PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

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kellyb
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:15 pm

PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by kellyb » Mon Sep 07, 2020 4:53 pm

Running the latest non-Beta OD version 20.2.40.0, PC's are Windows 10 Pro with up to date patches. Server is Microsoft Server 2019 Standard.

I've read a number of posts on here going back at least 3 years about how difficult it is to deal with Acrobat and Open Dental, and various tricks to attempt to make it work smoothly and/or not crash Open Dental. Like the thread named "Acrobat hell". Tried them all, on multiple PC's, and across multiple versions of OD. No Joy.

This got worse in my environment in the past few months and almost every PC has this issue; not sure if it occurred around the last few updates on 19.x or when I upgrade to 20.1.x. Perhaps the issue is Adobe or Microsoft, but we're only experiencing problems when in OD.

Basically, if we try to use Acrobat DC (as recommended by Open Dental Support), half the PC's crash when trying to preview or view a PDF document in the images folder. This is with and without protected mode etc etc.... the other half don't crash but the PDF doesn't open. Usually you have to exit OD and log in again to resolve.

When you install the latest Acrobat DC directly from the Adobe site, it immediately requires an update. However, it doesn't ask for one. You have to prompt it. Testing this situation with the pre-update or post-update version result in the same problem for most workstations.

To prevent crashes, we uninstalled Acrobat from the PC's, leaving Windows default PDF viewer. This means when we click on a PDF in OD Images, it pops up an OPEN/SAVE box instead of previewing it. Even worse, if you import a PDF, it instantly pops up with this open/save dialog since it is trying to show the preview. This is a pain.

This is such a pain, staff are saving scanned documents as jpgs to get around this problem. While this is not terrible, it is not ideal. I want PDF's of documents, not photographs of documents. Strange things sometime happen when you try to print.

Here's what it looks like when you click on an OD image file that is a PDF:

Image

That message "Navigation to the webpage was canceled" looks suspiciously like Internet Explorer. Please tell me OD isn't using any code or libraries related to that ancient and decrepit IE browser? Because nothing modern, good or wholesome uses that browser or code for anything...

So has anyone found a solution, free or paid? I don't mind paying for 3rd party PDF licenses (well, not the $179.88/yr professional level app, just a decent reader)?

Thanks!

kellyb
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by kellyb » Mon Sep 07, 2020 4:59 pm

Well, the linked image isn't displaying. Perhaps you can view is here: https://imgur.com/jgOTHBH

Tom Zaccaria
Posts: 353
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:09 am

Re: PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by Tom Zaccaria » Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:35 am

Try Foxit free version. My IT guys are gravitating towart it.

drtmz

rhaber123
Posts: 415
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:09 pm

Re: PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by rhaber123 » Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:19 am

To fix Adobe Reader preview in OD images module (if it is still using adobe reader)

Open Adobe Reader DC by typing that in your start menu:
Click the Edit Menu
Click the Preferences Menu
Click the Security (enhanced) section.
UNCHECK "Protected Mode on Startup"
Accept the warning.
Push OK

It will work now in OD

You must repeat this process on EVERY computer.


viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6910

kellyb
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by kellyb » Tue Sep 22, 2020 4:28 pm

rhaber123 wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:19 am
To fix Adobe Reader preview in OD images module (if it is still using adobe reader)

Open Adobe Reader DC by typing that in your start menu:
Click the Edit Menu
Click the Preferences Menu
Click the Security (enhanced) section.
UNCHECK "Protected Mode on Startup"
Accept the warning.
Push OK

It will work now in OD

You must repeat this process on EVERY computer.


viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6910
We already tried this on 3 different machines, and it did not work. In fact, 2 machines had this already set and were working fine until the magic combination of OD upgrade/Acrobat update happened and this problem began.

With this setting, the expression of the error/crash changes a bit, but essentially there is still a serious problem requiring and exit/restart, and possibly a reboot in some cases.

Thanks,
Kelly

kellyb
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:15 pm

Re: PDF Hell - Acrobat DC not a solution

Post by kellyb » Tue Sep 22, 2020 4:29 pm

Tom Zaccaria wrote:
Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:35 am
Try Foxit free version. My IT guys are gravitating towart it.

drtmz
Thanks! I have not tried that - I'll do it and post back here with my results.

Kelly

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