Acrobat - 2023 Changes Are Beyond Awful... Or Is It Just Me?

[davidk5418443]

Who thought it a good idea to change nearly everything at once?

Guess what - most of us are working for a living and don't have time for hours of tutorials and having to sift through support forums to find out how to use software that has been one of the back-bones of our work-flow.

As a designer working in the construction industry, along with being a skilled graphic designer, (you name the Adobe product, I have probably used it)  I have found Acrobat to be an excellent, can't live without tool over the years, but this new version has hidden every bit of functionalityy that I personally need.

Am I asking for help here? No. I simply don't have time to mess around while some hotshot new designer celebrates his/her/it's new internal slaps on the back for a job 'well done' at Adobe, and the team scrabble around to answer some of the complaints. 

To say I am dissapointed, is an understatement. 

Before anyone says it, there are always complaints when software interfaces are changed. But mostly these are rolled out as minor changes, that after a bit of grumbling, people learn and accept, and everyone understands why software must develop.  Not wholesale changes such as these..

I have been using Bluebeam Revu recently in tandem with Acrobat, and I am gutted to find myself having to turn to it rather than the Adobe that I have used and loved for decades.

So here are just a few gripes...

No longer can I automatically zoom in and out using a mouse wheel. Presumably there is a way of 'turning this on' hidden away in the depths of the many sub menus. Or does the sdesigner only use a tablet?

It's a basic function that makes it a useable tool, so why is it turned off. Now I have to look in opposite corners for the Pan tool and the Zoom functions. What was wrong with the hovering menu at the foot of the page with all the tools to hand? The select, zoom and pan tools are the three most useful tools to have readily available. It is almost as though the person / peeps who has/have re-designed it, doesn't use it personally. Except perhaps to read a copy of their latest comic.

I can't be bothered to continue and resent needing to.

The question is... do I stay or do I go?

Give me a really good reason to stay Adobe.. Please.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Yes, the new interface is being panned by users.

I personally agree with you and there have been countless complaints here in the forums.

You can revert to the previous interface:

• File menu (the new Hamburger menu in the upper left) or under the View menu on Apple.
• Disable New Acrobat.

Best to you.

[davidk5418443]

Thanks, that is a major relief.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[Julia31368280zmla]

Thank you!

[goddesscat]

Thank you so much! I was desperately looking (to no avail) for the previous version to install! Unicorns DO exist! 🙂

[toddj33950808]

I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get the maginification level displayed in a  toolbar. Disabling new Acrobat did the trick. As to zooming in and out by mouse wheel, for some reason on Windows holding CTRL does that; however, in Illustrator, Alt zooms in and out. I have to wonder if Adobe has user interface designers with human factors engineering expertise. Consistency across related apps is super important as is change management.

[excited_listener5C7F]

Thank you I just saw this response.  I am now on the previous version thank goodness.

[Adam Shaw]

That's fantastic, thank you for that.  Straight back to the old version for me. Main use of Adobe for me is to get documents signed.  Main upgrade looks to me to have moved options that were on the left to the right and those that were on the left to the right.  And then make all other options impossible to find.  Stupid.

[vecxel]

Thank you so much - that saves so much time and deduces my angerlevel by a lot.

[Nicolas287504640tyd]

Thank you so much! 

The new interface is awful.

[Becky33057286d2up]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!  You just saved me hours of internet research.  I'm back to the old view now.

[Ted33184710ifck]

Thanks, my upsetness has now returned to normal after your guide. One must still feel curious about which test group Adobe used to launch such garbage as the new AA Pro?

[bobb8905931]

an epic thank-you of biblical proportions !!!!

If only more app updates offered that option. case in point, FitBit.

[Erik Vos - Het Lab]

thank you! What a nightmare Acrobat puts us in. 

[Sleepless In Seattle]

As a working scientist, I can scientifically say that whoever was in charge of the update really beefed it. Even with reverting to the old interface (thank you for inclduing that option!), there are functionalities that no longer work as well as they did before (e.g. sticky notes). It might be worth cutting your losses before you start losing significant amounts of new and old users to this terribly frustrating update.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I'm hoping that Adobe learns from Coca-Cola who had to ditch New Coke back in the 1980s. It's a famous case of bad product design based on faulty data that is taught in business and advertising courses. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke

[ilariai75285382]

Thank you very much!!! I was freaking out on te new interface and is slowing my workflow so badly!
Now I could rollback.

My complaints are. so far:
- the zoom thing
- the fact that I can't select more than one page at a time simpy dragging the mouse in the preview windows. Now I have to click on each and everyone of them and drag them in the new pdf. And if by chance I forget to deselect them afterwards, I will drag them again, with new selections, in a different part of the comic I am composing.
- the preview now is on the right (why?), but I could cope with it if the rest was still the same.
- I can't find an option to open a different document in a new windows, and not in the same pdf I am working on... (instead I have to drag it to open it in a saparate window).

[RolloDollo]

And what's up with the zoom-function? Literally un-usable.

[try67]

Definitely not just you. We're getting multiple complaints from people each day about various aspects of the new UI. All of them are solved by switching it off.

I just encountered an issue where a script was not working in the new version due to a bug, but it started working fine as soon as the user switched back to the old design. So the changes are not just aesthetic, there are also functional differences (undocumented, of course), including bugs that only exist in the new version.

[davidk5418443]

Thanks for the feedback, that is interesting. 

[Amal.]

Hi there

++ Adding to the discussion

For information and know-how about the new UI, please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html

You may also share your feedback with the engineering team using the link https://acrobat.uservoice.com/

Regards

Amal

[Gwen31666870bpie]

Write to Adobe

I just opened the "new" update and I am LIVID! Things that used to be easy and even POSSIBLE are NO LONGER POSSIBLE with the update. There is NO "SAVE AS" link just the little icon on the OPPOSITE side from where it was normally located!

I can NO LONGER easily save 1 item to TWO files! I have to re-download the page/paper to save it a second time.

The number of PAGES in an item is NO LONGER SHOWN!

Changing the size of the view is NOT LONGER FOUND!

LOTS of WASTED SPACE with the 'new' side bars.

ALL TOOLS are opened on the side of EVERY ITEM I Download! Waste of time since it needs to be CLOSED with each paper!

WHY was a COMPLETE REDO of ALL ITEMS at the same time?

I don't have time to RE_LEARN your program and if I could find another program I WOULD JUMP AT IT and DELETE ADOBE completely for their LACK of concern for their customers!

[defaultc4dbtqcj0x7o]

Just bring back the old version and trash the new version.  It doesn't work at all for me, a long time use of previous versions.  It really sucks.

Did teenager approve this garbage.

[Clogdiver]

I just updated, I feel saddened.  I really dont like the side panels swap.  Such a major change they have not considered without locking it down.  It not only reflects the PDF I am editing but all the screenshots in the training manuals and screenshots and demo's that are now wrong.  Why would you enforce a swap over like this with no option to edit?    I work left to right and I dont want a menu on the right.  I want it left where it was...

[JR Boulay]

Definitely not just you. (bis)

Inverting the tools with the navigation panels and adding 1 to 3 clicks to perform each operation doesn't strike me as efficient, productive or intelligent.

Removing the Action Wizard and the plugins is not a good idea too.