"New" Acrobat is a Disaster So Far

[WinningerR]

My experience with the "New" Acrobat DC experience has been nightmarish so far. I'm genuinely baffled by this "update."

I've used Acrobat almost daily for a combination of creating/editing and reading PDFs. The reading experience in the "New" Acrobat experience is either sub-par or poorly documented.

• The PDFs I deal with feature a lot of intra-document hyperlinks. "Previous View" and "Next View" are now available only as clumsy walking menu options. After clicking a hyperlink in a document, it takes a punishing four clicks to return to the "previous view." The ability to add "previous view" and "next view" buttons to the page navigation tools (now on the right of the screen or in the "floating toolbar" that appears in "Read Mode") is inexplicably gone. Reading PDFs featuring hyperlinks is painful.
• In the View/Show-Hide/Side Panels menu, there are permanent checkmarks next to "Bookmarks" and various other panes. These checkmarks are present whether these panes are currently visible or not, which is more than a little confusing.
• In "Read Mode" the "floating toolbar" that is essential for page navigation disappears every time I switch focus to another application. The only way to get bring it back is to toggle out of, then back into Read Mode.

In short, reading PDFs with hyperlinks is now a huge chore. (Are such documents uncommon?)

Okay, well, just disable the "new Acrobat experience," right? Sadly, that's not an option . When I disable new Acrobat, "previous view" and "next view" are disabled entirely--the relevant buttons and menu options are greyed out. Support previously advised me to run Acrobat Cleaner and reinstall to mitigate this issue, but alas, two such attempts have both failed. (Another issue: once I disable "new Acrobat," I cannot re-enable it without re-installing. Secting the option to re-enable it fails and removes that option from the menu.)

Maybe I can read my PDFs in Acrobat Reader and rely on the full Acrobat application only when I edit? No, that's not an option either. Any attempt to install Reader informs me that Acrobat is already installed and fails out.

Maybe my use case is uncommon (I can't believe that), but this "innovation" has left the app borderline unusable for me.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Maybe my use case is uncommon (I can't believe that), but this "innovation" has left the app borderline unusable for me.

By @WinningerR

Your experience is not uncommon.

The New Experience can be disabled.

Steps to enable [and disable] the new experience

• To enable the new experience, go to View > Enable new Acrobat and click Restart.
• To disable the new experience,
  • Windows: Click the hamburger menu ( 3 lines ) at the upper left corner and choose Disable new Acrobat.
  • macOS: Go to View > Disable new Acrobat.

Details about the New Experience here:

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

Does this help?

Jane

[WinningerR]

I appreciate the note, thanks. Unfortunately, it doesn't help. As I mentioned, disabling the new experience creates even bigger problems--"previous view" and "next view" are then disabled completely. On the advice of customer support, I ran the Acrobat Cleaner tool and reinstalled--twic; the issue persisted. I tried installing on a different machine and saw the same errant behavior. FWIW, the install on neither machine was capable of re-enabling the new experience; after selecting this option, both machines quickly snapped back to the legacy experience and the option to "re-enable the new experience" disappeared from the menu.

[neiderhl]

Good luck getting it to stick... I turn it off click the restart & it opens new Acrobat anyways... The automatic toolbar optiosn that you can't remove is stupid.. I don't want most of those on my toolbar.. yes, I can add the ones I do want but why are we forced to keep those that are "automatic" that I do not want?? Also, the automatic tabs feature vs opening separate documents is terrible also, becuase that cannot be turned off because Disabling new Acrobat doesn't work... 

[cdj22178068]

Amen!

[Dessert375912284mj0]

It's understandable to feel frustrated when software updates disrupt your workflow, especially for a tool you rely on daily like Acrobat DC. From what you've described, it sounds like the changes have made simple tasks more cumbersome, particularly when dealing with intra-document hyperlinks.

As for your experience being uncommon, I doubt it. Many users likely rely on Acrobat for similar tasks, so your frustrations are probably shared by others. It's unfortunate that disabling the "new Acrobat experience" isn't a viable solution and that even attempting to use Acrobat Reader as an alternative has proven unsuccessful.

Hopefully, Adobe takes user feedback into consideration and addresses these usability issues in future updates. In the meantime, reaching out to their support team might be the best course of action to see if there are any workarounds or solutions available.

[cdj22178068]

Refund my money as this new experience is incompatible with my work

[Abambo]

Refund my money as this new experience is incompatible with my work

By @cdj22178068

Use the old experience. Switching back is easy.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

You are posting this in the "community" forum, so most people who see your post are fellow Acrobat users. You may want to use the offcicial feedback form to let Adobe know about your experience: http://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

[Abambo]

@Karl Heinz Kremer,

I would direct users to https://acrobat.uservoice.com. They can ask there for feature requests.

As long as it is possible to switch back to the old experience, it may be easier for users just to do that. https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/quot-new-quot-acrobat-is-a-disaster-so-far/m-p/14...

[cdj22178068]

Very same problem  the new "experience" is awful, did ANYONE do research first?  I have used Acrobat, and pay for the privilege,  but not this mess!  I can disable it, comes right back on, LOCKING me out of fillable forms, and other docs.   

Users need the option to end, uninstall, this experience an return to a functioning program without risking their existing docs.. should I bill Acrobat the work time lost ? 

[Abambo]

Very same problem  the new "experience" is awful, did ANYONE do research first?  I have used Acrobat, and pay for the privilege,  but not this mess!  I can disable it, comes right back on, LOCKING me out of fillable forms, and other docs.   

Users need the option to end, uninstall, this experience an return to a functioning program without risking their existing docs.. should I bill Acrobat the work time lost ? 

By @cdj22178068

Fillable forms work fine. If you are in real trouble with the new interface, switch back to the old experience. It's there for exactly that purpose. Check here for instructions: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/quot-new-quot-acrobat-is-a-disaster-so-far/m-p/14...

[Abambo]

I do not have the issues with the new interface as many have, I find it quite pleasant and it fits my workflow well. But if you run into trouble you should switch back to the old interface. As the new one is work in progress, Adobe anticipated the difficulties and did provide that solution. As long as the new interface remains problematic, the possibility for switching back will stay. You may only need to switch to the new interface when you need new features, there are not many.

[defaultuzot5jnydnvp]

I agree, the new user experience is garabge.  It also took 5 attempts to go back to the old one.

[Karl Heinz Kremer]

This is odd, it should be just one mouse click. Please post your experience with the new UI at http://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html - that is the best way to let Adobe know about your experience. 

[JIPNET]

I'ms sorry, but since when does responding to a post naming a problem in the new Acrobat GUI with the response, Revert to the old GUI, count as an answer, let alone a "correct" answer? This is the most common response to such questions in this user community and it is appalling.

To go back to a previous view in the new GUI you can press command + back arrow. The instruction is hidden under "View"/ "Page navigation".  A problem with this is that unless you know what to look for (ie "previous view") you won't find it in the help menu. Another problem is that to use it you have to remember the shortcut. There should be a way to add this to the toolbar as in the previous version of Acrobat so that you can set it and forget it. That is what user-friendly means.