Foxit PDF Editor for Windows

User Guide

  • Introduction
  • Get Started
  • Read
    • Open PDFs
    • Save PDFs
    • Close a PDF
    • Export PDFs
    • View PDFs
      • Multi-tab Reading & Single Document Reading
      • Read Multiple PDF Files in the Parallel View
      • Page through a document
      • View PDF Portfolios
      • Adjust Page View
      • View Mode
      • Read Out Loud
      • Rulers, Guides, Grids, Line Weights, and Cursor Coordinates
      • Toggle Ruler
    • Work on 3D Content
    • Select & Copy
    • Search & Index in PDFs
    • Compare PDF Files
    • Word Count
  • Create
  • Edit
  • Organize
  • Comment
  • Share PDFs
  • Forms
  • Security
  • Signature
  • Accessibility
  • Foxit Admin Console
  • Print
  • Foxit AI Assistant (Available in Subscription Releases and Certain Regions)
  • Appendices

Multi-tab Reading & Single Document Reading

Multi-tab Reading

The multi-tab browsing feature enables you to open multiple files in a single application window. Newly opened PDFs will be displayed in tabs by default. 

In multi-tab reading mode, you can drag and drop a file tab outside of the existing window to create a new window and view the PDF file in that individual window. To recombine the file tab to the main interface, click on the file tab and then drag and drop it in reverse to the main interface.

To switch between open tabs in multi-tab reading, do one of the following:

  • Switch between open tabs in the most recently viewed order by using Ctrl + Tab. Before this, make sure you have selected the option Use recent order when switching tabs with Ctrl + Tab in File > Preferences > General.
  • Scroll the mouse in the tab bar up to the previous tab and down to the next tab. Before this, make sure you have selected the option Quickly switch between tabs by using mouse wheel in File > Preferences > General.
  • By default, use Ctrl + Shift + Page Up to switch to the previous tab and Ctrl + Shift + Page Down to the next tab. You can also change the shortcut keys. See also Customize the keyboard shortcuts.

Closing a tab

Do one of the following:

  • Click the Close button of a file tab on Tab Bar.
  • Double click a file tab on Tab Bar if you have checked “Double-click to close a tab” in File > Preferences > General > Tab Bar. 
  • Click the middle button of the mouse on a file tab on Tab Bar.
  • Right-click on a file tab and choose Close Tab /Close Others/Close Left/Close Right.
  • Select File > Close.

To close all file tabs at the same time, click the Close button at the top right corner of the Foxit PDF Editor window, or right-click on a file tab and choose Close all tabs in all groups.

Single Document Reading

Create a new window when you double-click to open a new PDF file.

  • To enable single document interface mode, go to File > Preferences > Documents. Under the Open Settings group, check the Always open files option and select either “in a new window” or “in a new instance”.
  • To disable single document interface mode, please go to File > Preferences > Documents. Under the Open Settings group, uncheck the Always open files option.