Software features that should never disappear

I hate it when the taskbar on the Windows machine I use at work gets needlessly polluted by things like emails, Explorer windows, pop-under ads that sneak through, etc.

Everyone we can think of off the tops of our heads uses a PDF reader often. I was using one just today as part of my job duty of technical editing; reading some technical documentation to supplement a review I was writing. (And you, my fellow video editing friend, I’m sure you’ve used PDFs before. You’ve probably been sent to an instruction sheet or two for a new plug-in.) It used to be that Adobe Reader wasn’t guilty of polluting my taskbar when I had to have multiple PDFs open, it would open muliple PDFs in the same window… but lo and behold, the current version opens every PDF in its own window, and has stripped away the option of letting one window handle many PDFs to help keep your taskbar uncluttered.

I have been a stalwart user of Adobe Reader for years. You don’t have to put a PDF reader on a Mac because it comes with Mac OS X, but I installed Adobe Reader anyway. There are a lot of freeware choices for readers on the PC side of things that are more svelte than the official Adobe Reader, but I stuck by Adobe Reader for the utmost in compatibility. But now I have to admit that I’m having to second-guess my choice. I’m disappointed that I’m even having to contemplate this; but I urge software developers to think twice when it comes to making choices that will drastically alter the way users use their software.

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