Expert: LizaL - 3/14/2005

Question
Hi
I used to be able to open a pdf file in photoshop 7 and save as a graphic. I had to reinstall my system and also upgraded to 7.1 and now I can't so I assume I must be missing a plug in or something. Anything you can suggest would be appreciated. Thanks

Using Mac OS9.2

Answer
Hi Irene,

Well, I have two schools of thought on this. But I also have a few questions that might help us figure this out.

1. Does this happen with all PDFs, or is it just a certain file? If it's all PDFs, then I'd be inclined to say something is wrong with your Photoshop installation.

2. Did you do the 7.01 update from the Adobe Web site? If so, I'd download it again, uninstall Photoshop completely, and reinstall it, then do the update.

3. When you reinstalled your system, did you do a clean install, or a complete reformat? If you did a clean install and still have a Previous System folder on your hard drive, I'd get rid of it. There might be prefs in there that are somehow conflicting with your Photoshop update.

4. Your Open dialaog box (File>Open) in Photoshop should look something like this, with the options for opening PDFs available:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/open_PDF.png

5. And my final question is, in order to try and open it, are you double-clicking on the PDF in question?

Many times, especially with Macs, applications can get -- for lack of a better word -- "confused" in the way that they handle files. Where you used to be able to double-click on any given file to open it, you might find one day that that's not an option any more.

So what I'd suggest, if this is the case with you, is to first open Photoshop, then go to the File pulldown menu, and then navigate to the file you want to open, and say OK. In other words, you'll be opening the file through Photoshop, instead of at the Finder level.

If that doesn't work, try rebuilding your desktop. I'm sure you know how, but just in case you don't, restart your machine and hold down the Command and Option keys. Keep them held down until you see the loading of your extensions across the bottom of your screen. When prompted with the option of rebuilding the desktop, say OK.

And please post back and provide me with the answers to the questions, if you don't have any success. We'll figure out something else!

Lisa