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Preview: Open file in separate window

This is an ongoing irritant in Preview. Many users, including me, do NOT want PDF docs to open in tabs - especially without the application focusing on the new document. I was finally able to overcome the "in tabs" behavior on my 2012 Mac running Catalina, but it reared its ugly little head again with a new Macbook Pro M1 running Monterey.

On a previous thread about the same issue someone posted "Try this: System Preferences / Dock: To the right of "Prefer tabs when opening documents" select "In Full Screen Only." But, of course that choice is not available in the "Dock & Menubar" System Preferences in Monterey....

But a quick search in the Sys Prefs search bar revealed the choice now in the "General" Pref tab. Next problem, for me, is that changing that dropdown to "NEVER" failed to solve the problem. At this point I have not restarted Preview or the Macbook, so maybe there is still hope.. ?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 3:38 PM

Top-ranking reply

David Gorrell 1.67G4 Author

Level 1

40 points

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 3:56 PM

Follow-Up: After choosing NEVER in the General System Preferences for "Prefer Tabs _____ When Opening New Documents" and then restarting Preview my documents are all opening in their own window - Ya Hoo !!

CLEARLY - restarting in Safe Mode (as mentioned in an earlier thread on the subject) is NOT a solution to this FeatureBug....

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Preview: Open file in separate window

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