default file location

Hi weigoldk,

Unfortunately the answer is No, you cannot change the default file location in Acrobat.

Dimitri Munkirs
WindJack Solutions
[url=http://www.windjack.com]www.windjack.com[/url]

I understand how frustrating this can be, especially if all of your documents are located on a network share such as H:\my documents. Fortunately, you can change the default location for all of your documents, which makes life a lot more pleasant for those of us who do not use the standard Microsoft location.

Click on the Start button, right click "My Documents" and select Properties. You will see an editable location in the Target Folder Location field. Change the target location to where Your "My Documents" are located.

Note: When you change the target, you will be asked if you want to move all of your documents from the current target to the new target. This will save you from performing the next logical step of cuting and pasting to the place your docs should have been saving in the first place.

See MS Article: Q310147.

Thank you, ahurnyak -- what an awesome tip!! This is already saving me tons of frustration!!

Of course all the applications that save to My Documents by default will now go the the network share. i.e., MS Office files, etc. -- not just the "forms" share anymore.

Aside from most network shares having a size limit established what one saves there is available to all.

You can change your Default Location. You have to edit Adobe Acrobat's registry settings. Here is what you do:

1. Go to Start-->Run
2. Type regedit and hit enter.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\7.0
4. Right click on the 7.0 folder and click export. Save a copy of the folder somewhere for backup. This will allow you restore you original setting easily if you mess something up.
5. The key you need to modify is Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\7.0\DefaultPDFOutput. Right click on DefaultPDFOutput and click modify. Type the location you want. For example, the desktop would be "Desktop\*.pdf" (do not include quotes!). Now you have changed the default setting for "Local Machine." You still need to set it for the "Current User."
6. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\PrinterJobControl. This folder controls the last location of PDF output for each program you printed from. Change each of these values so that they match where you would like to save.
7. You’re done! Give it a test and enjoy!

If you mess up but backup like I explained, then just double click the backup file and will restore the old values.

If this is to difficult then in the registry editor go to Edit-->Find and type "DefaultPDFOutput" (do not include quotes). It will take a while but it will find the value you need to change.Sincerely,
Jason

sortof OT here but...
Jason et al,
Access the registry? In a corporate work environment?

I work for Boston Scientific and I have access to the registry.

I love the registry hack. I can implement this kind of thing as the domain admin.

Isn't there a way to just tell Acrobat to save back to the file location that the pdf was created from.

i.e. I create a file by printing to the adobe pdf printer and then save to a certain location, now when I go to save the file I have to click through windows explorer about 4 folders deep and it's just a pain.

Wouldn't it be nice if it remembered the word or excel doc's path and saved it to that path by default.

*********Here's How to change the location without going to Registry:

Just go to your Adobe PDF printer in your Printers control panel. Right-click it and choose Properties.

Once in there, go to the "Ports" tab and then click the "Add Port..." button. In the next dialog that appears, choose "Adobe PDF Port" and then click the "New Port..." button.

You'll get a file browse dialog, where you can browse to the folder you want to use and click OK. Then click Close on the box you're returned to and your new port should then be in the list and selected.

You should deselect any other ports in the list that are still checked, and then you're done.

********How to create multiple PDF Printers:

It was a little tricky but I just added a printer and chose "New Port", adobe pdf port, during the printer wizard and choose a different file location. Then the tricky part was when the add printer wizard asks for manufacturer and model put in something generic like HP Laserjet 4 (mine did not have adobe as a manufacturer so I can't choose it directly). Then go back to the printer right click and choose properties and modify the advanced tab and select the "Adobe PDF Converter" from the drop down list for the driver.

Voila, now you have one printer for your p:\Sales\2009 folder and another PDF printer for the "u:\personal docs" folder.

Right click and rename the printer so that you can distinguish it, e.g. "Adobe PDF - p drive - Sales"

Good registry hack Jason, works well. However, once I put the new directory in Local Machine, it very kindly automatically also changed in Current User (using Acrobat 9 and Vista).

The hack works fine for eg, printing a PDF from Word or Excel. However, it does not work for a scanned image [Create] [PDF from Scanner]. I think the save location defaults to the last directory used, which means that if you always want to save to eg, Data\Downloads you should be OK. But maybe there is a registry hack for this as well.

I can't believe in 9 versions they haven't made changing the default file location an option in Preferences. It's been an option in other software products like MS Office for as long as I can remember (since at least the early part of this decade). Do you know if Adobe has any intention of ever accomodating? It is very irritating to have to constantly back out of My Docs and then go through several levels of a network directory just to save or open files that are in a constant location. Is there an easy way to provide my 2-cents directly to Adobe? Maybe if enough people did, they'd oblige.

Thank you "acrazysailor" your answer just eliminated tons of frustration! Previously every new scanned file I saved would go into the windows temporary OLK*** file folder (each time!) which was such a pain, now with the Adobe printer port set up to "my documents" I have a much easier time. You're the best!