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Participant
December 9, 2020
Question

Acrobat compare side by side view, page synchronization

  • December 9, 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 5271 views

I frequently run compares on multipage documents and appreciate the side-by-side view. When scrolling through, I would like to keep the pages aligned, but they will often become unsynchronized (in an attempt, I suppose, to show me where it interprets content has gone). Is there a way to lock page synchronization as I scroll through a document?

5 replies

Matthewken4722
Participant
January 29, 2025

I had the same issue and since there isn't a feature to manually do this, I opened one of the documents and manually went to page when it got out of sync on a different screen. May be obvious, but it took me a bit to come to that

Souvik Sadhu
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 4, 2025

Hi @defaultv4wy1qygyiz3,

 

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the trouble, and the delayed response.

 

We made many stability and performance enhancements in the subsequent releases.

Would you mind updating the app to the latest version (2024.005.20241) and let us know if the issue is fixed?

 

To do so,  go to Menu->Help-> Check for Updates.


-Souvik

Participant
December 29, 2024

In addition to the pages not synchronizing, after around 30 minutes, this app freezes, so I have to force stop the app and re-open.  I have a new laptop with plenty of everything to handle this app, so it's not an issue with my laptop. This issue makes the app almost worthless when the user needs to view both pages.  I'd appreciate knowing which "buttons the tool adds to scroll or align" that the contributor mentioned. Thanks! 

Known Participant
January 9, 2023

Exactly what I need... comparing last year tax return to this year, and after one page of 23, the offset is more than 3/4 page... which makes it VERY annoying to use. An offset would be REALLY EASY to implement, it's bizarre Adobe don't see this as a basic feature for a "compare" tool. Disappointed Adobe!

Meenakshi_Negi
Legend
December 16, 2020

Hey Stephen,

 

Thank you for reaching out.

 

As Bernd Alheit mentioned, there is no setting in Acrobat to lock the page synchronization. 

When comparing documents, the second document generally synchronized with the pages in the first document. However, depending on the changes, it may become a little unsynchronized. 

If you wish you may share your suggestion with the team via this form https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

 

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi

 

Participant
June 4, 2022

Ok, does Adobe have a work around since there is no solution out of the box? Submit to wishlist doesn't really help right now.

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 4, 2022

I've developed a (paid-for) tool that allows you to do that, if you're interested. You can find it here:

https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-reader-synchronized-scrolling-two-or-more-pdf-documents

Note that it will not work when you scroll the files normally, though, only when you use the buttons the tool adds to the application to scroll up or down, or to align the files.

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 14, 2020

Not possible.