I've been slogging through some drudgery work here at the office, reviewing user account audits and making changes as necessary. I have a dual-monitor setup on a laptop running Windows 7 Pro SP1. Well, it's a docking stations for my laptop with an external monitor, configured in dual display mode.
The external monitor is configure as my primary display, and the laptop as secondary. For processing these reports, I've had the application window open on the monitor, and the audit reports open on the laptop screen. The reports are Adobe Acrobat PDF files. My frustration is that whenever I double-click on one of the reports to open it, it has been opening on the primary monitor, even though the secondary monitor has "focus".
With most other business applications, they launch on whatever screen currently has the active window. So, basically, where ever I have Windows Explorer when I double-click the file to open, that's where the application launches. Either that, or the application remembers the last monitor it was on and opens there.
But not Acrobat Reader, for some reason. The only way I can get it to open a new PDF file on my secondary monitor is to close the document I was viewing but leave the application running. Then, when I open a new file, it opens in the active application window. But if Acrobat has to launch a new application window, it always does it on the primary monitor.
So, now that I've bored you with the technical details, on to the moral of the story.
I was pretty frustrated by this after the 15th or 20th time I had to move the Acrobat Reader application window, so I took to Twitter to vent. I fired off a quick screed and thought nothing else of it. I felt better, so my primary purpose was accomplished. I didn't even tag Adobe's primary Twitter account, mostly because I wasn't sure what it was and was too lazy to go look it up. I just used the hashtags #adobe and #acrobat in my tweet.
Imagine my surprise when I received a response to my tweet from Adobe today. They apologized for my troubles and said they would forward it on to the development team. Do I actually expect the dev team to do anything about it. Probably not. But the fact that they have a social media team actively looking for Adobe mentions, and not account mentions but just name and product mentions is impressive. And they actually responded, which is even more impressive.
I like Reader for the most part, and the PDF format is ubiquitous, especially in the business world. (Don't get me started on Flash; that's a post for another time). It's refreshing to see a major technology company not just resting on its laurels, but actively engaging the community and hopefully looking to improve the usability of their product.
Even if it's something as simple as opening on the "right" monitor.
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)
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