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.

[adamt44454441]

Anand,

We, your paying customers and users, demand respect and kindness. NOW. 

This update is not a 'notable change.' It's garbage. Go back to the old version then LEAVE IT ALONE. For ever.

STOP abusing us, your paying customers, who you rely on for earnings and income, by forcing us to go through the hell of non-functionbal software every time you update.

STOP abusing your paying customers, by co-opting us as an unpaid test department for unmerchantable products.

REFUND us when bugs cause software to fail

STOP dysfunctional updates.

STOP removing useful functionality

STOP adding useless functionality

STOP redesigning interfaces.

Get your products working then LEAVE THEM ALONE. 

BTW OCR isn't working, I OCR'ed a file in a fireign language with special characters and it failed COMPLETELY

[Josi Fanyinka]

Ah Anand, the triumph of hope over experience! 

I, and from reading various forums on this, around 99.9% of your users HOPE that you will finally and graciously admit that the new UI is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard and roll back to the old one. If the new UI is eventually forced on everyone I suspect you will lose an incredbily high percentage of your users...

Thank you for your time.

Josi

[Cat31952714vz6o]

Yes, absolutely awful. Why would you completely change the way this app works. Where is edit???????

[jlkilcrease]

OMG, what a bloody shock this upgrade, you call it? This is such a clunky tool now. Crashing is commonplace, freezing up all the time. What a disappointment, a waste of my time. And for simple updates to documents, too. I am reverting to BlueBeam and a version of Acrobat that works solidly and straight forward like XI.

[VBN]

I can't believe Adobe is paying its designers and developers to do this? There are so many things to improve in Acrobat and you concentrate on scrapping the interface only? Adobe, why do you think Acrobat plug-ins exist? Because your software has huge shortcomings, and plugins try to fill those gaps. Look at Pitstop for Prepress or CommonLook for Accessibility. Stop messing around and get Acrobat moving in the right direction.

[Jeff32645060hkl2]

Terrible Software. I've used it for years to mark up construction drawings. I'm looking for an alternative. How can Adobe not see how bad this is?

[joey3palms]

Adobe lost me at not being able to scroll down thru pages and instead tap a down arrow. And consolidating pdf pages into a single doc is buried now. Thanks for the solution to revert to the previous version. Truly a disaster. I know that adobe is clay soil. I was born in San Jose. But don't let the Adobe brand become mud.

[pckimber]

Couln't agree more - it is awful - zoom functioone is terrible making most of our .pdf's un-useable - Adobe please can I have the old acrobat back??

[excited_listener5C7F]

Somewhere in this string of messages, it tells you how to revert back to the old version. I did.


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[pckimber]

thanks - I have switched back.

[D. Klein]

View>Disable New Acrobat.   Hopefully this option never does away. In an ideal world, they'd stop with their smug replies and actually take feedback that this is a disaster and go back. 

[D. Klein]

I couldn't agree more. I'm an Adobe user for 30+ years. This is the WORST redesign I've even been the victim of. The fact that I have spent an hour now trying to figure out how to prominetly show the PAGE NUMBER and faililng is not a reflection of my abilities. Why is it on the right hand side and doesn't even show total number of pages!? This is necessary for quality contol. 

[robertr69432093]

The performance has gone into the dumpster. It's actually FASTER and more RELIABLE to open PDF's in Illustrator just to send them to a printer now. Not sure who transferred from the Photoshop Dept to the Acrobat Dept, but they brought the performance problems with them. Every year freeware/open source applications are looking more and more inviting.

[AnandSri]

Hi @robertr69432093 

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

Would you mind sharing more details about the issue you are experiencing with the new Acrobat? I hope you are on the latest version of the Acrobat: 23.006.20360. Please install the most recent update from the help menu of Acrobat, restart the app and the machine if possible, and check the performance.

If you have a specific issue while using the app, please share more details, and we would love to work with you to address the issue.

~Anand Sri.

[robertr69432093]

To begin, yes I am using version 23.006.20360.

Every time I open a PDF, the artwork renders as expected; but as soon as I try to interact with the Acrobat window, I get the "Acrobat is not responding" popup. I have no other choice but to allow windows to terminate the application.

I cannot use Acrobat to print or review my PDF proofs anymore... but I have found a reliable work-around for the time-being... which is to open the PDFs in Illustrator in order to print and/or review them. - As you might imagine, this is much more time-consuming than it once was when Acrobat was working properly.

[AnandSri]

Thanks for sharing the details, @robertr69432093, and sorry for your trouble with the app.

Try the solutions shared in this article and let us know if that works for you: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-crashes-on-windows-os.html.

If you still experience the crash/freeze, then please collect the crash logs and share them with us for investigation: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html 

Please ensure that you have installed all the mandatory and optional operating system updates.

~Anand Sri.

[Kimberly33065244wuw5]

I find it runs so slow. It lags even when selecting simple tasks like changing font color, or selecting type text to start filling in the document. It has been giving me nothing but issues. 

[Morello Communications]

Yep - the new Acrobat SUCKS! I hate it with a passion - not only is my workflow screwed, but the number of bugs I'm encountering is just a joke (and it is so SLOW!). For example, a client sent me changes to a file that appeared to include the removal of several design elements.  I duly made the changes, and they came back annoyed that those elements had been removed. Turns out Acrobat wasn't rendering the file properly - and it isn't the only one! I've had to switch to preview on more than one occasion to confirm what I'm seeing is actually correct. Considering how much we pay for a professional Creative Cloud license, this version is insulting. 

[Rob285608497xcu]

Oh my goodness... I agree. This is absolutely awful! I do not understand why companies feel the need to completely revamp an app or software and leave their longtime customers hanging in the dust, expecting them to deal with all the changes. This new layout is awful, nothing makes sense, and easy features are hidden or gone all together.  What happened to all the great buttons that were so easy to find and easy to understand? Seriously, this layout is absolutely horrible. Why move everything to the other side? Yesterday, I tried to improve the quality of the PDF and gave up after 10 minutes of searching where that feature went, because I could not find it. Like David said, who has time to completely relearn a new software? I was extremely upset when I updated the app to find this new version.  Luckily, I found a way to re-install the old version. With that said, how about doing market research what your customers would like? How about gratually updating an app by integrating new features in steps over a period of time, instead of redoing everything at once? Anyway, I am glad that I am not the only one who feels this way.  Please be considerate of customer needs.

[Mick33085217uoj7]

+1 for everyone complaining on here.

I reckon the new version has crashed and frozen on me more times since installation then in the previous ten years combined.

My requirements for PDF editing and creation are pretty straightforward, so now you've made it harder to achieve what I need to and made the product more unstable, why would I continue to use Acrobat Pro ?

These changes were unasked for, and literally make no sense, as they will just drive users to your competitors.


 

[OisinFrost]

100% agree!!! It's got to the point, that I'm only using Acrobat for header & footers or when I absolutely HAVE to. Every time I open it up, it hangs, crashes, churns, it no longer recognizes changes so I have to insert a text letter and then it'll recognize a change has been made and save everything, it's nearly unuseable I'm itching to unistall it and fully go to another product (which I am using without trouble, for all the markups and free-hand technical drawings I do). Nothing is intuitive. You used to be able to select tools  from anywhere - not anymore. It's just plain unusable.

[Adam23551795nej0]

Can I down vote?

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

There aren't very many folks that have said they LIKE the new interface. And thousands that HATE it!

If you want to disable the new interface (which Adobe calls the "modern" interface) and revert to the "classic" one that works, follow the instructions in this related, detailed post.

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

Also let Adobe know your thoughts at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t...

[Roger2857933823lg]

Thank you for this, I hope it works. Absolutely stunned that this company that charges so much money/month to use would launch such an abysmal "upgrade" to what was a reliable product. Horrendous. I am certainly opening my eyes to other options.

[OisinFrost]

Adobe has just become completely unuseable.  Even a small file now causes my 64bit version to just hang. I've never been so frustrated. Seriously? What have you developers done, to something that used to be useable?