with a scanner, and I upgraded. While it's not free, so far as I can tell this $99 program (sometimes available for $49 on special offers, which is how I bought it) does everything that about $400 worth(?) of Adobe trash does. (The Nuance program bundles in ABBYY OCR which about the same price as the Nuance program if you buy it separately.)

Unfortunately, we've encountered a number of web sites that demand that you have Adobe Reader, and if you don't they ask you to "download and run TODO." As far as I can tell, there is no program called TODO. It's a "notation" in a canned web page insert that Adobe (or someone) provides for controlling PDF downloads, and the TODO means "this is a place for you TO DO the rest of the page design."

(The TODO trash showed up for a while on the US Supreme Court page for downloading Court Decisions, but they apparently fixed the script fairly quickly.)

If you click to "allow" "TODO" IE immediately crashes completely.

I was forced to install Adobe Reader in order to not get the "TODO" popup, although even with Reader on the machine the PDF files open in my defualt Nuance PDF program. (If you have the latest Reader appropriate for your OS version you probably won't see TODO - I think. I ran into it only when I had NO Adobe Reader installed, and Lin got hit when her Reader fell behind on updates.)

We've also encountered at least two other applets that sites demand must be enabled to open or download PDF files. These apparently are NOT Adobe products, but I haven't been able to find much about who produces them. They probably are Java-based, but seem to need something other than the normal Java apps. My Norton gives them a clean report so we've used them (cautiously) when necessary, and haven't seen any problems from them. They've appeared infrequently enough that I don't recall the names, but maybe I can remember to make a note of them "next time." (If they show up again before I forget about it(?).)

John

Subject: RE: BS: two things about Adobe Acrobat
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 09:57 AM

Thanks for the info, Jack, Newport, Bill and John.

Funny thing about my brother-in-law's advice. I had ignored the 'research assistant' option because the yellow dog cartoon made me think the thing was just for kids. Not too logical of me...