WIndows Vista ("home premium") on an Acer laptop.  Latest version of
adobe reader downloaded from filehippo.

I click on a link to bring up a  .pdf  file - sometimes i receive a
version of reader which features an icon  (looks like a 3.5" floppy)
to do a "save as".

Other times, I get a version of reader in which I have to select "save
as" from the "file"  topmenu, because there's no such icon shown.
This is what happens, about 90% of occassions.  At least, it does
function.

I cannot see any correlates of when i get which.  Appears to be
random.

Does this software have adult supervision by Adobe?  Is there any way
for me to    _control_   what the software does?

Disclosure:  my interest in becoming a deeply-embedded computer geek
are minimal.  I want to use my computer the same way I use my food-
blender....   to make food, not to become a blender repairman.

dances_with_barkadas@yahoo.com wrote:
> WIndows Vista ("home premium") on an Acer laptop.  Latest version of
> adobe reader downloaded from filehippo.
> 
> I click on a link to bring up a  .pdf  file - sometimes i receive a
> version of reader which features an icon  (looks like a 3.5" floppy)
> to do a "save as".
> 
> Other times, I get a version of reader in which I have to select "save
> as" from the "file"  topmenu, because there's no such icon shown.
> This is what happens, about 90% of occassions.  At least, it does
> function.

I have Adobe Reader for Linux, and I get a related error -- not the Save 
icon, but the fact that when you open the application on its own (ie by 
clicking the icon, rather than by clicking a PDF file), it comes up with 
a toolbar that has no Open File icon -- you have to go to File|Open to 
open a file. Not the best piece of interaction design...

> I cannot see any correlates of when i get which.  Appears to be
> random.
> 
> Does this software have adult supervision by Adobe?  Is there any way
> for me to    _control_   what the software does?

No. Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat are free-but-closed, so what it does 
is controlled by Adobe, not you. If you want to control what it does, 
use an Open-Source equivalent (GSview, Foxit, Sumatra, etc)

> Disclosure:  my interest in becoming a deeply-embedded computer geek
> are minimal.  I want to use my computer the same way I use my food-
> blender....   to make food, not to become a blender repairman.

Switch to Linux.

///Peter