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KlausKi
KlausKi
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Acrobat X: SDI vs. MDI

Apr 21, 2012 8:10 AM

Tags: #acrobat_reader_x #acrobat_x_pro_windows

I'd like to coninue this thread, because I believe it's important:

 

Acrobat and Acrobat Reader are strongly missing the MDI feature.

 

Probably the biggest share of "common" users will only open a single document at a time. But there are others around that sometimes have more than one single document open and who don't want to get their screen cluttered up with Acrobat documents.

 

From the thread above there's a Hyperlink to the Acrobat blog, justifying why MDI has been removed from the Acrobat GUI.

 

I believe the reasons given in there are wrong:

 

  1. Feature Parity with Macintosh was desired. As stated before, the Mac OS does not have this option. While I will be the first to admit that feature parity is not 100% between Windows and Macintosh, it is a goal that we aim for.

    As written at the top of the blog, "MDI is not applicable on the Mac OS." So this is simply a system feature not available to Mac OS but to Windows. Parity in regard to system environment can never be achieved. Otherwise, Acrobat would have to strip keyboard support, because smartphones like the IPhone lack the presence of a keyboard.

    Utilizing MDI is quite transparent to the software when being programmed properly. The client area to draw into won't be different. And the Mac OS will simply display like an MDI environment with just one document in it.
    .
  2. In version 8, we made SDI the default in the viewing mode. Making SDI default, but still providing MDI in version 8 was done to start the deprecation of MDI.

    This is no reason at all. It's just a description of a decision you made.
    .
  3. Microsoft advised that to work as good as possible on Vista, applications should avoid MDI.

    MDI is currently still available in any document centric Microsoft application. And it's available in any current document centric Adobe software - except for Acrobat.

    WPF is commonly used as the successor of MDI, yet multiple-document GUIs are fully supported in Windows.
    .
  4. Acrobat and Adobe Reader’s new UI modes would not work with MDI. Form editing mode, portfolio mode, and portfolio preview mode all wanted a complete refresh of the UI. MDI mode always left a bit of the UI skin under the care of an MDI main frame, so there would have had been no way for those UI modes to re-skin that part of the UI if MDI mode was left in place.

    Perfoming these modes in MDI, WPF or any other multi-document environment would just have been a matter of good program design. Nothing more.

    And again, if Mac OS does not support MDI, it's still possible to abstract the display concept to address SDI/MDI differences transparently in the Acrobat application. Microsoft Office even demonstrates how this is done: In all the MS Office applications there is an option to switch between MDI/SDI ("Show in Task bar").
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  5. A cost compelling reason was that MDI and SDI mode essentially became another view mode in which all work flows had to be tested. This increases the cost of testing the product and the cost of fixing bugs. Often a fix to a bug in one view mode would cause adverse reactions in the other view mode. The decision to support only one view mode on Windows was made to simplify this. Furthermore, more time spent in this area could mean less time spent developing and fixing bugs in other areas.

    That's true, alright. - But automated testing tools also decrease the cost of testing. And as far as I know, testers do not develop software. That's the developers' task. So performing more testing in this area does not result into spending less time for developing. This is particularly true once the framework had been established to deal with MDI/SDI transparently.

 

I strongly suggest to return to MDI. The implementation classes should still be available from Acrobat 8. Perhaps they'd need a redo in order to support a better, transparent program design.

1887 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: hlou.ch, Jul 7, 2012 1:14 AM
 
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  • Dave Merchant
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    1. Dave Merchant,
    Apr 21, 2012 9:45 AM   in reply to KlausKi
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    This debate has gone around many times, and overall the target customers for the Acrobat Family (enterprises with knowledge workers) much prefer a completely-uniform experience across the supported platforms (Windows and OS X*) as it reduces training costs.

     

    The  Acrobat Family code handing the UI is optimized for SDI, and in version X we rely heavily on changing 'modes' based on what's happening to the document - a window displaying a PDF Portfolio is totally different to one displaying a PDF form, with real estate reused  between modes  to support smaller displays such as netbooks. Acrobat X will fit on  1024x576, Photoshop wants at least 1024x768, ideally 1280x800.

     

    With other applications (such as Photoshop) the UI panels and toolbars can be arranged how you want and are always relevant to every document, even if some of the panels are empty - that isn't the case with Acrobat where pretty much the only thing shared across all documents is the OS menu and window control buttons. The goal is to only display UI features pertinent to the current task, always in the same place. In an enterprise setting it's important that people can use applications with the minimum training and that they aren't confused by customizations made by whomever sat at that machine last. It was a complaint with Acrobat 9 and earlier, where you could change it beyond recognition.

     

     

    *The mobile editions of Adobe Reader are entirely different - they have their own style of UI, they're developed by a separate team, and Acrobat doesn't exist on mobile.

     
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  • KlausKi
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    2. KlausKi,
    Apr 21, 2012 10:48 AM   in reply to Dave Merchant
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    I see your point.

     

    And I understand that Acrobat (Reader) seems to predominantly target enterprise users running a heterogenous environment. Although I guess there shouldn't be too many of them, as the IT department would go nuts rolling out and supporting different OSs througout the company. The blue-chip enterprises I had been working for never rolled-out more than one OS for their users throughout the country.

     

    Nonetheless, I guess actual user performance counters of Acrobat Reader should demonstrate that this tool is overwhelmingly used by users not getting a specific training for.

     

    Moreover, Acrobat could be preset to display SDI after installation, providing an MDI option in the Preferences dialog. Just like you did with Acrobat 8.

     

    Last but not least: UI settings could be easily set when a document in an MDI environment becomes active. Microsoft Visual Studio, for example, already changes its GUI depending on the currently active document. - It wouldn't even require much additional programming effort. Just run the same UI set-up code on MDI child window activation you currently run when opening a document.

     

    Frankly, I don't see any additional training effort here.

     
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  • KlausKi
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    3. KlausKi,
    Apr 23, 2012 3:16 AM   in reply to KlausKi
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    One thing, for example, has become quite clumsy now: Comparing different versions of documents against each other.

     

    Previously one could just open them from within the MRU list in Acrobat, set those MDI windows to maximized layout and press CTRL+TAB to compare each PDF document against each other while the Acrobat program window itself could stay next to another designer program's window.

     

    Nowadays, when comparing different PDF documents against each other, the user must close all other application windows, or else they will permanently show up while rotating through the different Acrobat program windows.

     

    Plus, each of the Acrobat windows must be maximized manually. Comparing 6+ different versions becomes heck now.

     

    How did your enterprise users rate this fact of less productivity?

     
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  • 12dww
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    4. 12dww,
    May 14, 2012 7:41 AM   in reply to KlausKi
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    I don't care what you do with Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Professional should have MDI. Everyone complaining uses it for work and is paying, not downloading the free reader. My work computer was just upgraded to Windows 7 and my old Pro version of Acrobat is not compatible. I downloaded the X Pro trial and can not stand SDI, and can not believe there is no option for MDI. I have spent hours searching for a solution and am even trying non-Adobe programs that may do a better job (if Nitro would drag pages from one pdf to another, and had side by side view instead of just tabs I would be using it now). Having 10 multi-page documents open to compare and edit, then having a priority call or e-mail come in and having to minimize each one of them and then go back and reorganize them is a PITA. I want one window to click to put all Acrobat items in focus. If this is such a "feature" why don't you change Photoshop to work like this? It is horrible. Why don't you have Acrobat 8 Professional as a download? Right now, I would pay for that. I guess I am going to be searching e-bay for a Acrobat 8 Professional CD, then getting a purchase order so I can be reimbursed. Adobe, do you realize that I would much rather just have my company pay for the X version? How bad is dropping MDI that I would go to that much trouble. FYI, to vent on this subject was the only reason I joined.

     
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  • hlou.ch
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    5. hlou.ch,
    Jul 7, 2012 1:14 AM   in reply to KlausKi
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    KlausKi, you can use Ctrl+F6 for this specific purpose. AFAIK there is no way to port the same function to the-traditional-and-so-convenient-single-handed Ctrl+Tab.

    Use Ctrl+Shift+F6 to go back (useful when switching more than two, obviously... )

     

     

    However I do agree with your initial post in all its points and I do miss the SDI as all the other kids, I also am able to understand the pragmatism of Adobe in this case (understand but disagree).

     

    Adobe reminds me here a vegetable salesman, who decides not to wash the now-so-popular first class organic very tasty potatoes anymore, as it is too dirty job for him with no income effect, while the people appreciating the quality of his potatoes will come regardless of how dirty they will be. Though the salesman should be cautious with the next austerity applied. People might stop buying in his shop if the vegetables would be suddenly second class, not so tasty or worse, rotten.

     

    KlausKi wrote:

     

    One thing, for example, has become quite clumsy now: Comparing different versions of documents against each other.

     

    Previously one could just open them from within the MRU list in Acrobat, set those MDI windows to maximized layout and press CTRL+TAB to compare each PDF document against each other while the Acrobat program window itself could stay next to another designer program's window.

     

    Nowadays, when comparing different PDF documents against each other, the user must close all other application windows, or else they will permanently show up while rotating through the different Acrobat program windows.

     

    Plus, each of the Acrobat windows must be maximized manually. Comparing 6+ different versions becomes heck now.

     

    How did your enterprise users rate this fact of less productivity?

     
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