Help with opening pdf file?

I'm hoping someone can help save me a trip to get my MacBook Pro fixed. I couple of days ago, I was able to open a couple pdf files, but when I try opening them now, all I get is what looks like coding... (see copy and paste below). I tried restarting, as well as installing new updates, but it didn't fix it. Any advice? Since I'm relatively new to Mac, I wasn't sure if it uses Adobe to open pdf's if I should reinstall that? This happen to anyone? Help, please?

Thanks!

Kristen

Here's what I get when I try to open the file now...

%PDF-1.5 %âãÏÓ 74 0 obj <> endobj 84 0 obj <<>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<2A284064DD6A50F46FDBC91CE708071C>]/Index[74 25]/Info 73 0 R/Length 65/Prev 77930/Root 75 0 R/Size 99/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream hÞbbd ``b`Ú $ C `É ‰e ® 7 H0ƒ ÑV q1” ‰‘á&H1 #¹Ä ÆÖ/ H8 endstream endobj startxref 0 %%EOF 98 0 obj <>stream hÞb```f``R ‘ ž ü À c BŽ só =‘XÀÀà}𡳠‡ Ÿ{…¿j ƒ´á «‰ 7îX) ,L X4 ÍUa`LÕ Ò @Ì ¶)Œ aƒá„–.=î úO¹_-`6xjÀÀÌ –Ô``¬X ¤ ¸ ˆµ ; |F € ï %‰ endstream endobj 75 0 obj <> endobj 76 0 obj <> endobj 77 0 obj <>stream hÞÔUmoÚ0 þ+÷qûÀü’8/R… ´tHk‡šh „ø ‚ ™ò‚ W£ÿ~>;¡aSi ~™¬Ã绳ï±ïÉ xÀ 8ó! €» ‚ ¸ï@HÁqôÄ@¸ B Œz!„ 0 z ºÀ À|Î@›8w] õQ®ïÃÅ •YYE›d!qQ3Šy(Ü¡Î0™Õ=D¡Õ~Ÿ\mÕu¤ … ®#†H¬c\ JÛâ˜# Ü Ç.b±ª‡0¬ »iZ•‹Hª ™^

Do you get the same thing when opening it in Adobe Reader and Preview? Is it only a particular set of PDFs that open this way (they may be corrupt)? What version of OS X and Adobe Reader are you using?

pdf

It looks like I have Version 10.6.6 (OS) and I'm not sure about Adobe.. I just got the laptop in October, so I know it can't be too old? Any suggestions? Thanks so much!!

As I noted, it could very well be an issue with the PDFs themselves or with Adobe Reader. Try opening them on another machine and/or updating Reader if that is what you're using.

Try "right clicking" the file and then choose "open with" and then choose Preview".
This forces the file to be opened with Preview instead of Adobe.
This will help tell us if Adobe is the problem or the .pdf file is the problem.

DavidH