How to save a PDF so it’s in preview/read only mode

Hi ​@AJboston, 

Fair frustration — and there's a real reason this is harder than it looks, which is worth knowing.

The short version: a PDF can contain instructions saying "open in full screen, hide toolbars" — and Acrobat Pro lets you set these under File > Properties > Initial View. But whether those instructions are followed depends entirely on which app opens the file on the other end. In 2026, most Windows users open PDFs in Chrome or Edge by default, and those apps ignore viewer preference settings embedded in the file. Adobe can't force Google or Microsoft to honour them — PDF is an open ISO standard, not an Adobe-controlled format.

So Adobe has built the feature. The gap is that the rest of the ecosystem doesn't follow it.

Your best options right now:

• Set Initial View in Acrobat Pro (File > Properties > Initial View > Full Screen + hide toolbar/menu bar) — works if your recipient uses Adobe Reader/Acrobat
• Share via link from acrobat.adobe.com — they open it in Adobe's own web viewer, so your settings are honoured regardless of what's installed on their machine

Let me know which situation applies and I can give you the exact steps.

~Tariq