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OK, the reason for this effect is just the reason why fast web view works. It is named the "byteserve" protocol. This protocol allows an accordingly set up document to be served in pieces. This is great if you have a relatively simple, but long document (imagine those 1000 pages manuals or so).
The byteserving protocol allows, after having downloaded the "overhead", to transfer individual pages. Now, it does not transfer pages, but objects from the PDF document. In a simple long document, you may have a dozen or so objects per page, which means that this turns out to be very efficient. This is the case, even if for transferring each and every object, a communication channel between the browser and the server has to be opened, the object requested, transferred, confirmed, and the channel closed.
Now, with forms, you can expect one indivicual field consisting of at least half a dozen objects with high dependencies on each other. Now, if you look in your IE how many parallel channels you can have open at the same time (default 4, maximum 8), you can understand why the transmission takes so long.
This byteserving protocol kicks in when the server is set up accordingly (which is the case with essentially all modern webservers), and the document is saved with the "optimize for fast web view" option set. Now, when you destroy this optimization, the byteserving protocol will no longer kcik in, and the document will be transferred in much bigger chunks than individual objects. As a consequence, you have fewer channel to use, and considering that opening and closing a channel takes a long time, this will speed up.
I know of an example where a rather complex form (about the same range as the one mentioned by the original poster) was loaded from "localhost", meaning that the transmission time can be neglected. It took about a minute until the form got finally available. When we unoptimized it, it was there in _three seconds_.
How do you unoptimize? If you work a lot with forms, particularly complex smart forms, you should deactivate the "save as optimizes for fast web view" Preference setting. Actually, this setting can make Acrobat crash if your forms have PageOpen scripts. If it is every now and then, you need an unoptimized document, you do a Save as... as usual, then you make a small modification and undo it immediately afterwards (such as fill something in a field and deleting it again). Then you do a simple Save, and you have what you need.
Hope, this can help.
Max Wyss PRODOK Engineering Low Paper workflows, Smart documents, PDF forms CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland
Fax: +41 1 700 20 37 or +1 815 425 6566 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.prodok.com
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I'm curious why this is so and if it is true, what guidelines should one follow to determine if fast web viewing should be activated?
Max Wyss wrote:
It may sound paradox, but the reason for that slow downloading is because the file is "optimized for fast web view". Deactivate this optimization, and you will be amazed how much faster it will download.
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