ADOBE: Do not delete or merge this conversation thread. This post is to consolidate the information from dozens of other posts about how to revert to the previous user interface in Acrobat. It consolidates the information users need to know. When Acrobat is updated to version 2023, it replaces the traditional user interface that's been in place for the past 20+ years with what Adobe is calling the "Modern Viewer," which has some severe technical problems (missing utilities) and a complete relocation of familiar tools, menus, and quick access tool bars. In Windows Acrobat: Locate the "hamburger menu" in the upper left corner (3 horizontal bars where the old "File" menu used to be). Select Disable New Acrobat. The hamburger menu in new Acrobat-Windows. In Mac Acrobat: From the View menu at the top, select Disable New Acrobat. Let Adobe know: You can voice your opinion about the new interface at UserVoice: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t... Be sure to leave a comment about your opinion and experience with the new interface. They need to hear from us users. FYI, UserVoice is Adobe's official website where it reads and takes into account suggestions and complaints from users of its various products. On the other hand, this community forum is a user-to-user help forum and information posted here rarely reaches ears or eyes at Adobe. Learn about the new interface: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html Hope this post helps you quickly get back to work!

Legend

Question

Acrobat 2023: How to revert to classic GUI user interface

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 31, 2023
39 replies
158228 views

ADOBE: Do not delete or merge this conversation thread.

This post is to consolidate the information from dozens of other posts about how to revert to the previous user interface in Acrobat.

It consolidates the information users need to know.

When Acrobat is updated to version 2023, it replaces the traditional user interface that's been in place for the past 20+ years with what Adobe is calling the "Modern Viewer," which has some severe technical problems (missing utilities) and a complete relocation of familiar tools, menus, and quick access tool bars.

In Windows Acrobat:

Locate the "hamburger menu" in the upper left corner (3 horizontal bars where the old "File" menu used to be).
Select Disable New Acrobat.

The hamburger menu in new Acrobat-Windows.

In Mac Acrobat:

From the View menu at the top, select Disable New Acrobat.

Let Adobe know:

You can voice your opinion about the new interface at UserVoice: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t...

Be sure to leave a comment about your opinion and experience with the new interface. They need to hear from us users.

FYI, UserVoice is Adobe's official website where it reads and takes into account suggestions and complaints from users of its various products. On the other hand, this community forum is a user-to-user help forum and information posted here rarely reaches ears or eyes at Adobe.

Learn about the new interface:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/new-acrobat-experience.html

Hope this post helps you quickly get back to work!

M

margaret_2026

Participant

Thank you so much! This was fantastically helpful.
For the Adobe person assigned to read comments, perhaps there's a solution in the new adobe for what I want to do, but I haven't found it yet.
I need to have Person A sign a form on behalf of Person B. If I send it to Person A in New Adobe, they have to sign it as themselves. If I send it to A and B, I still have the same problem and I annoy Person B, who is very busy and doesn't want to sign forms.
In Old Adobe, I can just have a plain signature box that Person A can put Person B's signature in, but I haven't found a way to do that in New Adobe.
Long Live Old Adobe!

S_S

Community Manager

Hi @margaret_2026,

@margaret_2026

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for writing in!

From the description, I figured out that you are trying to use the delegate feature in Acrobat Sign.

If this is to be done on a document level, you can refer to this: https://adobe.ly/3SoULL5.

If you want to use Auto-delegation, or you, as a sender, want to add delegation at the sending process, you can refer to this self-help video to learn more: https://adobe.ly/43Nhoz7.

I have added the time stamp for ease of access.

Let us know if this helps.

Regards,

Souvik

R

rene_3287

Participant

Don't like it...

I like the old Windows layout of having toolbars on top. And I like the window bar (the standard bar that begins with File Edit and so on... to be defaulted to the very top. Side bar stuff should be program specific... and as long as they hide/retract. I don't care what changes you do to those. But the basic Windows 7/10 stuff should just be standard. Tool bars need to be left alone. Espcially, the Pan/Zoom stuff and open file stuff. Moving the pan and zoom to the lower right, is espcially dumb. At the very least, just allow us full control of where the menus go.

B

Benhut1

Inspiring

Wait. Where did my reqply go?

B

Benhut1

Inspiring

Oops. It looks like it went on the last page. I didn't realize this conversation spanned multiple pages, so I thought my comment had been automatically deleted for some reason.

B

Benhut1

Inspiring

I have a question here, but it needs some background information to explain my situation.

I actually this technique here on my own. And I liked the old menu system better. However there's one problem. It FORCES me to log in. Within seconds of starting Acrobat, using the old interface, it pops up a login screen, and if I click "cancel" on the login screen, it closes Acrobat. And it even asks for a login if I start the application by double-clicking on PDF file to start the program and simultaneously load the document. The new interface did NOT do that. The new interace only asked for a login if you started it from the EXE file directly and not double-clicking on the PDF file in Windows Explorer. Furthermore, when the login screen did appear, the new interface would let you close the login window and continue using Acrobat Reader. When the old interface was the current interface it didn't force you to log in. It only does that now on the old interface if you try to use the old interface in place of the new interface. I think Adobe is trying to push people to use the new interface because they know people don't want to be annoyed with needing to login just to use the software. So I want to go back to using the new interface again now, to avoid needing to login.

So now I ask my question, which is actually the opposite question from what this web page is answering. How do I go back to using the NEW interface, now that I've already used the technique to go to using the old interface? Is it possible to go back to using the new interface without completely reinstalling Acrobat Reader?

T

Tariq Ahmad

Community Manager

@Benhut1
Sorry for the troubling experience.
Could you share the screenshot of the interface you are seeing at this time? We are unsure to suggest anything as you haven't the version of Acrobat you are using.

~Tariq

S

Susan3872682675fi

Participant

Bevi - thank you for saving me many hours on a Sunday so that I'm doing my work instead of trying to figure out the software interface.

kenta71268711

Participant

Thank you very much! Acrobat works fine now!!

K

Kyriakos37400034bonu

Participant

Please have this new UI designer sent to north korea and have him dig his own grave.

S

Steven37342408hcti

Participant

Thank you Bevi for allowing all to remove the privacy intrusive AI Adobe added to Acrobat! AI is not what this world needs!

A

Antony28371059sbsn

Participant

THANK YOU for this. The new interface is dreadful and costs me a lot of lost time!!! I do not want to struggle to work with an application I know well just because Adobe feel they need to change something to justify the price

I

InstituteBob13

Participating Frequently

Thank you for the fix. I really dislike the new interface and if I was forced to use it I would probably find something else to use. Why try and force something new on people? I've seen no advantage with the new interface and only frustration trying to find my tools.

C

cyclopsdx

Inspiring

Additional to my fustrations with the new interface (which I have no intention of using, btw) the whole app bears no resemblance to any of the other CC programmes - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. It's like the Acrobat development team are operating autonomously from the rest of the brand and don't seem to care that the majority of us would like some kind of visual harmony with the rest of the suite. One issue I've had since 9 is why is there even a separate Tools tab behind open files? It makes no sense. Such a poorly crafted app.

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