Latest update of Adobe Acrobat Pro is an absolute disaster

[Bianca29482777pvwb]

Hi, 

I am trying to write a complaint email but of course, no contact details in this regard, so here I am:

what on earth is going on with this new update of Adobe Acrobat Pro that normally it's supposed to be more user friendly - news flash, it's not - and appart from this, there is this new awful feature that blocks the app whenever I try to handle documents, the app blocks, I can't close, I can't do anything, it just freezes. The only thing that gets me out of there is task manager, and then starting over again.

I did this 3 times, making me losing around 10 minutes for an edit that normally, before this horrible update, it was taking me few seconds... Come on guys WAKE UP!

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I couldn't turn it off either--the option wasn't showing up. I had to uninstall and reinstall Acrobat (through the Creative Cloud app). It took about 10 minutes.

[SKlunk]

I did that numerous times, as well as following all of Adobe's instruction links.  It just flat out doesn't work for me (I am not the only one -- others have posted higher in this thread with the same problem).

After much lost work, numerous uninstall/reinstall, and a few reboots I was able to get the latest version to work correctly AS LONG AS I USE THE NEW UI.  So even though I am losing productivity and hate it, I am afraid to Enable the old style since it will probably cause the same issue.  Adobe refuses to investigate and fix it for us.  Great customer service! 😬 

[TDGman]

Hopping aboard the hate train on just how bad this update to Acrobat is, and very grateful for the "Disable New Acrobat" option.

The UX design is unbelievably terrible, it goes beyond moving things around for the sake of moving things around to say, "Hey guys, we've shaken things up and given it a new look!".

Some of the new icons are especially unintuitive and overly compact for a desktop, and the new home positions for various tools don't make sense. It took me a good minute to investigate what the icons in the bottom-right corner were.

I have to wonder just who this version of Acrobat was designed for. It seems like it was designed for tablet usage over desktop usage, and I would advise Adobe to create dedicated "Modes" to switch between if that is the intention, rearanging tools and features to fit the screen and purpose rather than forcing everything to be one way.

[default8elu2uk78p17]

I am having the same issue, trying to markup assessments...grrr!

[Dane245415042ya9]

Rhetorical Question: Who is the rocket scientist who decided to RADICALLY change something that works great and has been the same for 10+ years? THEY SHOULD BE FIRED OR REASSIGNED to customer service. This program is NOT FREEWARE, I pay handsomely for an Acrobat PRO Subscription because it's a useful tool... just the way it is! This has to be the most idiotic decision in the history of decisions. I'm in construction, I easily spend 50% of my screen time working with PDF files. To radically change the user interface and tell me AFTER you have done it is even worse than changing it in the first place. I'm in favor of improving the product just make the changes gradually. 

STOP THE MADNESS!  

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I don't think it was one person. I have to think it was the Adobe team that created the design based on input during market research. My questions are "who did they interview?" and "what was the thought process behind the new design?". SOMEONE must have liked it and thought it was a great idea!

On the first run after the update, there should have been a dialog box asking if the user wanted to try the new interface AND give instructions on how to disable it. 

[Bevi Chagnon @ PubCom]

FYI, by the time the new "modern interface" was released to the public, it had already been released to us beta testers, who nearly universally panned it...with the same complaints users have.

Usually, Adobe's in-house team of UX designers does the GUI facelifts. I don't know which end-users they interviewed or what data/statistics they referenced when that team came up with the new interface design.

Honestly, I don't think that team understands the different types of users who use Acrobat. In our work consulting with government agencies, corporations, academic institutions, and the printing/graphic arts industry, it breaks down to this:

• Acrobat PRO is used by professionals who must create, review, or edit PDFs in these industries: publishing, communications, printing/graphic arts, marketing/advertising, accessibility, academia, corporate/industry, finance and banking.  They are heavy users of Acrobat and usually do their work on larger screens, such as desktops and larger laptops. And they usually don't use touch screens because "touch" isn't accurate enough for their particular tasks. These users often have multiple monitors with multiple PDFs and documents visible at the same time in order to do their jobs. No one who wants to keep their paycheck would use a smartphone to do these professional tasks. This user group depends on Acrobat Pro, and there are no alternative programs from anyone else with these tools.
• Acrobat Standard is used by most employees for their daily communications. They are creating PDFs from standard office software (like MS Office) to distribute to customers, fellow employees, and the general public. They are moderate users and their jobs don't require the pro tools for printing/graphic arts or accessibility. They generally don't use touch screens but often do when reading/editing PDFs for internal communications. They might have multiple monitors with multiple files visible. This user group can easily use a competitor's program for their PDF tasks...
  [3rd party app link removed by moderator]
• Acrobat Reader is used by the general public to view, print, and add comments to (not edit) the PDF. They work on everything from desktops to smartphones. Acrobat Mobile for smartphones is also a good choice for their needs. With browsers now beginning to provide functionality for PDFs, Reader just isn't needed by anyone anymore, except for more advanced PDFs such as those for accessibility and forms.

I think that the "modern viewer" that Adobe just dumped on us was the design team not understanding who exactly they were designing for, and they thought designing it with hamburger menus and icons (theories that dominant on small screens) would work for all of its user groups.

Obviously, that isn't the case!

Most pro-users aren't going to work on dozens (or even hundreds) of PDFs a day with their smartphones.

Pro users need a professional tool with an interface and functions that work for their daily jobs, not a causal tool for end users on smartphones.

Just my 2 cents' worth!

—Bevi

[William32246251zy92]

They should fire the entire design team.  Most people read from left to right.  Bookmarks belong on the left.  This is a horrible, awful, terrible design.  The hamburger is rediculous.  The keystrokes to do anything were either eliminated or multiplied.

[Melody31853571v0i5]

This new update is horrible, I agree!  Where is the undo button? This is not editor friendly. Also the toolbar takes up so much space, you can't edit with a split sceen anymore.  How can I go back to the previous version??!!

[Dane245415042ya9]

I found this from gary_sc' post. it was a huge help.

Under the "View" drop-down menu select "Disable New Acrobat"

[SKlunk]

No offense to anyone, but to those who keep asking how to go back the "old" UI style:

READ THE THREAD

It has been posted numerous times already.  It is easy to do, except that for some of us it doesn't work and puts us into a never-ending "internal error" loop in Acrobat.  That is what I am desperately trying to get Adobe to acknowledge and fix.

I agree the new UI is HORRIBLE (I have said it many times already), but at least they tried to give us a way to revert to the old style.  The bigger problem is that the solution doesn't work ....

[Linda.R.Smith]

Thank you  for posting this. I saw it somewhere for a fleeting momemt but was so distacted by the UI change.

My computer froze, I had to restart. When I opened up Acrobat It looked completely different!

No "What's New" intro. Tools are now on the left.I can't find where to display my thumbnails to replace a few pages. I'm constantly interupted by Adobe updates, express apps AI this and that... Aurg! 

Crying Out Loud Adobe! I'm trying to get some work done here.

[rakesh318486999y4k]

Clearly the ones who upgraded the software have zero clue as to how people use Acrobat - complete imbeciles. I tried to uninstall this versions and download the previous one and they prevent you from doing it.  It's the most frustrating interface that i've come across.  

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Why didn't you just disable the new interface instead of uninstalling?

[Stephen31866136nxkr]

Probably for the same reason this upgrade is such a failure, there was no education provided for the update. It was just thrown outr there and everyone was on their own.

[rakesh318486999y4k]

The actual Acrobab help guide suggetsed this route until i saw the comment about 'disabling' the new interface.  That did the trick.

[denlaw1217]

My issue was when trying to use the new interface to add Bates numbers, I clicked on Edit just like the tutorial said to do, and the entire menu screen went blank white with no submenu options. I screenshot and shared the steps with Adobe customer support as we walk through the steps together. After half an hour customer support, told me just to "disable new Acrobat" (Adobe's phrase not mine) because they had no clue why that was happening.

[Stacey23860768a3dn]

Yes!  The Freezes!  Every single time!  Good Gracious.

[grahamux]

This is a terrible UX update.

I want my pages on the left and my tools on the right.

Finding the menu options I need is a hunt.

Costing me time and causing aggrevation.

Please add a "classic" layout.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

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/...

[SKlunk]

Except it doesn't work for everybody.  Many of us have already done that, then you get an "internal error" message EVERY time you try to click on something.  VERY annoying !!

[Tim32088249hw4l]

Thank you for the instructions on how to disable this abominiation. Total GUI overhauls should always be opt into and never opt out of. 

[FriendlyChap]

No simply go to File -> Disable new Acrobat and all is good.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

@FriendlyChap, those instructions are only for Windows users. And note that there isn't a File menu in the new interface, just 3 horizontal bars that represent an expanding "hamburger" menu where the old File menu used to be.

Mac users, go to the View menu and select "Disable New Acrobat."

[markj77914890]

Absolutely horrible!  The last version was great.  What happened?!?!