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IT Helper
Participating Frequently
July 3, 2012
Question

Docking Toolbars | CTRL+E Dialog Boxes | Quick Tools | Despeckle

  • July 3, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 21380 views

Dear Adobe,

It is unreasonable that the function to dock toolbars was removed/not included in Acrobat X Standard/Pro--it is a huge time-saving feature for novice and power users.  Examples are the search bar, the typewriter/text box, etc.

Making it mandatory for users to press CTRL+E to access a secondary "advanced" menu is not right (Text box options for font and font color, etc).  This menu should at least be accessible through a right-click context, if not docked, as mentioned above. 

When a Comment tool (Text box, etc.) is right-clicked and added to Quick Tools, its right-click functions can't be accessed from the Quick Tools area (Tool Default Properties, Keep Tool Selected).  This would be a big time saver--no one that I know likes to keep the right-side menu bar open just to right click on a tool they already have in the Quick Tools area; they would only keep the right-side menu bar open if they must select multiple tools for a task, then they would close it again.

Why was Despeckle removed from the Optimize Scanned PDF tool?  This was the #1 feature that saved users hours upon hours for removing black dots and speckles from scanned documents.  Descreen doesn't do this, and no feature included in Acrobat X Standard/Pro will do this.

Just because Adobe Acrobat is the foremost document software in the world, it does not mean that it's acceptable to make users suffer with the fad concept of a minimalistic user interface that many software development companies are all trying out.  It's also not acceptable to remove features that made previous versions very quick and easy to use.  These features should remain, and NEW features should be added to make the software even more productive, not counter-productive.

Will Adobe please consider these highly requested and much-needed features?  I know I'm not alone in this. 

Thanks.

    2 replies

    E
    Enthusiastic_wisdom16B8
    Participant
    June 7, 2015

    I totally agree and just submitted a feature request to Adobe. 

    Unfortunately this trend of the flat and simplistic design that all companies seemed to have jumped on is contagious now.  What I have been finding is that features and functionality is being taken away, changes to usability are made that take away any control from the user, and quite frankly the flat design is the biggest backwards step in the software development as we know it.  All icons are rendered useless due to the fact that they all are mono chrome or one color, and what's worse, usually they are a light hue, so seeing them is also hard against white background.  Not to even mention: how many details can you really express with one color?  Not many.  I keep making an analogy as to this trend: This flat design is equivalent of telling Dreamworks that from now on they can only use one color for their animations, and no shadows...in other words: use only stick figures.

    The fact that Adobe is also following the trend of stripping functionality away from users and/or adding more clicks to be able to do the same things we were able to do with one before, is sad and clear indication that the user in general does not matter to the company, and that the company is forcing and treating all users as if they were the same, had same requirements, same functionality, same jobs....

    The only thing we, the users can do is keep bombarding them with Feedback, and Requests....the more we submit, they can't ignore it.  Ignoring the users eventually lead the user base to search out alternative solutions that will meet all the actual user requirements.

    Please everyone submit a Request directly to Adobe!!! There is power in numbers!~!!!!!

      M
      MisterMidnight
      Participating Frequently
      October 7, 2012

      You are not alone, many users are frustraded by the "minimalistic user interface" in Acrobat X which was a big step backwards from prior versions. It's unfortunate that someone decided that more mouse clicks are desirable for simple functions. It's totally baffling that the docking toolbars function was removed, maybe if programmers who actually use Acrobat were employed we would see more common sense/intuitive functionality. I'm hoping that all of the shortcomings you mentioned will be reinstated in XI.

        D
        Dave Merchant
        Legend
        October 7, 2012

        The user interface for Acrobat XI is largely unchanged from Acrobat X - we do now have some customization of the Tools Pane (via Tool Sets) and the Comments Panel can be undocked, but the other Panels and the system toolbars remain fixed.

        The Acrobat user interface is designed with the target customer base in mind - enterprise knowledge workers. These customers require fixed layout UIs to assist with training and technical support. Programmers and creative users have different requirements but are not the target audience.

        M
        MisterMidnight
        Participating Frequently
        October 7, 2012

        Dave,

        What I don't understand is.. why not have the best of both worlds and allow toolbar customization as an option? Acrobat 9 and prior had it... The Search function is especially annoying, you have to click to open it for each and every single PDF file you open, not to mention how ridiculously tiny it is. It's so frustrating to not be able to drag the search box into the toolbar where logic dictates that it belongs - SO much easier when it's there and ready to go for every document, not requiring so many extra mouse clicks to open it each time. And PLEASE, allow users to turn off the "Recent File/Getting Started" splash box that is in the middle of the screen when no documents are open. Mac users can turn it off, but PC users can't for some odd reason, maybe we are being punished? 

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