Section 81. About How Plug-Ins Work

81. About How Plug-Ins Work

Before purchasing, installing, and using Acrobat plug-ins, it is helpful to have an understanding of how plug-ins work. This will help you in managing your plug-ins and troubleshooting any problems you might have while using your plug-ins. As mentioned earlier, plug-ins are small software programs that extend the capabilities of a host application, such as Acrobat. When you launch Acrobat, it looks for a folder called plug_ins in the main Acrobat folder and loads into memory any plug-ins it finds there. After these plug-ins are loaded into memory, their functionality is available to you through Acrobat. Most plug-ins offer some sort of interface, usually as a dialog box accessed from the Plug-Ins menu. Some plug-ins, however, operate in the background, enhancing Acrobat's functionality without requiring direct user input.

A lot of plug-ins are available, and it's fun to have a lot of added functionality, but the price you pay for all those added goodies is that Acrobat takes up a lot more memory and it takes longer to load the plug-in data from your hard drive. This usually isn't a problem (unless you have a lot of extra plug-ins), but it's important to keep in mind.

TIPS

Because plug-ins are regular files located in an easily accessible folder on your hard drive, you can selectively add or remove individual plug-ins from the plug_ins folder. Simply create a new folder in the Acrobat folder and move unwanted plug-ins out of the plug_ins folder and into this storage folder. You can take this a step further and create custom plug-in sets by creating folders for different circumstances (such as Multimedia, Minimum Memory, or Commercial Printing) and copying the plug-ins you want to use only in those circumstances into the appropriate folder. You can then move your main plug-in set into a storage folder and move all the plug-ins from one of your custom sets into the plug_ins folder while doing a specific type of work. When you are done, you can move the custom set back to its own folder and return your main set to the plug_ins folder for everyday work.

You can disable the loading of all plug-ins by holding down the Shift key immediately after launching Acrobat. This is especially useful if you have a plug-in that is malfunctioning so badly (either due to a bug or a conflict with another plug-in) that it is preventing you from using Acrobat at all.