2023 New Acrobat GUI is TERRIBLE

[michaelm17591477]

The new acrobat GUI is terrible. That floating quick access bar is in the way and cannot be moved...WHY? 

Just leave it alone. I had to go back to the original using the file menu.

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @michaelm17591477 

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Your feedback is valuable to us; please fill out this feature request form to share your suggestions with our engineering team: https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html 

To learn more about Modern Viewer, please refer to this help article: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html 

Note: to disable the classic view-

• Click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner.
• Click on Disable New Acrobat

Thanks,

Akanchha

[David32594635rk87]

The problem is not that people want a minor accomodation to "solve" the new GUI. The overwhelming response to this change has been negative, because it is not helpful. It creates unnecessary need to adapt. Why unnecessary? Because the new setup is worse than the old one. Public relations spin is not a solution.

[PDF Automation Station]

I'd be here all day if I was going to list all the problems with it - and that's just from a very very limited attempt at using it.  Here's a couple of the main issues:  I have tons of custom menu items for automation.  All gone now because there is no File menu so all menu items under the File parent triggers errors on startup.  I also had tons of custom toolbar add-ons.  Now they all look the same, like pink lego blocks.  So these are totally useless.  Prepare a form mode defaults to keep tool selected with not way to turn it off.  That's enough for me to give up on the new "experience".

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

You're not alone!

And yet Adobe calls the new GUI the "Modern Interface."

Gah! No! <grin>

[MBramnik01]

Hear, hear. The current Acrobat was/is perfect - just leave it alone in its perfection, please? Or at least please do not remove the "disable new experience" option, so we can continue to do our jobs. Thank you!

[sheila31662430q34o]

It is horrible.  It has created nothing but problems in my office.  Very user unfriendly and very glitchy.  Who thought this was a good idea?

[Abdullah31561620os5y]

SAme! I was about to post about it. 

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Tell the Acrobat engineers and marketing department to ditch this new "Modern" Acrobat interface. It doesn't work.

VOTE HERE: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t...

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I think Acrobat should have given the user an option of using the new or old interface (upon starting after the update) -- or, at very least, present the user a dialog box on how to disable the new interface.

I assume someone must have liked the new interface during testing. 😁

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I assume someone must have liked the new interface during testing. 😁

By @Dave Creamer of IDEAS

None of us in the best testing group.

Came out about a 1+ year ago in beta and I still can't figure out the icons, where's the one I want, which one represents the function I need to do.

It truly violates many strong principles of gui interface design. I wonder what credentials the project lead has.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I've always felt the Acrobat programing group lives in a bubble of self-confirmation. I remember the interface changes from v9-to-v10, v11-to-DC, and now the latest change. I don't remember any changes that actually improved my workflow--more like I got used to the update. It always seems to be an interface change, leaving much of the underlying dialog boxes and features the same (albeit sometimes improved). 

Adobe givith and Adobe takith away. 😉

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I've always felt the Acrobat programing group lives in a bubble of self-confirmation.

By @Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Like other major software companies, Adobe's programming team are just code-jockeys (term of endearment!), not GUI designers or marketing experts.

And as with most software companies, the marketing team tells the programmers what to create. So fixing bugs and expanding existing tools don't usually get on the drawing board because it's difficult for marketing to sell the product with sales pitches like "New! Improved! We Fixed a Bug!"  And the programming team definitely are not experts in our world of graphic design, printing/prepress, document creation, web/digital media, publishing, etc.

Adobe also has a special team to work on interface design. It's been a few years since I last worked with them, but I was not impressed with their knowledge of the software programs and how their customers used the programs. The team appeared to be recent college graduates with little real-life experience in the professional and business worlds.

20-30 years ago when these programs were first being built, we worked with the programmers and Adobe founders who WERE industry experts. Sure didn't have to tell them the difference between RGB, CMYK, LAB, PANTONE colors because they helped define and refine those technical specifications.

I know things won't be like they were before. But I wish Adobe had done more real-world market research of how users use their software and what they need to do their jobs faster, easier, better.

And I don't have any idea why Adobe decided to change the user interface at all, let alone to create this chaotic mess of useless grey icons. It doesn't even look good or cool or "modern", ya know?

[Bhawna29481033c2ab · Accepted solution]

Hi @michaelm17591477 

We believe you are talking in interest of Quick toolbar which is sticky in nature.

We are glad to announce that we have taken up this feedback and will be shipping Quick toolbar as draggable bar in upcoming update of Acrobat.

Regards,

Bhawna.

[maisondasilva]

It would be nice to have an option to hide it, because I don't use it!

[maisondasilva]

Even if I click close I open a new pdf it comes back this is annoying! Put an option for it to at least stay as hidden as possible on the side!

[lokh66726471]

Dragging a useless 'Quick toolbar" around that you can't park at the top of the ribbon - OUT OF THE WAY that takes up too much real estate - is futile, stupid and frickin MORONIC.  Useabily should have been the first design consideration, not "Let's change it for Change's sake" which Adobe apparently did and now will lose face because they fracked up a good thing. Maybe when the Adobe stock falls and you all get laid off, you'll admit the 'New Acrobat' sucks and change it back the way it was.

NO!  I do NOT WANT to use the 'New Acrobat'  buggy interface when I can't find a fricking thing or move the useless 'tools' out of the way.  You also need to STOP SPAMMING ME with "try the new FRACKED UP ACROBAT" popups.  NO must mean NO, even in 2024!  A year later, I have the same complaint because when I re-install Acrobat because Adobe's BUGGY security patches and the damn thing crashes, it installs the FRACKED UP NEW ACROBAT. HATE New Acrobat.  HATE IT, HATE IT, HATE it!!!!! EaseUS  PDF Editor is looking more and more attractive in useability and price.

[Jim38367450luai]

I also hate the new Adobe GUI. It is terrible and has significantly impacted my productivity. It is maddening and I dredge using it.

They have crippled what was a great program. I really wish I could go back to version XI on Windows 11.




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[Glenn349644091jp7]

The sad truth is Acrobat is no longer for skilled designers; it's 100%
focused on office users, and the UI is dumbed down for that market.

Glenn Wilton

[coreya35860088]

So imagine you are on an important zoom call with clients and sharing your screen and you open a PDF and all of a sudden, with no warning, your entire user interface is foreign and you can't figure out what to do and you have an audience watching you flounder. I should sue for emotional distress.  Don't change the user interface and certainly don't automatically change it without warning. There should be a pop-up like "hey there's a new acrobat do you want to give it a try? is now a good time, or are we ruining your da@m career?

Imagine if I snuck into the hospital late at night and rearranged all the equipment in the emergency room and didn't tell anyone. these are our tools don't move our tools without permission!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Gotta vote here to get Adobe's attention: and tell them what you don't like, too.

VOTE HERE: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t...

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

You can revert to the classic GUI interface by following the instructions here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/acrobat-2023-how-to-revert-to-classic-gui-user-in... 

[JamieLynne25656402umhb]

It's absolutely horrible.  It's as though people were looking for job security and decided to change the entire experience without any VOC.  Is there any way to revert?

[JamieLynne25656402umhb]

Nevermind, I just found out how - thanks YouTube!

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Did the post by @Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com on Aug. 24th not give you the answer?