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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

C

Christopher Boyd

Participant

Totally agree. Changing the location of things to a completely different location on the interface after decades in the same place, is infuriating.

D

Dorimar Ortiz-Torres

Participant

The new update is so terrible and horrible and nightmarish that, for the first time ever, I felt the need to express myself on a topic like this. To me, the top thing that makes Adobe unparalleled is the user-friendliness of all its products. That effectiveness, that ease, that perfection... It all disappeared with this update. How come this was approved??? They made EVERYTHING harder. EVERYTHING that was super easy now is significantly more difficult. How come the advantage of just selecting the text and start typing the replacement, was eliminated, and now I have to go and select the comment icon, and then select "replace text", and then select the text to be replaced, and then open the comments panel, and then start typing the text to be replaced ???? HOW someone thought that was better????? That someone doesn't belong in Adobe! This is just one tiny thing of MANY that just killed the perfection that Adobe Pro WAS for us editors. It's HORRIBLE and I just wish you accept it soon and not too late, and change things back.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Makes me wonder: do the folks who decided on this drastic change have a clue how we professionals use Acrobat in our daily work lives?

Do they actually use Acrobat as professionals in publishing?

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

This may be sacrilege, but I'm getting used to the new interface--99% of it is just reminding myself that they simply swapped the left & right features.

I can only assume their research showed that the tools were used more often than the panes, so they swapped them. Not sure if the less mouse scrolling was worth the flack Adobe is getting...

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

S

Sheri30545519qohb

Participant

Agreed! The new toolbar configuration is not cleaner; it's a mess! There are tools everywhere: top, high sides, low sides, not the slightest bit intuitive. I can't find anything, including the "View" button, that will allow me to reverse this chaotic display.

S

Sheri30545519qohb

Participant

Reverse button found, heavy sigh of relief. Hopefully, a good bit of work will be done on the new strategy before the life-saving button is removed.

R

rowena3153250938df

Participant

Latest update of Adobe Acrobat Pro is an absolute disaster

No warning and my whole screen has changed! This is just NOT acceptable ! Im trying to WORK so I can PAY the subscription.!!! SORT IT OUT. !!!!!

M

Matthew32373167cpm8

Participant

It is unfathomably bad. An idiot Adobe exec hired idiot outside consultants and produced this absolutely rubbish. Months now and I cannot get used to it because it is non-intuitive and different to the way that other software companies do things. This is worse than Microsoft and they are bad enough. This is lterally insane. Someone there should be fired. Mind-bogglingly bad.

J

Joseph32780801501e

Participant

Well said. It is mind boggling that teams of people put this together and that at least one if not several high-paid executives approved this. Are they gibbering idiots who sit there drooling on themselves?

S

si-boneGFX

Known Participant

Great way to also describe the latest version on a Mac: "an absolute disaster". Slow like a 1998 flip-phone, it freezes, it pauses for long, ternal seconds, it freaks when using the the Zoom tool (100% broken)... and the interface "looks cleaner" but is further confusing most of the users that were ALREADY confused by the old UI! Un-believable

M

MATTHEW5CD4

Participant

What? Adobe Released without all the tools? After clicking button/command, "Feature Not Avilable Yet". Then why Release it? Agreed, the new Adobe is horrible.

O

Oddo Harkins

Participant

Couldn't agree more about how brutal the transition is to the new acrobat. I Love the idea of making a cleaner user experience, getting rid of wasted menu bars and such. But some features, such as the hand tool seem to have disappeared all together. I do a lot of commenting and skimming dozens of pdf's a day and I like to be able to open one and change the view layout and quickly navigate with the hand tool. Usually i setup my toolbar with page display and navigation tools but suddenly my toolbar will only accept editing tools? and can i dock that toolbar? hell no!

P

PositiveEnergy

Inspiring

Switch from New Adobe Acrobat Reader Interface to Old
https://youtu.be/IIV8iKREunw

J

Joseph32780801501e

Participant

The new update is HORRIBLE. All I want to do is click on parts that I want to highlight in yellow AND IT DOESN'T WORK. Instead, it selects one word, won't let me continue to highlight the rest of the sentence, and acts like I want to create a comment on the one word that is selected. What a bunch of complete idiots you are at Adobe! Please lower my subscription cost commensurate with the horrible quality of your "update." Every other windows program lets you now choose where on your screen you want to place a window by hovering over the middle icon in the upper right. The old Adobe allowed this, but not the new Adobe update. I can't believe how incompetent you people are!

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