MacOS Preview app - open PDFs in separate windows (instead of in the same window)

When opening a new PDF on Mac (Big Sur 11.4) the new file opens as a tab in an existing window. The new PDF opens without getting the focus, and so I need to look for it. If many files are open as tabs this can be quite frustrating.

Images have a setting in the Preferences that determine whether or not to open them as tabs or as independent windows. PDFs don't have this setting.

How can I force new PDFs to open in new windows instead of open as tabs?

Solution 1:

Seems it's moved since I last looked, answers for old & new OSes…

Mojave

This is a system pref, kind of hidden where you wouldn't really expect to find it. It's also global, so affects pretty much all apps, except Finder which has its own pref.

System Preferences > Dock > Prefer tabs when opening documents - set to Manually.

Big Sur

It seems on Big Sur they finally moved it to somewhere sensible - System Prefs > General