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For viewing PDFs, the only software I would recommend is FoxitReader. It’s free, works flawlessly and is fast. However, I understand there are situations where it can’t be used or that some people simply refuse to use anything but Adobe Reader.

But Adobe Reader is slow. On a decent computer it could take 10 to 20 seconds to load up. On a slow computer, it can take over a minute! This is because everytime Adobe Reader loads, it loads up a whole bunch of plugins (most of which you’ll never use). Luckily, there’s a neat way of speeding up the load time.

Simply follow these steps (works for versions up to 8.0):

1. Navigate to the Adobe Reader directory
   (i.e. C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\reader\)
2. There should be a directory there called /optional. If there isn’t, create it.
3. In the /plug_ins directory, move all files to the /optional folder except for EWH32.api.

Here are some plug-ins you may wish to keep in the /plug_ins directory:

• search.api and search5.api - Used for searching the document
• script.api and weblink.api – Make links within PDFs clickable
• printme.api (and other print*.api files) – Used to print documents
  reflow.api – Used to reflow the text on page resize

Of course, if you have the choice I’d still recommend FoxitReader as the fastest (and free) PDF reader available! If you read my article about printing D*I*Y planner templates onto index cards, FoxitReader managed to print them properly whereas Adobe Reader couldn’t!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Efficiency, How-to. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.