Participant

Answered

Choosing between the current and previous Acrobat interfaces

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 22, 2023
351 replies
220626 views

Why? Why do you "creators" feel a need to completely change the layout of toolbars, etc. in a program?! Do you have nothing to do so you just search out what you can do to aggravate us? Adobe Acrobat DC is now TOTALLY different in the toolbar layouts! WHY???

Correct answer BaniVerma

Hi all,

How do I switch between the current and previous Acrobat interfaces?
Acrobat lets you choose between the current and previous (classic) interface, so you can use whichever fits your workflow (where the option is supported in your version).

Switch to the previous (classic) interface:

Windows: Menu (hamburger, upper-left) > Disable new Acrobat
macOS: View > Disable new Acrobat

When prompted, select Restart to relaunch Acrobat in the previous interface. To return, select View > Enable new Acrobat and restart again.
Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/get-started/preferences-and-settings/switch-new-acrobat.html

Don't see "Disable new Acrobat"?
The option depends on your Acrobat version. First, update to the latest release: Menu > Help > Check for updates, then restart Acrobat and look again.

Why does Acrobat offer two interfaces?
The current experience groups tools into workflow-based categories (editing, commenting, signing, organizing, and sharing) to make common tasks easier to find across desktop, web, and mobile.
Adobe continues to refine the experience and provides the option to switch between the current and previous interfaces where supported.

Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/learn-new-acrobat.html

Thanks,

^BS

BaniVerma

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi all,

How do I switch between the current and previous Acrobat interfaces?
Acrobat lets you choose between the current and previous (classic) interface, so you can use whichever fits your workflow (where the option is supported in your version).

Switch to the previous (classic) interface:

Windows: Menu (hamburger, upper-left) > Disable new Acrobat
macOS: View > Disable new Acrobat

When prompted, select Restart to relaunch Acrobat in the previous interface. To return, select View > Enable new Acrobat and restart again.
Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/get-started/preferences-and-settings/switch-new-acrobat.html

Don't see "Disable new Acrobat"?
The option depends on your Acrobat version. First, update to the latest release: Menu > Help > Check for updates, then restart Acrobat and look again.

Why does Acrobat offer two interfaces?
The current experience groups tools into workflow-based categories (editing, commenting, signing, organizing, and sharing) to make common tasks easier to find across desktop, web, and mobile.
Adobe continues to refine the experience and provides the option to switch between the current and previous interfaces where supported.

Reference: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/learn-new-acrobat.html

Thanks,

^BS

M

micksay1

Participant

The new Acrobat took acrobat backwards and made it FAAAAAAR worse - Old Acrobat, I think was practically perfect. Stop trying to fix things are not broken.

J

jilll47525288

Known Participant

Sadly, even the older interface has become impossibly buggy. Twice in the last three weeks, I've had to get technical suppport because Acrobat had slowed to the point it was taking 40 seconds or more just to open or close a file.

But I'm now doing something that I encourage everyone else to do also. I'm writing a complaint letter to Adobe's CEO.

J

jilll47525288

Known Participant

Adobe did it again. I was having trouble with Acrobat again this morning. Now I know why. Adobe tried to force the new version on me again.

Fortunately, I quickly found how to extricate myself from that misery ... instructions that I now share with everyone here ...

For Mac: Go to the View menu and select Disable New Acrobat. After disabling the new experience, you can restart the app and it will open with the previous version. The keyboard shortcuts will still work the same.

For Windows: Select the hamburger menu in the upper left corner and choose Disable New Acrobat

1

1963tigre

Participant

Any sane company would track the number of people who did that and determine if they made a mistake like companies that change logos and end up reverting. OR ask users for feedback

PDF Automation Station

Community Expert

As long as you have the option to revert to the original, it's all good. BUT, if they ever remove that option because they don't want to maintain 2 systems, it will be a HUGE problem.

K

Keith301688251h0v

Participant

100% giving up on using Adobe's pdf products even for the slightest thing now that I have Bluebeam. It's just endless stuff like this from them with Acrobat & Reader and I've had enough.

M

Mica3739710536h1

Participant

1 year later and this is still so relevant. Did anyone ASK for a forced AI-companion update? No? Then whyyyyyyyyyyy? lol

W

wayne_7502

Participant

I agree with the dissappoval of the layout, my company pressures me to use the microsoft knock off but I get a lot more done with Acrobat but not if I have to chase useless changes and relearn the program. Not a wise thing to do.

kglad

Community Expert

just use the layout you want.

A

Alex303537080cgo

Participant

100% agree, and the new interface is so laggy too. Doesn't make any sense to me.

T

toral_1234

Participant

cuz they have nothing better to do!!! creating work for them and more work for us!!! Why fix then not broke...

A

andrewm70692279

Participant

Oh thank god it can be reverted, this new version is total garbage, i'm sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings but really, I didn't know I could hate something so much until I tried using this

J

jilll47525288

Known Participant

I recommend writing letters of complaint to Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen, at Adobe's headquarters (345 Park Avenue in San Jose, CA 95110). That's what I've been doing. I received an email response from someone who actually read my complaints ... not that it has resulted in Adobe ditching the terrible version. But I did implore him to pay attention to these discussion boards.

While it hasn't made a difference yet with regard to the horrible new platform, I did get *some* assistance after complaining that Acrobat's redaction feature failed after a recent update to the older platform. I could no longer redact documents and had to ask a coworker who uses a PC (versus my Mac) to help me. Adobe finally fixed that.

I'm not done raising my voice either. I complained to the Better Business Bureau about the horrible Acrobat platform as well as other problems. Apple and Adobe have conspired to keep customers from being able to view older clipart thumbnails either in Finder or in Illustrator. (I have to open every individual file in Illustrator to see the images. Some, not all, can be seen via Bridge, but the quality is horrible and doesn't reflect what the images actually look like.) I've invested hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in clipart that I can't view. It's exceeding time consuming to search images in a printed image catalog. And viewing the 1-inch thumbnails in the printed catalog is giving me eyestrain. Since neither Apple nor Adobe is willing to resolve this problem and restore the ability to preview thumbnails, I will file other complaints, such as with the Federal Trade Commission.

Adobe is making other changes to harm customers. I wanted to update an InDesign document the other day, but was immediately stopped by a warning that Adobe no longer supported the Zapf Dingbats font that I used for a symbol dozens of times in the document. I didn't have time to mess with it and had to defer updating my document.

I recently learned that Adobe's software no longer contains the Pantone color palette. So I had to get help from the company that prints my books to determine the correct CMYK percentages to obtain the color I wanted.

It's time that We the People make a lot of noise, not just here but in letters and complaints to Adobe's CEO and in complaints to the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and other resources.