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View PDF Files

Open a PDF File

Please choose one of the following to open a PDF file with Foxit PDF Editor:

Tips:

Save a PDF File

By default, Foxit PDF Editor saves the changes to a file every 5 minutes automatically in case of system crash or power failure. If the application closes abnormally before you can save changes to a file, Foxit PDF Editor opens the recovery file automatically the next time you open it. The recovery file contains your changes up until the last time Foxit PDF Editor saved the document. You can change the time interval settings in Preferences > Documents > Save Setting > Automatically save file every x minutes.

After editing your PDF file, choose File > Save (or click the Save button in the Quick Access Toolbar) to save and replace the original file. You can also choose File in the Ribbon > Save As to save the PDF file as a copy in your local disks, ECM servers, or cloud servers. Using the Save As command also allows you to save the PDF file in other formats (e.g., Microsoft Office, HTML, or image files).

Foxit PDF Editor allows you to configure the preferred save as location so that your preferred location will be automatically chosen in the Save As dialog box when prompted to specify a location to save a document. To add a preferred save as location, please go to the File tab (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Documents > Preferred Save As Location. Then click Browse to select the location, or input the location in the Preferred Save As Location field. If you need to remove the configured output location, just delete the directory path in the Preferred Save As Location field.

Render Text, Line Art, and Thin Lines

While rendering PDF files, Foxit PDF Editor automatically smooths the jagged edges of text and line art (including path and shading objects) and enhances thin lines to improve their appearance and readability. To change the default settings, please go to File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Page Display, and modify the following options in the Rendering group.

Read PDF Files in a Single Tab or Multi-tabs

Read PDF Files in Multi-tabs

By default, Foxit PDF Editor displays multiple PDF files in different tabs in a single application window. In multi-tab reading mode, you can drag and drop a file tab outside of the existing window to create a new window and view the PDF file in that individual window, or move a file tab to any other Foxit PDF Editor windows that are currently open.

Read PDF Files in a Single Tab

You can enable the single-tab reading mode to view PDF files in multiple application windows when double-clicking to open PDF files, which is ideal for reading PDFs side by side.

To enable the single-tab reading mode, choose File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Documents, check the Always open files in a new window option in the Open Setting group, and click OK to apply the setting. While in the single-tab reading mode, you can revert to the multi-tab reading mode by redoing the steps and unchecking the Always open files in a new window option.

Read Multiple PDF Files in the Parallel View

The parallel view allows you to read two or more PDF files side-by-side (either horizontally or vertically) in the same window. When reading PDF files in the parallel view, you can view, annotate, or modify each PDF file independently. However, the Full Screen Mode operations are simultaneously applied to PDF files that are currently active in all tab groups.

To create the parallel view, do the following:

Tip: If you are in the parallel view, when a new PDF file is opened, it will be placed in the last active tab group.

To move tabs in the parallel view, do one of the following:

To exit the parallel view, do one of the following:

Adjust PDF Views

Change the Page Display Mode

For a PDF file that does not include the preset page layout, Foxit PDF Editor will open it with the default page display mode or the last viewing settings (if you have enabled the application to restore the last view settings when reopening PDF files in Preferences > History). To change the default page display mode, please go to the File tab (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Page Display > Default Layout and Zoom, and select the desired option from the Page layout drop-down list. To change the page display mode while reading PDF files, click View in the Ribbon (or choose View in the menu bar > Page Display), and choose any of the following options:

By default, Foxit PDF Editor displays two pages side by side at a time in Facing or Continuous Facing mode. You can custom the display settings using the following two options by choosing File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Page Display.

Read a PDF in Full Screen Mode

In Full Screen mode, Foxit PDF Editor Document Pane fills the entire screen, with Tab and Navigation pane hidden behind. The mouse pointer remains active in Full Screen mode so that you can click links.

Set Full Screen Preferences

Before reading a PDF file in Full Screen mode, you can set the Full Screen preferences which include appearances, transitions, and panels that can be shown in the Full Screen mode.

Enter and Exit Full Screen Mode

Add Page Transitions

While reading a PDF file, you can add or edit the page transitions in the Full Screen mode. The changes can be saved in the PDF file so that users who open your PDF file with the supported application can page through the document in the Full Screen mode with the transition effect you have specified. 

To add or edit the page transitions of a PDF file, please follow the steps below:

Note: The page transitions specified and saved in a PDF document will prevail over the default transitions in Preferences. To show the page transitions in the Full Screen mode, make sure that you have unchecked the Ignore all transitions option in the Full Screen preferences.  

Resize the Page View

Set the Default Zoom Level

For a PDF file that does not include the preset magnification level, Foxit PDF Editor will open it with the default page zoom level or the last viewing settings (if you have enabled the application to restore the last view settings when reopening PDF files in Preferences > History). To change the default zoom level, please go to the File tab (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Page Display > Default Layout and Zoom, and select the desired option from the Zoom level drop-down list. While reading a PDF file, you can use the zoom tools to change the page magnification. For more information, please refer to Quick Zoom, Resize the Page View with Zoom Tools, and Change the Page Magnification with Magnifier, Loupe, or Marquee Command.

Quick Zoom

To quickly zoom in or out on a PDF page, do any of the following:

Resize the Page View with Zoom Tools

To adjust the page at a specified size or make it to fit the document or window, do the following:

Change the Page Magnification with Magnifier, Loupe, or Marquee Command

Magnifier Command

With the Magnifier command, you can magnify part of the page by using a magnifying glass.

Loupe Command

The Loupe command allows you to view part of the page in a separate window with the specified zoom level.

Marquee Command

The Marquee command helps you expand the selected area of the page to fill the entire view or increase the magnification of the clicked area by one preset level (centering on the point where you clicked).

Reverse View

To read documents in a backward order, please choose View in the Ribbon > Reverse View.

Rotate the Page View

Do one of the following to rotate the view of the document pages:

Note: The rotate view setting only temporarily changes your view of the page in 90-degree increments. If you need to change the page orientation and save the changes to the PDF file, please use the “Organize PDF Pages” features.

Change the Page Background Color

Do one of the following to change the page background color:

1. From the Preferences

2. From the document pane

Read PDFs with Read Out Loud

Read Out Loud is a Text-to-Speech (TTS) tool. It reads the text in a PDF aloud, including the text in comments and alternate text descriptions for images, tables, and fillable fields. Text is read based on the order of the page content.

Read Out Loud uses the available voices installed on your system. Read Out Loud isn’t a screen reader, it may not be available in some operating systems.

Set Speech Preferences

Activate or Deactivate Read Out Loud

You need to activate Read Out Loud before using it.

Read a PDF Out Loud

Display Rulers, Guides, Grids, and Line Weights

Rulers and Guides

Foxit PDF Editor provides horizontal and vertical ruler guides to help you align and position text, graphics, or other objects on the page. They can also be used to check the size and margins of your documents.

Show or Hide Rulers and Guides

To show or hide rulers and guides in the current PDF file, please do any of the following:

Create Ruler Guides

Move Ruler Guides

To move ruler guides, select the Hand command, click and hold the guide, and then drag it to a new location.

Delete Ruler Guides

To delete ruler guides, please do one of the following:

Grids

Document Grid

Document grid acts as the baseline for you to line up form fields and objects (including text, image, path, and shading objects) in a PDF document. When you create or move a form field or object, Snap to Grid can align the form field or object with the nearest grid line.

Transparency Grid

Transparency grid is used to visualize transparent areas by displaying a checkerboard grid behind transparent objects. To show or hide the transparency grid, please go to File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Page Display, and check or uncheck Display transparency grid in the Page Content group.

Line Weights View

In Line Weights View, the lines will be displayed with the weights defined in the PDF file. When Line Weights View is turned off, the lines will be displayed with the constant stroke width (1 pixel), regardless of zoom. Foxit PDF Editor will display PDF files in Line Weights view by default. To turn on or off Line Weights view while reading PDF files, please do any of the following:

Toggle Ruler

The Toggle Ruler feature in the View tab is a “ruler” you can show and drag freely over any part of your document, which is frequently used to go through line items quickly and easily, especially when you need to read tables.

To show Toggle Ruler, click View in the Ribbon > Toggle Ruler. You can click and drag Toggle Ruler almost anywhere on your screen. To hide/close Toggle Ruler, click Toggle Ruler in the View tab again, or click the Close icon  on the ruler, or press the ESC key (when the focus is on the ruler).

To resize Toggle Ruler, put the cursor over the left or right edge of the ruler (top or bottom edge when the ruler is vertical). When the cursor changes into a double-arrow  handle, drag the handle to resize the ruler.

Clicking the  icon drops down a menu with more options, which allows you to do more settings:

View PDF/A Files

By default, Foxit PDF Editor will open PDF/A-compliant documents in PDF/A mode (i.e. read-only mode) to prevent modification. When you open a PDF/A-compliant document, a notification message will be displayed. To work with PDF/A files, do the following:

View PDF Portfolios

PDF portfolios are a combination of files with different formats such as Microsoft Office files, text documents and image files.

To view a PDF portfolio, please do the following:

Tip: Files in a PDF portfolio will be opened in its native application if you have installed the native application on your device with macOS 10.14 or higher.

Work on 3D Content in PDFs

Set 3D Preferences

Foxit PDF Editor lets you view, navigate, measure, and comment on 3D content in PDF documents. The Model Tree, the 3D toolbar, and the right-click menu of 3D content can help you work on 3D content easily. You can show/hide parts of a 3D model, set different visual effects, rotate/spin/pan/zoom a 3D model, create and manage 3D views with different settings, add comments/measurements to a part of a 3D model, add a 3D model to a PDF page, and more.

Note: By default, Safe Reading Mode is enabled, and whether the option has been selected or not, when you open a PDF with 3D content for the first time, a dialog box pops up to ask whether you trust the document to enable/activate the 3D content in it, and you can select an option to trust the document one time only or always trust the document. Selecting Trust this document always in the dialog box also adds the document to the privileged locations, and the dialog box will not prompt next time you open the PDF. See also Privileged Locations. Note that the dialog box does not necessarily pop up when you open a 3D PDF. Sometimes it pops up only when you click on the 3D content in the PDF. When it pops up is determined by the activation settings of the 3D content. And the message displayed in the pop-up dialog box varies depending on your trust settings for Foxit PDF Editor.

Display 3D Models

Foxit PDF Editor provides the Model Tree and various navigation tools and options for you to show or hide parts of a 3D model, turn it around to view it from all orientations, even look at the inside structure clearly by hiding and turning parts around.

When you open a 3D PDF and enable the 3D model, the 3D toolbar appears above the upper-left corner of the 3D canvas (an area where the 3D model appears). The lower-left corner of the canvas shows the 3D axes (X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis) that indicate the current orientation of the 3D model in the scene. Note: If the 3D model is not enabled (or activated) after you open the PDF, only a 2D preview image of the 3D model is displayed in the canvas.

Tip: For most 3D-related tools and options, you can find them from the context menu after right-clicking the 3D model.

Show/Hide Parts of a 3D Model

When the 3D model is enabled, click the Model Tree panel in the navigation pane, where you can view the 3D scene structure and the preset views. Check/uncheck the appropriate checkbox to show/hide the corresponding part of the 3D content. You can also click the Toggle Model Tree icon on the 3D toolbar to show or hide the Mode Tree panel.

The Model Tree panel contains three panes: the Structure pane, the View pane, and the Object Data pane.

Navigate through a 3D Model

On the 3D toolbar (or after right-clicking the 3D model and choosing Tools), select a desired 3D navigation tool to manipulate the 3D model.

The Display Settings for a 3D Model

From the 3D toolbar (or after right-clicking the 3D model and choosing View Options), choose an option as appropriate to modify the display settings for a 3D model.

3D Views

In the View pane of the Model Tree panel and in the Views list on the 3D toolbar, you can see a list of available views. Select the desired view to switch among the views. You can also create 3D views with custom display settings and manage existing views.

Display a View

In the View pane of the Model Tree panel:

On the 3D toolbar, you can also select a view from the Views list to display it, or click on the Default View icon to switch to the default view of the 3D model. Or, just right-click anywhere anytime in the 3D canvas, choose Views, and select a view to display it.  

Create a 3D View with Custom Display Settings

Manage 3D Views

With multiple views created, you can use the Manage Views dialog box to perform view management. You can reorder the views in the View pane of the Model Tree panel or in the Views list on the 3D toolbar, delete a view, and set a view as the default view.

Click on the Views list on the 3D toolbar and choose Manage Views to open the Manage Views dialog box. Then do any of the following:

Add a 3D Model to a PDF Page

With the Add 3D command in the Edit tab, you can insert a 3D model (in U3D or PRC format) to a PDF page.

To add a 3D model to a page, do the following:

After adding a 3D model to the page, you can adjust the 3D canvas by following the steps below.

Add a 3D Measurement to a 3D Model

With the 3D Measurement Tool, you can measure the distance between two points and the angle between two edges of a 3D model.

Notes:

Comment on a 3D Model

Add a 3D Comment to a 3D Model

You can use the Add 3D Comment tool to add a 3D comment to a particular part of a 3D model, for example, to provide the coordinate information or the name of the part. A 3D comment contains a text box and a connector line that connects the text box and the part of the 3D model you want to comment on.

Notes:

Add Comments using the Tools in the Comment Tab

You can add comments to a 3D view using the commenting tools in the Comment Ribbon.

Notes:

Convert 3D Measurements to Comments

You can convert 3D measurements to comments to be reviewed, annotated, and replied to.

Search & Index in PDFs

Find Text in the Current PDF

Click in the Search field on the title bar and click on the Show matching text results box in the drop-down menu (or press the shortcut keys Command + F) to open the “Search & Replace” window, which appears in the top-right corner of the document area. 

 

Advanced Search

Foxit PDF Editor supports the advanced search function, which enables you to do the following: search a string in a single PDF file, multiple PDF files under a specified folder, PDFs in a PDF portfolio, or a PDF index. When the search finishes, all occurrences will be listed in a tree view. This will allow you to quickly preview the context and jump to specific locations. You can also save the search results as a CSV or PDF file for further reference.

Before doing an advanced search, you can go to File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Search to specify search preferences.

If fast find is enabled, the cache of search information will be generated when you perform a search. When the cache reaches the limit size you specified, the earlier cache contents will be deleted automatically. And if you execute searches in PDFs that include both index and fast find cache, index will be used as the priority for searching.

Search for Text and Patterns

Tip: The additional search criteria options are collapsed by default. You can click More to show all the options. To keep expanding and displaying the additional search criteria options all the time, please go to File in the Ribbon (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Search, and check the Always show more options in advanced search option in the Search group.

Note:

Search and Highlight

After searching, users may need to mark up the searched text strings in a highlight color. With Foxit PDF Editor’s Search & Highlight feature, users can perform an advanced search and highlight the searched text strings quickly.

Search PDF Indexes

If your PDF document or document collections include a full-text index, you can improve your search efficiency by simply searching the index for target words rather than each document separately. Steps are as follows:

Note: If the index file is not available or does not work, the search will fail. To create or revise an index, please refer to Create PDF Indexes.

Create PDF Indexes

When you are trying to search text in a long PDF document or multiple PDF files, it is much faster to search a PDF index, instead of searching the document(s). With Foxit PDF Editor, you can create an embedded index for a single PDF, or create a full-text index for multiple PDFs.

Create an Embedded Index in a PDF

For a PDF document that includes an embedded index, you can search the document as you always do through the Advanced Search feature, but it will be much faster than you search a regular PDF without an embedded index. (Note: Before searching a document with an embedded index, you need to select the Enable embedded index option in the File tab(or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Index.)

Add an Embedded Index to a PDF

Update or Remove the Embedded Index in a PDF

You can update or remove the embedded index if the document has been changed.

Create a Full-text Index for Multiple PDFs

Foxit PDF Editor enables you to define a collection of PDFs as a catalog and create a full-text index for the cataloged PDFs, allowing you to search that index through the Advanced Search feature. See also “Search PDF Indexes”.

Create a Full-text Index

Note: The settings above apply to the current index only. To apply these settings to all indexes, please do the settings in the File tab (or Foxit PDF Editor in the menu bar) > Preferences > Index.

Revise an Existing Index

Take a Snapshot of Selected PDF Contents

Use the Snapshot tool to take a snapshot of selected PDF contents and paste it in other applications.

Navigate PDF Files

Scroll Pages Automatically

Tip: To scroll through pages continuously, Foxit PDF Editor will automatically change the page display mode to Continuous (if it is in Single Page view) or Continuous Facing (if it is in Facing mode) when you enter into the automatic scrolling mode. After exiting the automatic scrolling, you can change the page display mode from the View menu or toolbar. For more information, please refer to “Change the Page Display Mode”.

Jump to a Specific Page

Use the page navigation tools on the status bar at the bottom to jump to a specific page easily.

Page indicator: Shows the current page and the total number of pages of the opened PDF file. To jump to the page specified, you can input the page number and press Enter, or click the Down arrow  and select a page number from the list.

Previous Page: Jump to the previous page.

Next Page: Jump to the next page.

Tip: Alternatively, you can go to View in the menu bar > Go to, and then choose one option from the drop-down menu to jump to a specific page. From the drop-down menu, you can also choose to jump to the first page or the last page of the PDF file.

Jump to the Previous View or Next View

Do one of the following to go to the preview view or next view:

Jump to a Specific Chapter by Bookmark

Tips:

Jump to a Page by Thumbnail

Open a File Attachment

Open a file attachment embedded in a PDF file

Open a file attachment pinned in the PDF file

The file attachment pinned in the PDF file is usually displayed with a pin icon. You can double-click the pin icon to open it with Foxit PDF Editor.

Word Count

Similar to Microsoft Word, Foxit PDF Editor counts words, characters, pages, lines and other information in all or part of your document. With no text selected, click View in the Ribbon > Word Count, and you will see a pop-up Word Count box for the statistics of the entire document. For a partial word count, just select the text you want to count, and then click View in the Ribbon > Word Count; or right click the selected text and choose Word Count from the context menu.

Compare PDF Files

The Document Compare feature lets you see the differences in two versions of a PDF.

Compare Two Versions of a PDF File

Check Comparison Results

Once the documents are analyzed, a PDF document named “The result of Comparison.pdf” will be automatically created and opened in a new tab within the application window, and the Compare File panel appears on the right of the document pane. When checking the comparison results, you can click the Compare button  in the View tab to show or hide the Compare File panel.

The result document arranges pages side by side showing Old File and New File with the changes marked by different icons and colors. The first page shows a summary of the comparison results including the total number and the marks for different changes. The second page shows the detailed comparison results including the names and sizes of Old File and New File, time compared, and the classification of changes, with a color legend in the upper right corner.

To check the comparison results in detail, please do the following: