Opening Many Documents at Once

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

In earlier versions, PDF-XChange was the winner in the speed stakes when it came to opening many documents at once. This is no longer the case.

In my tests with build 2.5.118 to open 50 documents totalling 10.8 Mbytes, PDF-XChange took about 1 min 25 seconds, while Foxit Reader opened the same file set in just 15 seconds. Adobe Reader 9.4.1 took 1min 20 seconds and opened fifty icons in the Windows task bar, making it impractical to use Alt Tab to switch applications. Quitting the reader caused it to lock up, and I had to terminate it from task manager.

Both PDF-XChange and Foxit Reader coped perfectly with closing down or "Close All Tabs But This", with Foxit Reader just hesitating for a second or two on the latter test.

Initial Memory use: (Before viewing or scrolling any documents)
Adobe Reader: 186 Mbytes
PDF-XChange: 65 Mbytes
Foxit Reader: 111 Mbytes

I seldom open more than ten files at once, but I am sure there are some users who do open as many as fifty documents. The limit of fifty can be overcome by allowing multiple instances, so I don't regard that as a problem.

[Giraffe]

Interesting difference in speed and memory. I had to have a go, so went for 50 files totalling 58MB; most have some graphics in.

Took 55s and 240MB of RAM to open, then ~2s to close them all. All of the RAM was released upon closing the app.

I see that the order of tabs isn't the same as that of the files; this isn't good as, with even 10 open, some searching would be needed to find a particular tab.

Is there any way of adjusting the length of the tab? In Opera, I edit the skin.ini to get max. and min. the same so that rapid clicking on the 'x' can close about 3 tabs/s.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I see that the order of tabs isn't the same as that of the files; this isn't good as, with even 10 open, some searching would be needed to find a particular tab.

I cannot reproduce the problem here. Files stayed in alphabetic order when I dragged from the first file of the selected group. Click on the tile icon to the extreme left of the tab bar to open the Thumbnail View. That is the best way to manage a lot of documents (more than five).

Is there any way of adjusting the length of the tab? In Opera, I edit the skin.ini to get max. and min. the same so that rapid clicking on the 'x' can close about 3 tabs/s.

KISS. If the tabs are short as they are in Opera, one cannot read the entire file name. Don't waste time on stuff like this. Use the thumbnails view for navigating multiple documents. It is visual, and very fast. No need to even read file names. Each thumbnail shows the current view on the document.

We Need Quick Tabs in Opera too.

[Giraffe]

Now I see what's happening! I tend to select the files and hit Enter to open them and they open out of order.
Dragging them needs to be by the first selected, which is not that obvious - never encountered this before.
R-click and open needs to be on the first file as well.


Yes, the views of tabs are good, but I was on about closing several tabs quickly. Still, I don't open more than a few tabs usualyy so it's not a problem.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Giraffe,

I believe that the order in which the files are passed is determined by Windows and we can not control that, so there are only two "solutions" I am afraid - open the files together, and then rearrange them, or open them one by one.

Best,
Stefan

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Any reply from the developers on why opening files has become so much slower in recent versions? This is not only in the latest 2.5 build — I noticed it some time ago, but didn't get around to testing it before now.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi Bhikkhu,

the opening times should not have degraded appreciabley - but so as not to make this assumption incorrectly - we are going to review again and compare with the 'others' and see if we can improve at all.

Thanks for your comments and patience as always.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Do files you are opening contain annotations and/or forms? or just text/images ?

Sample would be most appreciated - thanks

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Its just text files — code charts from Unicode.org.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Part two

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks Bhikkhu

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Has anyone had time to look at this yet?

I ran the test again after defragmenting my hard drive, and it took 2 mins 20 seconds to open the 50 documents in build 2.5.190.

A second test took about 1 min 15 seconds. Foxit Reader took 13 seconds on the first test and 12 seconds on the second test.

In Preferences, the Page Display Options are all set to Automatic.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Bhikkhu,

I will ask for an update on this topic, as it seems it was overlooked.

Best,
Stefan