General ⇒ Cant compile when pdf is open

[Aslund]

Hey everyone

This question is bit off-topic, but I hope you can help anyway.
I have a PC with windows 7 and TexnicCenter installed. If I have my output pdf open while I am trying to compile my latex document, then I get an error from TexnicCenter where it says that it cant write to the pdf.
I have also Windows 7 on my laptop and it works like a charm there, no problems with read-write conflicts.
Do anyone know why I can't read and write on my desktop while my laptop can?

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Sebastian Aslund

[josephwright]

What viewers are you using? Adobe Reader locks the file, so TeX can't write a PDF, whereas other readers act differently.

[kallemarx]

Hi Sebastian!

I'm using TeXnicCenter on Windows XP but I would assume that the system doesn't make the difference. Since I'm using the German version I don't know about the English menu titles but you should have a menu like Display or something similar in TeXnicCenter (it's the item between "Profile" and "Extras). In that menue the point before the last one is called define display profile or something like that. Enter that and go to the tab viewer. The (german) Hotkey "Alt + F7".
Make sure that it looks like in the attached file. Of course you have to enter your own special path to Acrobat under "path to appliance".

Last but not least: It only works, if you compile by Ctrl + F5. If you compile by Ctrl + F7, you'll get the error message furthermore.

Greetings, Marx.

[josephwright]

I see that you re using Acrobat Pro, rather than the free Reader. Is this true on both computers (and are you using the same version of Acrobat on both)?

[kallemarx]

Yes, It's Acrobat 6.0 Professional but I use only one Computer (see my signature).
I've just tested it with the Acrobat Reader 9.1 and it didn't work at the first attempt. Since usually I'm not using the reader it's no problem to me.
If you encounter problems with that consider this:
http://mrunix.de/forums/showthread.php?t=48082
It seems that there might be several problems with the new reader.

[lalop]

Whenever that happens, it's invariably the reader's fault, locking the file so that your tex distribution can't modify it. No way to change the distri so it unlocks a locked file, you have to change the reader. I use SumatraPDF now.

[kallemarx]

Sorry, I fogot a negation in my upper post. I wrote and it work at the first attempt but I meant and it didn't work at the first attempt. I corrected it above.