Win7 disable Multi-Document Interface?

[niic]

Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to turn off the MDI on the Windoes 7 task bar?

When I have an application like Photoshop open and loads of documents open they all appear in the TOC. If you want to jump between apps quickly via alt-tab you can't because you have to tab through all the documents. Anyone know where the setting is to turn it off?

Ideally I'd like to have some button on the desktop perhaps that will turn it on and off depending on the user and there preference.

cheers

 

[Dzomlija]

Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to turn off the MDI on the Windoes 7 task bar?

When I have an application like Photoshop open and loads of documents open they all appear in the TOC. If you want to jump between apps quickly via alt-tab you can't because you have to tab through all the documents. Anyone know where the setting is to turn it off?

Ideally I'd like to have some button on the desktop perhaps that will turn it on and off depending on the user and there preference.

cheers

MDI (or Multiple Document Interface) is a Windows feature that has been around since the earliest versions of Windows (perhaps even earlier than Windows 3.x). It's specific implementations are unique to each application, although in many cases similar.

For example, Internet Explorer 8, although a single window is visible on-screen, each individual tab has it's own "Document Thumbnail" in the taskbar of Windows, allowing for quick selection of tabs , but also only one single icon in the "CTRL+TAB" Task Switcher.

Perhaps if you look into the settings of Photoshop, you'll find a setting to turn it off. Is it perhaps also possible that instead of having multiple documents open in one instance of Photoshop, you rather have multiple instances of Photoshop itself? Maybe a setting to allow for only a single instance is present?

 

[niic]

Ahh interesting, I thought MDI functionality started with XP.

MDI is fine on some apps like IE/FF/Word etc. however for Photoshop it must be run in SDI mode (this is a requirement of the way our users operate). I have logged a support ticket with Adobe but I thought maybe you customise in Windows7 what apps run in what mode! That was the hope anyway.

...and no there is only a single instance of the app running.

 

[Dzomlija]

Ahh interesting, I thought MDI functionality started with XP.

MDI is fine on some apps like IE/FF/Word etc. however for Photoshop it must be run in SDI mode (this is a requirement of the way our users operate). I have logged a support ticket with Adobe but I thought maybe you customise in Windows7 what apps run in what mode! That was the hope anyway.

...and no there is only a single instance of the app running.

Sort of like what Microsoft done with the Office Applications - Multiple open documents have multiple Windows. Only Adobe can modify Photoshop to allow for a SDI.

Let's hope that Adobe pays attention to your request...

 

[niic]

Curious… Photoshop CS5 is actually running in SDI mode when you set it to, however I didn’t know it was because I had the Performance settings in Windows7 set to ‘Best Performance’ so all the gloss was turned off. If I turned aero on then it works. This could be an MS bug??

 

[logicearth]

...This could be an MS bug??

Nope.

 

[Dzomlija]

Curious… Photoshop CS5 is actually running in SDI mode when you set it to, however I didn’t know it was because I had the Performance settings in Windows7 set to ‘Best Performance’ so all the gloss was turned off. If I turned aero on then it works. This could be an MS bug??

It just means that Photoshop knows how to make use of the performance settings of Windows, and adjusts itself accordingly...