# Stop Acrobat Professional from Stealing Focus When PDFing **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874 "2009-06-15T21:07:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874/1 "2009-06-15T21:07:54Z")
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghghghghghoihawfionaljksiosfklrioinaw I have Adobe Acrobat Professional (v7.0.9) on my computer here at work, which runs on Windows XP Professional (SP2). Any time I use Acrobat to PDF a document, the conversion window constantly steals focus from anything else I have open. This means that if I want to do anything else, I have to click in the window I actually want to be working in at least once every couple of seconds (Acrobat will steal the focus back after a time ranging from within a fraction of a second to up to maybe three seconds.) Is there any way to make it **STOP EFFING DOING THAT** , or is it just really poor design and I’m SOL? ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874/2 "2009-06-15T22:26:22Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > This means that if I want to do anything else, I have to click in the window I actually want to be working in at least once every couple of seconds (Acrobat will steal the focus back after a time ranging from within a fraction of a second to up to maybe three seconds.) If Adobe added a menu pulldown (e.g. added a menu item to your Microsoft Word or Excel), go there and click on “Change Conversion Settings” and then uncheck “View Adobe PDF result” It may or may not do what you want. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874/3 "2009-06-16T03:56:27Z")
You can also try downloading & installing TweakUI for XP (a free and genuine Microsoft applet). First option under **General** allows you to **Prevent applications from stealing focus.** ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874/4 "2009-06-16T14:58:23Z")
**Ruminator** , that sounds like a setting to open the file once the conversion is done–this is a problem that happens while the conversion is running. But I’ll try changing the option, thanks! **Hail Ants** , these work computers are locked down tighter than a nun’s you-know-what, so I’m afraid anything that requires admin access is out of the question. But I’ll definitely keep that in mind if I ever have similar problems on one of my own boxen. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-acrobat-professional-from-stealing-focus-when-pdfing/499874/5 "2009-06-16T20:53:11Z")
[Here](http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2360/adobewindow.png) is the dialogue that keeps popping to the front and stealing focus from whatever else I’m doing.