Participating Frequently

Answered

Understanding and customizing the current Acrobat interface

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 19, 2023
335 replies
127320 views

Hi,

I am trying to write a complaint email but of course, no contact details in this regard, so here I am:

what on earth is going on with this new update of Adobe Acrobat Pro that normally it's supposed to be more user friendly - news flash, it's not - and appart from this, there is this new awful feature that blocks the app whenever I try to handle documents, the app blocks, I can't close, I can't do anything, it just freezes. The only thing that gets me out of there is task manager, and then starting over again.

I did this 3 times, making me losing around 10 minutes for an edit that normally, before this horrible update, it was taking me few seconds... Come on guys WAKE UP!

Correct answer BaniVerma

Hi all,

How do I switch between the current and previous Acrobat interface?

Acrobat includes both the current and previous (classic) interfaces for supported versions where the option is available, so you can choose whichever fits your workflow.

Switch to the previous (classic) interface:

Windows: Menu > Disable new Acrobat
macOS: View > Disable new Acrobat

When prompted, select Restart to relaunch Acrobat with the previous interface. To return to the current interface, select View > Enable new Acrobat and restart Acrobat.

Reference

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/get-started/preferences-and-settings/switch-new-acrobat.html

What's different about the current Acrobat interface?

Previous (Classic) Interface	Current Acrobat Interface
Traditional menu and toolbar layout	Reorganized menus, toolbars, and panels
Frequently used tools available through the classic interface	Workflow-based tool organization
Standard toolbar layout	Customizable toolbar with frequently used tools

The current Acrobat experience organizes common PDF tasks by workflow and provides a more consistent experience across desktop, web, and mobile.

References

Can I customize the Acrobat interface?

Yes. To customize your toolbar:

From the Quick action toolbar, select Add, remove, or reorder tools, then choose Customize toolbar.
Select a tool category, then click the plus icon to add a tool to your toolbar.
Use the arrows to reorder tools, or the trash icon to remove them.
Select Save.

For the latest interface improvements and feature updates, see the current What's New documentation and Acrobat Release Notes.

References

Thanks,

^BS

Show previous replies

SuznP

Participant

Amen! The update has cost me hours in productivity. I have had to convert PDF's to Word as a work around.

L

Lodewijk35204407y4oj

Participant

As usual I tried to open one of my many Documents made with Jarte, a marvelous word processor, but now the thumbnail was changed to a blank page without a title. And instead of opening the document -with all my saved passwords- a page opened with the offer to try out a new version 7 days for free.

Now I see that all the documents I made over the years with Jarte have been taken over by Adobe....

To see what would happen if I made a new document with Jarte, I just wrote "Trying Jarte now" and saved the document. Now also that document looks blank. And again a page opened to try out the new Adobe for free 7 days.

This is trying to force me to get the new Adobe Reader, or lose al my Jarte documents. And even if I did, who knows if I can get the Jarte documents back to readable.

I have my document with passwords saved on a thumbnail, so I have hope that after I uninstall Adobe Reader from my laptop I can open the document again.

If not it will take me days to ask for password resets on dozens of websites.

Jarte used to have a paid version, but now that is free. And no longer served. But that's fine because it works great.

If Jarte were still in business they surely would sue Adobe for taking over and/or ruining the use of their software.

Sorry Adobe, but this in infuriating. Outrageous.

L

Lodewijk35204407y4oj

Participant

PS:

Thanks to the help from Adobe Customer Service the issue was resolved.

I was about to give up when the chat bot did not give me a real person to speak to.

But I tried a new chat, and a very patient frienlyl man came on. After some chatting he offered to take over my laptop to fix the disaster. I was glad and he took over.

The ersult was that all my Jarte documents have their yellow thumbnail with J again.

As well as Adobe reader.

He typed a few easy to follow instructions on how to set Jarte to be the default program. (Which I copy/pasted right away in a new Jarte document.)

I had uninstalled Adobe Reader -which had not solved rhe issue- but he told me I could install it again without the issue arising once more.

I did, and saw the little checkbox next to the offer to make Adobe Reader the default document opener. I unticked that box, and now I caa read my PDFs again, as well as my Jarte documents.

I had asked him it I could give him 5 stars somewhere, and he said I would get an evaluation email from Adobe. I did and was very glad to be able to award him his well deserved 5 stars.

L

Lodewijk35204407y4oj

Participant

PPS:

I did not mean that my Adobe PDFs had a yeallow Jarte thumbnail, but that I had Adobe Reader documents as well next to my Jarte documents.

D

defaultkdxm1epb8ibd

Participant

I absoultly agree. I went on vacation and when I got back I couldn't even figure out what was going on. You figure have an account with them that they would give you a heads up and maybe a turorial about how to the changes will effect what youv'e been used to doing. I can't even find the dang zoom in our out that I can make on my bar. Just aggravating.

Michelle

N

Natasha28371939ucig

Participant

Hi Adobe,

Are there any fixes to the issues reported? The new Adobe Acrobat is awful, freezes all the time, and slow. It's layout looks like it's gone back to the 90s. Really surprising from Adobe as the software is normally great from you guys but this is very disappointing. Took me 4 hours to make very simple edits yesterday. In addition to that (I work for an IT company) we've had x5 seperate users/companies complaining about Acrobat over just the last week.

Is there anything that resolves Acrobrat now freezing consisitantly?

michaelw23747592

Participant

Added to your complaint, there are too many popups. oo much distractions and interruptions.

Michal5FC4

Participant

YES , same here. opening a pdf file crashes Acrobat PRO for 1-2 minutes. It is frustrating , especially that we all pay for the subscription !!

E

Elizabeth34215852cgyk

Participant

The new adobe experience sucks, it hovers over the blank spot your trying to tap on and gives you all these tools & options which takes me longer to get a form ready for a client to fill out and sign. Just the worse. I had to figure out to revert back to the old version. It was taking too much of my time to get a form ready.

T

Tashrif33791878jo4o

Participant

You are so right. The updated version is extremely slow.

S

Stefan34152064xjdi

Participant

Thanks for the tipp about the revert. Very helpful as the latest version indeed is a desaster and this has nothing to do with us users getting used to the new flow. I would love to see Adobes user research reports that led them to do these changes...

J

John33781579nsvx

Participant

I can't believe Adobe have put this version of the reader out there. It is the worst ever. The interface overlays portions of the document over itself, the app is locking up and the only way to get out of it is via Task Manager. This is not a step forward, by the looks of it, many many others are experiencing the same frustrations. Unless this is wound back and a more reliable, cleaner interface is brought back, I will look to using another product. Take this as constructive feedback and make a lot of people very happy. Thanks JT