by Doug Poulter

To put an end to the slow response (and occasional system instability) associated with Adobe Reader, in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, I now use FoxReader (ver 1.3 Beta Build 0819, and of no relation to Firefox). FoxReader is free from www.FoxitSoftware.com. In comparison to Adobe Reader, FoxReader is also a fraction of the size, and displays documents much faster. To use FoxReader:

• in Windows: I have associated the PDF file extension with FoxReader via Control Panel / Folder Options / File Types.

• in Firefox: I have disabled the Adobe PDF plug-in via Tools / Options / Downloads / Plug-ins.

I can still open documents with Adobe Reader by right clicking upon them and selecting "open with". Pending further development, FoxReader does not yet open within tabs in Firefox. Instead, a new incidence of FoxReader opens for each document displayed (this is not necessarily a bad thing as it enables one to continue doing other browser work while downloading a large pdf). While FoxReader does not have the forms fill-in tool of Adobe Reader, FoxReader does have a Typewriter function which lets one type (but not cut and paste) text anywhere.

Originally published: October, 2005

top of page