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.

[Raquel31853786wfxd]

I'm at the tail end of a legal deadline and this pops up. Seriously someone should be fired. It removed all my custom tools, and is making my life so difficult I'd rather use Bluebeam after years of preaching on my Adobe soapbox. No more. You've lost me for good!

[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/revert-to-classic-interface-from-new-acrobat-gui/...

[heidiw54773222]

Oh my God, thank you so much!!! You have literally saved my life. I have to proof and markup using Adobe all the time and I can't even count the additional clicks that this ridiculous format has added to the process. You have literally given me hours back in my life!

Thanks 

[jonathanh71924232]

Thank God for that! Reverted, and all is good. Nothing good to say about the 'New Experience'. Utter garbage.

[patrick2getInfo4m3]

You can do this but not everything is the way it was. scroll bars are not working the way they did. So you can't go back. This does not make me happy. Thank you for the information on how to get the old version back. I will limp along with the old version till I cannot go back in the future. I am an unhappy customer. Just wanted to go on record. 

[Tariq Dar]

Hi All,

Hope you are doing well.

We acknowledge that the new Acrobat represents a notable change; however, we hope that as you get familiar with the new interface, you can be more productive and get more out of Acrobat.

We are actively working on all the currently unavailable features, such as customizing the all-page display, navigation & zoom tools such as 2-page view, 2-page with scrolling, marquee & dynamic zoom, etc., from the bottom right menu. And we will address them with the highest priority.

As you get more comfortable with the new interface, please contact us with specific questions on tools, features, or functionalities. We’re happy to provide helpful resources and answers to your questions.

If your critical workflows are impacted, you can switch to the old UI from the “Menu” on the top left corner of Windows and View Menu on MacOS. We will follow up with a detailed community-featured post, guiding you to familiarise yourself with the new interface and regular updates on upcoming changes.

A point to note is that as we made these changes in the interface, we have tried to ensure all tools & features that are currently supported retain their familiar functionalities and workflows as they did in the previous version. We are committed to addressing any gaps or issues users report related to any break in current workflows in all our past & upcoming releases. In case any of your current workflows are not functioning as expected, do share them with us on this thread, and we will address them with the highest priority. In case any of your critical workflows are impacted, you have the option to switch back to the old UI from the “Menu” on the top left corner of Windows and View Menu on MacOS.

We will follow up on this response with a detailed article explaining the changes, a guide to help familiarise you with the new interface, and regular updates on upcoming changes.

Thanks,
Tariq Dar

[RUDY5ED2]

No Tariq, it's not a "notable change."  It's a tremendous decrease in the quality of your product that is infuriating everyone.  Getting rid of the undo button alone while editing text is an atrocity.  The layout and all other unnecessary counterintuitive changes are too many to name.  Please stop sugarcoating and gaslighting and at least for once - someone from your office - acknowledge our anger and discontent.  You are protecting failure.  This was a huge mistake and the way you are handling it is insult to injury. 

[Matthew31381637cdkb]

Well said with profound articulation of the frustration. I was just trying to find a word in my Acrobat document. A simple activity in the former program Ctrl F and bingo you find the word. Now with this new program you have to enrol in a PhD for 3 to 4 years to be able to understand what you are supposed to do, Tariq not every user has competence in rocket science just own up and everyone will appreciate your empathy and therefore stay loyal - this is an abormination.

[toddj33950808]

How can I be productive when I can't even see the zoom level, as I could at the very top of the old UI? If you are listening, users are clearly telling you that the new UI is a big mistake. For me, Adobe products have always had pretty bad UIs, which is also true of the "old" Acrobat UI, but users get used to UIs, so when you change one, you need to involve people with expertise in both UI design and change management. I felt that some things in the new UI work better, but most things were worse. It took me 20 minutes or more to realize that I needed to revert to the old UI to get magnification level display back. There were other issues as well, such as spotty search for tools. If you look at the tool list in some screens you can search it, but not in others. And then there are the incosistencies of keyboard shortcuts with other Adobe products. Have you looked at Affinity products that are all designed to work consistently and work together? They are one of your competitors and are MUCH cheaper. I suspect that Adobe is not coordinating UI development across products and not employing enough UI experts. Fortunately, as users we have alternative choices in products.

[Fish7597]

There is no longer a "save as" option. I have resorted to printing my PDFS to PDF again to have an option to save the document where I want it. This is a classic "change for the sake of change" move. Swapping the locations of the tools to opposite sides? Like, why?

[Adobe Administration]

I totally agree with the sentiment of others on this platform.  Software companies, when unable to provide any major enhancements to their already well-developed products, seem to default to simply reorganizing their tools as a method of showing year-over-year "product improvement".  Change does NOT equal product improvement.  In fact, as the original user has noted, we all are way too busy to have to figure out where the heck basic tools have now been squirreled way.  Please, take pride in your product as is an realize that users only want change where there is a rationale reason to have done so!

[Thomas M3300697145uc]

Yep, and now we ALL have reasons to change... to other software vendors.

[adamt44454441]

Your community guidelines above state that you want kindness and respect from users. If so, treat us with kindness and respect, and do not abuse paying customers by co-opting us as an unpaid test department. 

Acrobat, you are consistently the worst major software provider, beating even Microsoft
You consistently remove useful features and add useless ones.
The SaaS model is just TERRIBLE for users, and your UX is just abysmal. Just one tiny example, even with my CreativeCloud account active and running I STILL needed my PW to post here--that's just insane.
Your products are awkward, bewilderingly complicated, expensive and counter-intuitive. They are hard to learn, and this takes time. It is a crying shame that there is no viable alternative out there. It's one thing having a monopoly, but abusing is quite another.

I dread the arrival of your updates, because they mean yet another long and dysfunctional learning curve. The new Acrobat, for example, is an abortion. I was unable to edit text in Post-Its, and to copy and paste text from them involved half a dozen mouse clicks, instead of one as previously.

I would suggest that henceforth, your default approach should be that once you have a product working, for heaven's sake JUST LEAVE IT ALONE. 

Go back to one-off outright purchase, stop peppering us with dysfuntional updates, be content with your monopoly and show us some kindness and respect.

[joey3palms]

Amen.

[Thomas M3300697145uc]

Look, there's one thing you did driving me nuts: there's no longer a scroll bar to scroll through. I use a mouse to switch between programs to check things in Acrobat, and I have to change my way of working. You think I should change. I think I should too.

I'm now going to have to use a different program to read PDFs because you broke Acrobat. I'll be gradually moving ALL my Adobe apps over to another vendor because I cannot trust you to maintain the installed base of user knowledge.

You don't know better than I do what my needs are, Tariq. I didn't need any of the new features you've created. Roll back, now, before it's too late.

[Dylan29277917c3av]

Nope this is an absolutely awful update. It now makes the program 10x's harder to use, slowing down production.

Please undo this update and go back to the drawing board. Or better yet don't mess with whats working.

[Josi Fanyinka]

There is so much wrong with the new UI that it is hard to know where to start. And absolutely no benefits whatsoever that I can see! I can't even perform basic functions like "save as" stamp a document or change the size of the font in a text box without wanting to hurl my laptop at the wall! 

Seriously Adobe, stop with the condescending comments and listen to the people taht actually buy your product!!

[robertvwhite]

The new interface is a total disaster.  I have a long string of profanity I would like to use to describe my thoughts.  Swapping panels and not allowing them to be moved or docked as we please?  Garbage mose.  Bookmarks on the right?  Who the bleep thought that was a good idea.  Bad, bad move.  Learn your lesson and stop making life for your users impossible.

[bretn20855285]

I like the product I bought from you, that's why I bought it. Don't change the thing I bought without asking me, please. If the people who made your shirts crept into your closet in the middle of the night and changed all the buttons to drawstrings, you'd likely be upset. Especially when they tell you drawstrings are better and you just need to learn to use them.

Don't change my buttons. I bought them from you. Leave mine alone. If you want to make changes, make them available to NEW customers. Don't force them on legacy users.

[bobb8905931]

The update is absolute garbage!

It was working great and then some code monkeys "fixed" it!

[excited_listener5C7F]

I thought I reverted to a really old version.  I DO NOT care for the new layout. I have a difficult time finding simple items there were so easy to access. 

Can we go  back a version if we do not like this one?

Thanks

[AnandSri]

Hi @excited_listener5C7F 

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out.

We acknowledge that the new Acrobat represents a notable change. However, we hope that as you get familiar with the new interface, you can be more productive & get more out of Acrobat.  

You can access all the items under the All Tools section on the left or from the Menu (hamburger) icon on the top left corner of the app (View menu on MacOS).

If your critical workflows are getting impacted, you can switch to the old UI from the "Menu" on the top left corner of Windows OS and View Menu on MacOS.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you continue to experience any issues or if you have any further questions related to the new Acrobat experience. We are here to assist you.

Thank you for your time.

Anand Sri.

[Elke32523872rdnm]

Glad to hear that I am not the only one that is totally annoyed with this new version of Adobe.   Why take something that works great and make it impossible to use?  This new version makes no sense. I agree whomever came up with these changes should be fired. Something that would take me five minutes took me over an hour to complete.  We are on deadlines and to bring out this garbage is very dissappointing. I finally got so annoyed I found this forum.  I am going to revert to the version that works.

[Elke32523872rdnm]

After I found this forum I converted back to the older format which was a relief.  This morning I was logged out and cannot go back to it? Nightmare.... Help.  I cannot function in this new version.  I do not see the option to revert to the older format now.

[Elke32523872rdnm]

Disregard.  I logged in and out again and it seems to be back to the old version.  Not sure what happened. So happy.