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

Show previous replies

K

ksauce11

Participant

Thanks for the info to disable. I hated the new look as well.

A

Avoid34876232f5sh

Participant

I have (for some reason) been using Acrobat reader a long time. Having gotten wiser through the years, I have configured my firewall to decline any access to internet by any Adobe software. This should prevent any unwanted changes to my user interface, I thought... ...until now. Out of the blue, the reader had enabled "New Experience".

Checked my firewall settings - still no access to internet by Adobe, in nor out. How does the reader change the UI then? Is it malware? Is there "root kit"? Should all Adobe tools be driven in a "sandbox"?

kglad

Community Expert

@Avoid34876232f5sh

win: upper left hamburger menu > disable new acrobat

mac: view > disable new acrobat

J

jon34867688zpas

Participant

Complete surprise too. No news. No warning. No 'would you like to change?'. Just a change, that sends my reader crashing every couple of minutes and is really annoying to use/

Thank goodness for the disable new acrobat tag.

H

Heather348381005b4z

Participant

I agree. I don't like the new layout with the page thumbnail panel on the wrong side, and my toolbar completely disappeared. I immediately disabled the "new" acrobat and now everything is back to normal.

IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT! Gah.

T

Trudi348367091xmg

Participant

This is an awful change to the layout, if anything, they should make it so you can change where things are, not force a new layout that may not be useful for all.

jane-e

Community Expert

It sounds like you may not have disabled the New Interface yet, @Trudi348367091xmg . See the steps in the post marked "correct" and repeated throughout this thread.

Jane

A

Anon252889

Participant

The new changes are the absolute worst. I am not sure who though it would be a good idea to completely change the way you you have been able to edit documents for the past several years. It is requiring us to completely re-learn the system and causing significant delays in processing documents. it is very frustrating.

J

jilll47525288

Known Participant

So true. What I don't understand is why Adobe isn't doing anything to resolve the problems. This community forum seems to be only a place for us to vent. Adobe should be listening to its customers and scraping the new version. Adobe seems to be deaf to our complaints in addition to being blind to what customers need and want with updates. Adobe, are you listening? When will you scrap this horrendous verion with all the problems it has created for users?

jane-e

Community Expert

What I don't understand is why Adobe isn't doing anything to resolve the problems. This community forum seems to be only a place for us to vent. Adobe should be listening to its customers and scraping the new version.
By @jilll47525288

The Adobe product developers use a different website for bug reports and feature requests. You can post here:

https://acrobat.uservoice.com/

This forum is mostly a community forum, with some amazing staff also participating. Bugs and ideas still need to go to UserVoice.

Jane

M

MtnLiam

Participant

Indeed, why ruin what was otherwise a very good User Experience? Adobe traditionally has a very good UX team, but clearly something has changed!

Adobe, if you're reading this: it's about clicks. If it takes me 3 more clicks to accomplish the same task I used to do in 2, then you're design is awful.

3 clicks

X number of times per day task is performed

X number of work days using Acrobat DC Pro

-------------------------------------------------------------

PERSON WEEKS of time wasted.

Seriously, I do this math all the time when designing tools. The hours really do add up.

jane-e

Community Expert

@MtnLiam

Have you disabled the New Experience yet? The instructions are repeated throughout this thread, but here they are again:

Steps to enable [and disable] the new experience

To enable the new experience, go to View > Enable new Acrobat and click Restart.
To disable the new experience,
- Windows: Click the hamburger menu ( 3 lines ) at the upper left corner and choose Disable new Acrobat.
- macOS: Go to View > Disable new Acrobat.

Details about the New Experience here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html

Jane

kglad

Community Expert

@Teresa Nemeth

uninstall acrobat, including preferences, then reinstall.

disable new acrobat.

M

mikem30577428

Participating Frequently

New version is intolerable.

Persistent floating mini-toolbar that you absolutely cannot dock on the right side (even though most of the right side is completely empty) to get it out of your way.
Controls that used to be next to each other are now at opposite corners of the UI (because reasons). The extra time wasted on suprefluous mouse movement alone is ridiculous. (WHO designed this layout?)
Oh, and the best new "feature" of all: the app lags horribly trying to read files and hangs itself to death on files that previously opened and read with ease (and THAT new quality feature persists even if you turn the "new experience" off). My ability to work with PDFs for my job has taken a complete nosedive.

This is the opposite of improvement. It's pure regression.

kglad

Community Expert

@mikem30577428

restore the "old" acrobat.

M

mikem30577428

Participating Frequently

@kglad Would love to, trying to figure out how.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

About Acrobat's brutal updates: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/crazy-and-brutal-update-bis/m-p/14248473

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

M

Maryann3374830750id

Participant

I respectfully suggest that when you do a major change like this you offer a beta version first to see if people like it. I have to tell you I HATE this new tool bar version, There was no need to change it. IT's made everything more difficult to work with now

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