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jimm30680722
Participant
April 7, 2015
Answered

How do I stop the side toolbar from appearing every time I open a pdf in Acrobat DC?

  • April 7, 2015
  • 25 replies
  • 132277 views

Right side tool bar is annoying in Acrobat DC . How can this be fixed?

Correct answer JonPerera

Hi there,

The new "right hand toolbar" in Acrobat DC is always on by default, proving instant access to frequently used tools. That said, we're definitely hearing a # of customers that want Acrobat DC to "remember" the last state. So if you close it, it'll remain closed when you open it next.   Looking to have a fix in place in next ~3 months here. 

Thank you for the feedback.

Jon Perera

Vice President

Adobe Document Cloud

25 replies

April 29, 2015

I too find this side bar extremely annoying, along with the fact that I have to close it e-v-e-r-y time I open up a new document. I have absolutely no need of it. And why has the zooming option disappeared from the upper bar? Now that was handy.

I'm going to uninstall this version and look for a way to install an older one back.

chriss95308497
Participant
April 24, 2015

Interesting to see this.  I needed to add Adobe Reader to a new computer, saw the DC (still don't know what that signifies), then couldn't get rid of the right side tool "pain" (found out this can't be done), so uninstalled DC and installed XI.  Will wait for updates.  And I agree with what others said about the appearance - DC looks washed out.

Otherwise, thanks for a basically good product over the years.

Chris

OmarBeyaty
Participant
April 22, 2015

Hover your mouse pointer over the left edge of the tool bar, exactly in the center.. you will see small black arrow aiming to the side bar itself, click it then the bar will disappear...another click to the same, the side bar will pop up.another way by using shift+F4

mahelfri94
Participant
April 22, 2015

DUH... but when you are in and out of pdf files all day long doing that is a HUGE waste of time.  There is no setting to PERMANENTLY set it to not open files this way,  which is the problem.

OmarBeyaty
Participant
April 22, 2015

pressing SHIFT+F4 wont be a HUGE waste of time....otherwise, I think Im talking to Bill Gates.

spacespencer
Participating Frequently
April 8, 2015

I have several more issues:

a) How do you change the background color to a darker tone? Doing a lot of print stuff for clients from the health/medical sector which are mostly white leaves me unable to see where the pages end and the light background starts.

b) Keyboard shortcut cmd+w just closes the document but leaves the weird summary page open. Does anybody know how many documents I open and close per day and that I now have to close that page every damn single time again and again?

c) As mentioned in several other posts: I'd really appreciate global settings for that tool panel (to go away!) and other panels (page overview).

April 16, 2015

Agree with spacespencer, and have even more issues ...

I share the issue with that right-hand tool pane - mouse-hand sore, doubling up on clicks to keep closing it - I have small screen, precious real-estate, and it's a REAL pain.

Missing the percentage zoom box.

My biggest gripe, however, is with the non-standard, all pale 'disabled' looking menus.  Please, Please configure it so the menus use the same standard menu styles that I have configured in the operating system already.  To me the menu options are hard to see.  This is terrible accessibility.

My sense is that Adobe sacked all the usability experts before 'designing' the user interface.  Adobe reader and Acrobat have always been a bit wierd, but getting wierder with the DC release.  I just need it to be boring and simple and not need to be globally configured anything to view PDFs.

JonPereraCorrect answer
Adobe Employee
April 7, 2015

Hi there,

The new "right hand toolbar" in Acrobat DC is always on by default, proving instant access to frequently used tools. That said, we're definitely hearing a # of customers that want Acrobat DC to "remember" the last state. So if you close it, it'll remain closed when you open it next.   Looking to have a fix in place in next ~3 months here. 

Thank you for the feedback.

Jon Perera

Vice President

Adobe Document Cloud

April 26, 2015

Hi, VP JonRerera.

1. This is a very ugly design -- I understand Adobe wants users to pay money for those functions, but make it occupy users' precious screen space by default is a very awkward way. 

2. Acrobat DC does not really "remember" the last state!! Every time, when we open a pdf file, the tool pane will be on the right. You are wrong with your product !

3. As an computer software engineer, I do not think fixing this one takes ~3 months. It only need to switch the default mode, unless Adobe is unwilling to do it.

4. People have figured out how to solve the problem (smarter than Adobe engineer??)

Solution by

Go to the install directory, i.e." C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroApp\ENU". Create a new subfolder (I used "Disabled"). Move 3 files from the "ENU" folder into the new "Disabled" folder: AppCenter_R.aapp & Home.aapp & Viewer.aapp. Open a PDF and no more Tool Pane!  I originally moved just the "Viewer" file but if you clicked on "Home" or "Tools" on the toolbar you couldn't go back to the "Document." Moving all 3 files takes care of that issue. Like a lot of people I don't and won't ever use any of the tools. I just want a reader. Let me know if this works for you.

----

The new "right hand toolbar" in Acrobat DC is always on by default, proving instant access to frequently used tools. That said, we're definitely hearing a # of customers that want Acrobat DC to "remember" the last state. So if you close it, it'll remain closed when you open it next.   Looking to have a fix in place in next ~3 months here.

Jon Perera

Vice President

Adobe Document Cloud

samj9046856
Participant
June 13, 2018

I just created an account to say thank you for the steps to delete that toolbar completely. Even hidden the toolbar was insanely annoying.

It was clearly placed next to the scrollbar so it'd be clicked on by mistake.

Why didn't Adobe at least allow us to drag that minimised toolbar out of the way of the scrollbar? I'd have been happy just being allowed to make the scrollbar bigger. Oh well, its gone for good now, no chance I'll click that annoying toolbar ever again. Also no chance I'll ever again purchase any Adobe software or recommend it.

Thanks jerryANDtom.