Stop Acrobat Pro opening documents in tabs

[AM278]

I am running Acrobat Pro 2023.003.20215 and it's opening all documents as tabs in the same window. This means I can't view two documents simultanesouly side by side. There used to be a Preference option to not have documents open in tabs, but with this version I can't find it. Anyone have a solution to this? Otherwise I need to open the documents in Preview (I'm on a Mac). Thanks.

[Bernd Alheit]

Disable the new UI at the View menu.

[JR Boulay]

You have 3 choices:

- Disable the Tab view in the Preferences.

- Clic on a tab and drag it outside the main Acrobat window.

- Use the View menu : Tile : H or V

[default1n8zu74052hs]

your picture doesnt apply in 2023, its old they removed that feature. please remove and stop referenceing this 'uncheck' box.

[default1n8zu74052hs]

[Grant29038192jjeb]

You missed the next reply by @AkanchhaS, in which it is explained that the check box is only removed if you are using the new acrobat view.  If you follow the instructions of @AkanchhaS to disable New Acrobat then you'll be able to get the checkbox option to disable opening PDFs only in new tabs.  That's the entire point, it's really stupid for them to have removed that checkbox in the New Acrobat View.  It's clearly a function that can be re-implemented easily, they are just making incorrect assumptions about what customers want.  There are many aspects of New Acrobat that I prefer, but as I mentioned below, I spend a lot of time moving pages between different PDFs and doing that in tabs is incredibly frustrating.  They apparently didn't consider that use case, or the other usecase mentioned by @AM278, when they decided to remove that checkbox option.

[AkanchhaS]

Hi @AM278 

If you cannot find the preferences for opening documents in a new window, then you are certainly working on Acrobat's new UI.

With the latest changes, this option has been removed from the preferences.

As suggested above, you need to switch back to the old view to bring back the following preferences.

• First, click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner
• Then select Disable New Acrobat

Once you get the old UI back. 

Click on Adobe Acrobat>Preferences >General> uncheck "Open documents as new tab in same window"> OK> close and reopen Acrobat

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Akanchha 

[AM278]

Thank you. Yes, it seemed that I was working on the new UI (I was not aware as it updated automatically), so I have reverted back to the old UI. I will say that Adobe should refrain from removing the option of opening documents not in the same tab in future releases, as this will deter many people, including me, from using Acrobat. We need to be able to view multple documents as separate windows. Thank you for your help!

[Grant29038192jjeb]

This is REALLY dumb.  The new UI needs to put that option back.  I like it better, but the tabs thing is a dealbreaker as I need to swap pages around mutliple PDFs and doing it from tab to tab is terrible.

[Eos&EirLLC]

you lost me at hamburger...Please identify what looks like a hamburger to you? I don't see that any of these icons have the function you outline to revert to the old version. 

[Eos&EirLLC]

sorry wrong photo

[Ted304044445ix4]

Nope. They changed it again.  They have removed the "hamburger" menu. They have a Menu item under the View menu (Acrobat | File | Edit | View | Window | Help).  The menu on my Mac is Third item from the bottom : Disable New Acrobat. Choose this, restart Acrobat, then go to Preferences / General. Then deselect  "Open documents as new tabs in the same window (requires relaunch)" 

[rhymeswithbubbling]

Thank you. I've been trying to find this.

When you switch back to the old interface, it prompts you for feedback, so I hope everyone takes the time to do this. I submitted feedback and hope they bring it back. I need to switch between documents constantly, and the experience is better for me if they are in separate windows from the get go.

My other issue is that now the title bars are really short, even when you drag documents out of the tab window. So I have to mouse over to see the title. (I'm often comparing similar docs - long-file-name-r2.pdf versus long-file-name-r3.pdf. Having to mouse-over to make sure I'm looking at the right document defeats the purpose of being able to switch documents using the keyboard only.)

[Likesoldversion]

What hamburger? There's nothing showing on the computer app

[The_VikingProfessor]

I switched back to the old view because of the inability to turn off or at least customize tab usage.  Big miss by Adobe here.  

[Joel MaHarry]

HOW CAN YOU DISTRIBUTE AN APP THAT DOES NOT SHOW THE ENTIRE FILE NAME IN THE DOCUMENT FRAME?

I just spent over an hour researching this problem. I'm under multiple deadlines, I need applications that bolster my productivity –– NOT EFFING HINDER IT. 

I am a professional designer and writer, in our profession we frequently need to be able to refer to specific document version. IT IS AN OBVIOUS NEED.  

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE 

[Abuse removed by moderator]

[d3s1gnjet]

Adobe Acrobat 2023 ("New Acrobat") needs the option to open each document in a new window. This should be possible without disabling New Acrobat; the option should simply be reinstated.

[J Woelfel]

Gee, what a choice: Force users to work with the oversize menu/toolbar on the right side of the of document or use New Acrobat and all documents open in one tab. Bad user experience.

[richardbenish]

"Bad user experience," indeed.

[richardbenish]

I followed the above steps to the extent they were possible to follow. Sadly, after deselecting the new user interface, when I relaunch Acrobat, the Preferences do not include the option to open in windows instead of tabs. How can I just get rid of everything about the new monstrosity and revert to the old one?

Even more sadly, I've seen this game play out enough times to guess that a total revert will not be allowed by Adobe. They'd prefer to make me suffer. I hope I'm wrong.

[Amal.]

Hi there,

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble.

This is a known issue and our engineering team is actively working on it.

The fix will be available in the future updates.

Thanks for your understanding.

~Amal

[neiderhl]

Now, if only your selections/changes would "stick" or save.  I repeatedly turn off the new UI, but as Adobe restarts to do this, it restarts as the new UI anyway.  No preferences save & the disconnect between Adobe & Microsoft is getting ridiculous.  There's always some update causing a problem.  Makes it not worth even using Adobe.

[skillful_Radiance5E23]

Why won't unclocking the open in tabs function box stop Acrobat from opening pdfs in tabs?  This is making your app unuseable in my Legal applications - why???????