Ticket Options
Question Profile
| DATE | Oct 25, 2006 |
| TICKET | #329867 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Preview will not display .pdf pages |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Operating System Features, Bugs and Problems |
| DESC | Apple |
| DESC | 10.3.X (Panther) |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | G4 |
| PROC | dual 1.25 1MB L3 (X2) |
| RAM | 512 MB DDR SDRAM |
| DRIVE | |
| NAME | Earl |
| USERNAME | choppichoochoo |
| TECHNICAL | Beginner |
| ISSUE | Some Troubleshooting |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Preview will not display .pdf pages
choppichoochoo - Oct 25, 2006 - 8:10 pm
I am running OSX 10.3.9
I cannot read .pdf files. They appear on my screen (17" Apple Studio
Monitor) in microscopic text. Even using a (physical) magnifying
glass does not help. The text is tiny and raggedy.
Some (but not many) .pdf pages have a magnifying glass icon.
These I have no trouble with.
A friend told me to SAVE the .pdf file and then open it and, doing
it this way, I should then see the magnifying glass icon.
However, when I save a .pdf file and then try to open it, I get this
message:
"The application Preview has unexpectedly quit."
By-the-way, this sometimes happens when I am using Safari, also.
I have tried to find out how to correct this by searching online
(before I found this site) and I have downloaded the 10.3.9 Combo
Update, which some people say solves problems like this.
After doing that I was able to save and open ONE .pdf file and
I did see the magnifying glass icon and it did work !
I though I had solved the problem but, now, whenever I try to
save a .pdf file, the original scenario repeats:
The Application Preview has unexpectedly quit. No other systems
have been affected. Would you like to send a report to Apple ?
(and the choice, Yes, or Quit).
Any help much appreciated - choppi
I cannot read .pdf files. They appear on my screen (17" Apple Studio
Monitor) in microscopic text. Even using a (physical) magnifying
glass does not help. The text is tiny and raggedy.
Some (but not many) .pdf pages have a magnifying glass icon.
These I have no trouble with.
A friend told me to SAVE the .pdf file and then open it and, doing
it this way, I should then see the magnifying glass icon.
However, when I save a .pdf file and then try to open it, I get this
message:
"The application Preview has unexpectedly quit."
By-the-way, this sometimes happens when I am using Safari, also.
I have tried to find out how to correct this by searching online
(before I found this site) and I have downloaded the 10.3.9 Combo
Update, which some people say solves problems like this.
After doing that I was able to save and open ONE .pdf file and
I did see the magnifying glass icon and it did work !
I though I had solved the problem but, now, whenever I try to
save a .pdf file, the original scenario repeats:
The Application Preview has unexpectedly quit. No other systems
have been affected. Would you like to send a report to Apple ?
(and the choice, Yes, or Quit).
Any help much appreciated - choppi
cfr - Oct 26, 2006 - 12:40 pm
The first thing we need to do is narrow down the problem a little. If you can do any of the following, let me know the results:
1) view one of the problematic files in Preview on another Mac (preferably also running 10.3.9 and definitely not Tiger);
2) try viewing one of the problematic files in another application (e.g. Adobe Reader which I think is already on your Mac but can be downloaded for free if not).
When you say it sometimes happens in Safari, do you mean with PDF files or with regular web pages? If you mean with PDF, is Safari opening the files in Preview or something else?
1. Quit Preview
2. Delete the following files:
com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist
com.apple.Preview.plist
Both files are in your home folder -> Library -> Preferences
If you have a lot of Preview bookmarks or customisation of Preview, instead of deleting the files, just move them somewhere else for now. (If they turn out to be the problem, you can delete them later. If not, you won't have to set everything up again.)
This will wipe your bookmarks and reset all Preview preferences to the default.
3. Empty the trash (if deleting rather than moving)
4. Log out and back in and try one of the problematic files again.
Preview doesn't do well with all PDF files. It may be that you really need something like Adobe Reader to view some of them. However, this said, Preview clearly shouldn't react the way it is. You'd expect it to just tell you it can't handle the file rather than crashing or displaying it oddly. So let's see if clearing the preferences helps. If not, we'll take things from there.
If you have any questions about this or can only do some of it, just let me know whatever you find.
- cfr
1) view one of the problematic files in Preview on another Mac (preferably also running 10.3.9 and definitely not Tiger);
2) try viewing one of the problematic files in another application (e.g. Adobe Reader which I think is already on your Mac but can be downloaded for free if not).
When you say it sometimes happens in Safari, do you mean with PDF files or with regular web pages? If you mean with PDF, is Safari opening the files in Preview or something else?
1. Quit Preview
2. Delete the following files:
com.apple.Preview.bookmarks.plist
com.apple.Preview.plist
Both files are in your home folder -> Library -> Preferences
If you have a lot of Preview bookmarks or customisation of Preview, instead of deleting the files, just move them somewhere else for now. (If they turn out to be the problem, you can delete them later. If not, you won't have to set everything up again.)
This will wipe your bookmarks and reset all Preview preferences to the default.
3. Empty the trash (if deleting rather than moving)
4. Log out and back in and try one of the problematic files again.
Preview doesn't do well with all PDF files. It may be that you really need something like Adobe Reader to view some of them. However, this said, Preview clearly shouldn't react the way it is. You'd expect it to just tell you it can't handle the file rather than crashing or displaying it oddly. So let's see if clearing the preferences helps. If not, we'll take things from there.
If you have any questions about this or can only do some of it, just let me know whatever you find.
- cfr
choppichoochoo - Oct 27, 2006 - 10:51 am
cfr - Thank you for trying to help.
Here is an update on the problem, which persists:
I do not have a friend running 10.3.x so am unable to test which
.pdf files can be opened by Preview under correct conditions.
I did attempt to open a few using Adobe Acrobat and I got error
messages stating that the file format was unknown or corrupted.
I did trash the files which you suggested. The one containing the
word 'bookmarks' did not exist on my computer.
I did empty the trash and re-start my computer after trashing the
file.
After doing these things, the problem persists: When I save a .pdf
file and then try to open it with Preview, Preview quits with a message
asking if I wish to send a report to Apple (which I have done on
several occasions but never received a reply).
Thankful for any further help - choppichoochoo
Here is an update on the problem, which persists:
I do not have a friend running 10.3.x so am unable to test which
.pdf files can be opened by Preview under correct conditions.
I did attempt to open a few using Adobe Acrobat and I got error
messages stating that the file format was unknown or corrupted.
I did trash the files which you suggested. The one containing the
word 'bookmarks' did not exist on my computer.
I did empty the trash and re-start my computer after trashing the
file.
After doing these things, the problem persists: When I save a .pdf
file and then try to open it with Preview, Preview quits with a message
asking if I wish to send a report to Apple (which I have done on
several occasions but never received a reply).
Thankful for any further help - choppichoochoo
cfr - Oct 29, 2006 - 8:11 pm
Too bad. Did you figure out whether the problem in Safari is with web pages or PDF? Do you have similar issues in any other applications?
Is it possible that the files really are corrupt? How many files has this happened with? Are they from the same source or different sources?
If you are downloading some of the files from the web, pick a problematic one and send me the link so that I can look at it. I don't have a computer running 10.3 but I could check it in 10.4 and that should at least help establish if the file is corrupt or not.
If you can let me know this stuff, I'll try to figure something out. If that doesn't turn something up, we'll do some other things to isolate the problem - at the moment, it could be any number of things so I'm trying to narrow that down in order to figure out a solution for you.
Let me know what you can.
Is it possible that the files really are corrupt? How many files has this happened with? Are they from the same source or different sources?
If you are downloading some of the files from the web, pick a problematic one and send me the link so that I can look at it. I don't have a computer running 10.3 but I could check it in 10.4 and that should at least help establish if the file is corrupt or not.
If you can let me know this stuff, I'll try to figure something out. If that doesn't turn something up, we'll do some other things to isolate the problem - at the moment, it could be any number of things so I'm trying to narrow that down in order to figure out a solution for you.
Let me know what you can.
IF THIS IS YOUR QUESTION AND YOU WISH TO RESPOND, LOGIN HERE FIRST.
