How to switch Preview's full screen default setting from "two-pages" to "continuous scroll"?

Question

Whenever I open a pdf, Preview.app opens it in "continuous scroll" mode. However, when going into fullscreen mode, it switches to "two-pages" when, really, I want it to use whatever view mode I had it, in this case: "continuous scroll".

Anyone know how to remedy this? Or perhaps suggest an alternative to Preview.app?

I'm on Mavericks OSX 10.9.2.

Maybe you can do something like here It is at least worth a try to look for something similar — Mathias711, May 15 '14 at 06:47
I am annoyed by the same thing. Sometimes I wonder what the heck the developers thought.... — Damn Vegetables, Apr 07 '15 at 16:44

score 40 · Accepted Answer · answered May 16 '14 at 03:10

As you know, per your question, the preferences in the Preview app only apply to documents when first opened. It seems that OS X has a built in default view for full screen documents. I tried a couple things...

I opened a PDF to Full Screen and set the view to Continuous to see if this would stick and that view would be chosen next time I went full screen. Not the case.
I searched every preference file related to Preview (also using 10.9.2) and found no setting even indirectly related to a view setting specifically when in full screen.

I'd say, doing what you want is either not possible at all or at best it'd require getting into a preference setting somewhere you wouldn't want to poke around with. My guess would be it's a setting inside Preview.app's package contents. Fooling around in there can get hairy

As an alternative to setting a new default, the keyboard shortcut to switch to Continuous view is:

CMD+1

So you can just quickly hit that each time you go full screen and the view changes immediately. It's not exactly what you wanted, but it's a very fast alternative.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the investigation. I tried searching for anything from defaults read com.apple.Preview to no avail. I'll opt to use the shortcut: CMD+1. Hopefully this is resolved on the next major OSX release. — Dashed, May 16 '14 at 03:50
Fwiw, if there IS a setting inside Preview.app's package contents (or any other location I "shouldn't be messing with"), I would very much like to know about it. — Wowfunhappy, May 20 '16 at 00:39
Also, well not exactly, but pressing CMD+1 changes the default to continuous scroll for full screen, for that file! — Chaitanya, May 29 '19 at 23:56

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited May 24 '21 at 07:24

7

This worked for me.

defaults write com.apple.Preview kPVPDFDefaultPageViewModeOption 1

edited May 24 '21 at 07:24

hmedia1

140

answered Nov 04 '19 at 12:40

ashishyadaveee11

171

you forgot to add that this worked for you when typed in the terminal - right? – Intelligent-Infrastructure Dec 18 '23 at 10:47

mediter · Answer 3 · 2020-02-10T02:36:52.290

1

defaults write com.apple.Preview kPVPDFDefaultPageViewModeOption

this setting is the same as "Opening for the first time" setting in PDF pane of Preview's Preferences.

0 Continuous Scroll

1 Single Page

2 Two Pages

It didn't work for me in macOS 10.15.3 (19D76) as change this setting doesn't affect fullscreen PDF display mode. And I doubt this would work in other macOS versions as well.

edited Feb 10 '20 at 02:36

answered Feb 10 '20 at 00:54

mediter

51

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 22 '20 at 17:54

I do realise this is an old question, but I managed to solve this at least on Catalina (10.15.4) but probably on older versions too.

If you try to enter full screen using the shortcut CMD + Option + F, you are actually entering presentation mode. You will notice that the slides flow automatically (or you can pause this) and you can also switch which pages you are seeing, but other options you can normally do are not available.

Instead, if you use the correct shortcut to enter full screen Ctrl + Cmd + F you enter full screen while respecting your preference, whatever that might be.

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 22 '18 at 20:05

0

You're better off opting for Cmd+1 than Cmd+2.

Cmd+1 would change to continuous scroll, while Cmd+2 changes to one-page.

edited Apr 22 '18 at 20:05

Nimesh Neema

51,809

answered Dec 17 '17 at 20:09

Helmi Sulaiman

11

score -1 · Answer 6 · edited May 20 '16 at 00:08

-1

Pressing Cmd 2 at the beginning of the presentation in Full Screen Mode seems to solve this problem

edited May 20 '16 at 00:08

Allan

101,432

answered May 19 '16 at 22:55

Island Innovation LLC

1

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 22 '17 at 16:46

-1

CMD+2 will show one image per screen.

answered Mar 22 '17 at 16:46

Brent

9

2

There's already an answer that suggests exactly what you suggest. – John N Mar 22 '17 at 20:06

score -1 · Answer 8 · edited Jan 20 '21 at 13:13

-1

Just press Cmd ⌘ + 2 or Cmd ⌘ + 1 while in full screen mode.

edited Jan 20 '21 at 13:13

Edd Growl

2,684

answered Jan 20 '21 at 02:19

user403488

1

How does this improve on the existing answer https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/130913/237 – mmmmmm Jan 20 '21 at 11:42

score -4 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 06 '15 at 05:07

MacJournal is an exceptional blogging application, that I use for gathering snippets because it's far superior to Evernote, that has scalable and editable full screen viewing (light blue and dark grey or whatever combo you wish. You can drag and drop a PDF or highlight and right click text to add content to a Library.

How to switch Preview's full screen default setting from "two-pages" to "continuous scroll"?

9 Answers9