Problems with Websites and Acrobat Reader

[Jeff Zylstra]

I just went through a nasty problem with Internet Explorer and Acrobat Reader.  I had one machine that would lock up completely when trying to print a PDF generated on a company website (Auto-Owners) to the CuteWriter PDF printer.  Internet Explorer didn't look like it was freezing, but subsequent attempts to print would freeze IE.  I downgraded IE, and downgraded Reader as well, updated BIOS, NIC and video drivers.  It would work with Firefox, so I was convinced it was IE.  It actually ended up being Adobe Reader. 

Many company websites like Auto-Owners use a portion of the Adobe Reader on your local computer to create the PDF file that is displayed on your screen.  Only after uninstalling the old Acrobat Reader, rebooting, then installing the "full" version (which doesn't go out to the internet), did it start working.  And the computer is MUCH faster when broswing these websites too, since all that CPU time is being wasted.  Thanks and +1 to Charlie for mentioning the problems he had with Reader in the "Homebase crashing with WROUTE32" post.  Remember to reboot after uninstalling the old version, and you should be fine.

[Lynne Desrochers]

Ok, I'll ask. Why are you printing the pdf to Cute PDF?
That being said, we have a number of issues pop up trying to print a pdf embedded in IE on carrier websites. We just do a quick save to the desktop when that happens.
Thank you for sharing, this can all be maddening.
Lynne

[Jeff Zylstra]

Ok, I'll ask. Why are you printing the pdf to Cute PDF?
That being said, we have a number of issues pop up trying to print a pdf embedded in IE on carrier websites. We just do a quick save to the desktop when that happens.
Thank you for sharing, this can all be maddening.
Lynne

There is not facility on the webpage to do a "save as" to PDF or anything else.  This one in particular was a quote but it's like that on all of the output on Auto-Owners webpages, even the endorsement change pages I believe.  At least on this page was.  Anyways, they remove all of the buttons and menus for IE on this particular page, and all you get is a "print" button.  I think that even the CTRL-P is disabled on this page.  I don't even think that you can make Acrobat open in a separate window.  It always opens in IE, and you're stuck with canned settings you can't change.  Not a lot of flexibility or workarounds are available, although I did copy and paste the output to Word file and save it.

[Lynne Desrochers]

Don't you wish you could just leave a carrier for having a non-functioning website? 
Have a great weekend. Thank you for sharing your experiences, reading them always helps me somewhere down the line.

[Jeff Golas]

If its generating a PDF, I've had little to no luck re-printing to another PDF. The code does tend to do bad things.

How about CTRL-S or ALT-S maybe for saving, or see if Acrobat Reader can force on options when using the browser plugin?

[Jeff Zylstra]

If its generating a PDF, I've had little to no luck re-printing to another PDF. The code does tend to do bad things.

How about CTRL-S or ALT-S maybe for saving, or see if Acrobat Reader can force on options when using the browser plugin?

No, it seems to want to save as a web page, and not a PDF.  What really sucks about this whole thing is that I'm "hemmed in all all sides" it seems.  TAM 14.1 (2014 with the latest patch) doesn't like the newest version of Adobe Reader and crashes when WROUTE32 is even opened to "acquire and attach), and some company websites demand the newest Acrobat version because of security flaws in older versions.   I wish Applied would get their act together on this and truly support the newest version.  Their website says they do, but I'm having no luck at all with it.

[Mark]

If its generating a PDF, I've had little to no luck re-printing to another PDF. The code does tend to do bad things.

How about CTRL-S or ALT-S maybe for saving, or see if Acrobat Reader can force on options when using the browser plugin?

If you set the advanced setting to "Print as Image" you should have no issues printing a PDF to a PDF (no hieroglyphics).

Also, the newer Adobe Readers have the save button at the bottom and you have to hover the mouse about a half inch or so up from the bottom in the middle of the PDF in order to see the save/print icons.

Not sure if either of these were your issues, but thought I'd throw it out there just in case.