Getting Rid of that Awful “Content Preparation Progress” in Adobe Reader

hp — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:33:19 +0000

That dreaded message appears every time I open a PDF. It has bothered me for the longest time, and I’ve finally taken the time to get rid of it. Before, every time I opened a PDF, Adobe Reader would process each page before it would let me scroll around. It was very annoying. Anyway, here is the solution:

UPDATE 12/08/10: One of the comments (thanks to Jørgen) provided an even better solution for getting rid of this annoying process. It involves removing the plugins from Adobe Reader completely.

…Program Files…AdobeReader 9.0Readerplug_ins
there are 3 files you should delete (or maybe just rar them so you still got them in case something goes wrong)
Accessibility.api, MakeAccessible.api, ReadOutLoud.api
(if that gives troubles, just delete the files with the same name and .xxx where xxx stands for a certain language too)

OR – if you’re afraid Adobe won’t work or you’ll need the files later – rename the extension to .api_

Below is the original solution that I had. It changes the settings so that the program will process each page as you read. It’s not as good as the previous solution that completely disables it though.

Go to Adobe Reader’s Preferences (Edit > Preferences)
Go to the Reading tab
In Screen Reader Options, choose Only read the currently visible pages

Doing this pretty much tells Adobe to do the reading as you scroll through the pages. Although this can still be annoying, but it’s way better waiting through that screen for larger PDF’s.

Application software – Henry Poon's Blog

Getting Rid of that Awful “Content Preparation Progress” in Adobe Reader