Illustrator opens PDFs on save? How to kill?

7,553

Solution 1

Assuming you want to open ALL PDFs in Illustrator...

Find an Illustrator-created PDF file
Right click it and click Get Info
Expand the section of what application to open it with.
Choose Adobe Illustrator from the list, and tick the box to always use this application
Close the window, and open the file

This should make all PDFs open in Illustrator. As for only CERTAIN PDF files opening in Illustrator, I don't know if that is possible, other then manually choosing Illustrator from the Right-click->Open With menu

Solution 2

Open the offending file and "save as", keep same file name and allow it to replace, when the Illustrator PDF save window opens uncheck "view PDF after saving".

Solution 3

With your PDF open in Illustrator:

File > Save As...
Uncheck View PDF After Saving
Select Save PDF

7,553

aljabear

Developer, librarian, recovering artist.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

aljabear almost 2 years

OSX 10.7, Adobe Illustrator CS 5.1

When you save a PDF in AI, it automatically opens in Apple Preview (or whatever PDF application you have set as default). So, if you're editing several PDFs, and you like to save often (which is wise), your work is continually interrupted by application focus shifting to Preview. Aggravating to no end.

I've searched high and low for an answer to this seemingly trivial issue; it's not in Preferences, and I can't find anything on help sites or the broader Web.

I'm trying to keep Illustrator from opening a PDF at all when it saves, not just trying to change the default PDF application for my machine.
- JoshP almost 12 years
  
  @Luke 's answer may still work though. If the pdf is presumably still open in AI (you're still editing it), any default action to open the pdf with AI (you just changed the default pdf app to AI) would likely just focus on the pdf (which you're still editing)... no?
- aljabear almost 12 years
  
  I suppose it's an effective workaround, although I like having Preview as my default PDF reader. I use it all the time for lightweight PDF use, reading tech books, etc. Suppose I could write a script to toggle back and forth... seems inelegant, though. Why does AI open the files in the first place?
- JoshP almost 12 years
  
  I understand the sentiment. I am also a fan of the lightweight Preview
aljabear almost 12 years

hmmm... maybe still not being clear. The problem is that the PDF opens automatically, while using Illustrator. So I have example.pdf open in Illustrator, I make a change and save it; Preview opens with my latest save, stealing focus. Windows XP-style distracting behavior. The problem is not deciding with which program to open the file, but keeping it from opening at all.
Canadian Luke almost 12 years

To keep Illustrator from openning the file, or Preview?
aljabear almost 12 years

The file is already open in Illustrator. Every time I make a change, it opens it again in Preview. So it gets opened twice. It's a bug.
Canadian Luke almost 12 years

Ahhh... My only suggestion is to remove Preview.app then, but I highly doubt that's what you're after. Sorry
aljabear almost 12 years

I tried that, which just causes the default PDF viewer to be Acrobat, which is even more annoying than the file opening in Preview.
aljabear almost 12 years

Turns out, I was being dense. This does indeed fix the problem, just not in the way I'd intended; it's a workaround, but it works fine. Option-Command-I will allow this to apply to an arbitrary group of images, without changing defaults. +1