Acrobat just updated. How do I reset the user interface to the traditional layout

[bobw111]

The new user interface on Acrobat is a jumbled mess to anyone that has been using Acrobat for several years.

Is it possible to revert back to the traditional user interface?  I'm in the middle of several projects and I'd rather not waste time trying to learn a new user interface right now.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

Yes, for now you can revert to the "traditional" user interface.

You can revert to the classic GUI interface by following the instructions here for both Mac and Windows users:

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

And the above sentence tells a lot about the new interface:

• A hamburger menu — although commonly used on mobile, are not necessary on desktop applications where the screen has enough "real estate" to provide a full menu. So users are not looking for or expecting a hamburger menu.
• A hamburger menu that didn't have a label, so people looking for the 35-years-plus "File" menu were lost. And users certainly weren't looking for 3 horizontal bars to reach the controls for saving, printing, and exiting.
• A menu system that is made up of little grey icons without labels. What do they mean? What do they do? WTHK!  And they can't be organized into a menu/panel of just the tools needed.

The HAMBURGER menu.

 

[bobw111]

PERFECT!!! THANKS!

[GI15B9]

Do you happen to know how to solve this for the Mac OS edition? The new interface is terrible, I agree. For instance, Adobe have shifted most markup functions (delete, insert, replace and underline) to a sub-menu, which means that each markup takes longer to execute – and keystroke markups seem to have been disabled too (except to delete text).

[GI15B9]

Found it: View/Disable Acrobat.

[Frances6054]

Many thanks! Every time developers make massive changes like this I loose time and money fixting it or learning how to use the new changes. At least offer users the option to update to the new interface.  I use AutoCAD and have had to learn at lest 4 new formats over the years, and just when you get used to it they drop the UI and put in a new one.

[Zitty]

Good discussion, and great advice from Bevi Chagnon, whose solution worked for me, as well - thank you. Note that it's not just a matter of personal UI preference. In my case, as I work constantly with PDF portfolios, the new UI has a bug that when you open a portfolio generated from e-mail messages via PDFMaker, the new UI does not preview correctly all the fields of each PDF file that corresponds to an e-mail message.

[unknowntyper]

Please keep this ability. The new lay out must have the ability to put thing where we want to the left or to the right. You just moved everything to the RIGHT that was on the LEFT, and everything from the TOP to the BOTTOM RIGHT with some flaoting sliders, and worst of all... You put the quick access flaoting! Floating in front of our work, unable to be moved or rendered invisible. We didnt pay you to obstruct our view with floating toobars that cannot move and hover above the work or readable space.

The layout is trash, garbage, crap. It just is.

I do not want litterally anything perma-floating over my work/read area at the least.

Thank you very much for including the revert! It save my sanity for now. I mean it.

REVERT = YES

New Layout = FAIL

[c.pfaffenbichler]

The layout is trash, garbage, crap. It just is.

I do not appreciate the choice of words, but the new interface does indeed seem, to put it mildly, problematic. 

[simple_scribe]

Thanks, @c.pfaffenbichler. @unknowntyper helpfully diagnoses the inconveniences of the new layout, even though the language used is hyperbolic.

[lucd63676264]

I totally agree with you. The UI is a big mess and very annoying. They should ask you at launch "do you want the new interface?" instead or having the reaction what is going on? Beside the vertical menu bar in Comment is time consuming to use, is much better when all the tools are on the top horizontal menu with text NOT icons!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

»Create custom tool« gets me this: 

So the »new Acrobat experience« has apparently been released with a degraded feature set. 

I am afraid that will not promote a smooth transition. 

[Mark313557101nj8]

Thanks for posting this.  The New Interface was driving me nuts... 

[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...

[Dori3138956972rg]

I hate it as well!! Layout was all different with most of the options missing or who know where.  I revert back to old version, thank goodness!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I hate it as well!! Layout was all different with most of the options missing or who know where.  I revert back to old version, thank goodness!

Interface changes can be annoying in and of themselves, but in this case it seems to actually include a degredation of functionality. 

[AnandSri]

Hi All!

We appreciate your valuable feedback! We're always looking for ways to make Acrobat better, and we appreciate the time and effort you have taken to share your feedback with us.

We acknowledge that the new Acrobat represents a notable change, however we hope that as you get familiar with the new interface, you are able to be more productive & get more out of Acrobat. With the new interface, we aim to:

1. Provide a simplified viewing experience that helps reduce clutter & optimise it for most used PDF actions that are relevant while viewing a document.
2. Easily allow users to discover PDF tools they need by ensuring tools are intuitively grouped and a click away,
   • For example, all tools that allow content, page & file level edits can be found under one action-based verb called “Edit”; tools that allow converting files to & from PDFs can be found under “Convert”; tools that allow filling & signing documents or requesting signatures from others under “Sign”.
3. Most importantly, the new interface enables users to effortlessly move between different PDF tools to complete their document related tasks.

• For example, someone viewing comments in a PDF should also be able to easily edit the text of it without interrupting their workflow.
• A user can seamlessly perform page level edits such as reordering, inserting, extracting, rotating or deleting pages while editing content and/or commenting on the file.

We would also like to highlight that we have exhaustively tested these changes with users over the past 12 months, keenly monitoring user behaviour & addressing top user issues before gradually rolling out the new interface to the Acrobat user base.

A point to note is that as we made these changes in the interface, we have ensured all tools & features that are currently supported, retain their familiar functionalities and workflows as they did in the previous version. We are proactively addressing any gaps or issues reported by users related to any break in current workflows.

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

Thank you once again for your feedback and do look forward to our upcoming releases!

~Anand Sri.

[lucd63676264]

LOL. You shure didn't ask me. "Efforthless", not at all. You can do anything you want but give us a chance to use the previous interface.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

A point to note is that as we made these changes in the interface, we have ensured all tools & features that are currently supported, retain their familiar functionalities and workflows as they did in the previous version.

@AnandSri , that seems strange … because I still get this (when clicking »Create custom tool«): 

[Amal.]

Hi there,

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 'Create custom tool', and user interface. 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.

~Amal

[Plethy24130053w7nm]

This new interface is horrible! I agree with others, if it wasn't broken why did you change it? You can't find tools easily, things are buried under different headers, I don't see how this will be more user-friendly. The overall look is even dated, I thought my program had reverted to a dated version. I hope you can add back some of the old layout to actually make it easy.

[Rickard26927291q1ge]

Hey, why these changes...It's so frustrating. Please dont remove the old version feature. Also why isn't there an easy why to use dynamic zoom? Like comand + z on mac.

[bonnie32346072fze4]

When I select Disable new acrobat a window pops up only allowing cancel or restart - when it restarts it stays at the new version?  any other options?

[Amal.]

Hi @bonnie32346072fze4 

We are sorry to hear that. Would you mind sharing a small video recording of the issue you are experiencing for a better understanding?  What is the version of the Adobe Acrobat and the OS you are using? 

Would you mind collecting the Crash/freeze logs as described here  https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-logs-crash-freeze.html and share them via any cloud storage? Just upload the log file to the cloud and generate the link and share that link with us for further investigation.

Regards
Amal

[Amal.]

Hi @c.pfaffenbichler 

Thanks for highlighting this. We are actively working on all the currently unavailable features, and we will address them with the highest priority in the coming updates.

Regards

Amal