What Happened to "History" in File Open in Acrobat 10?

[borton1035]

Purchased Acrobat 10.  In Adobe 9, I ejoyed the "History" function in the File/Open area.  I would not recall the name of the file, but, e.g., knew I had opened it within the last 7 days, or last day, or last month.  So, allowing someone to see the "history" or the documents opened within  particular past history period was quite helpful.  Did not see it in Acrobat 10.  i am having a problem that had me at Tech Level 2 and they are now upgrading it to enior Technican.  But, I asked the gentleman to check to see "what happened" to "history".  When he called back as scheduled within one week (very pleasant to work with), he told me that Adobe had simply REMOVED the history capbility in the "open files" part of the program.  I assume what he told me is true.  But, if anyone knows to the contrary, I would appreciate the knowledge of how to find and use "history" in the manner described.  And, why in the world woould they remove such a helpful tool?

[MichaelKazlow]

I haven't received my Mac copy of Acrobat 10 yet, but you would be surprised about the number of people that complain about the recent files capability of programs. Some like them, some don't.

[Dave Merchant]

As we have confirmed several times on these forums, Organizer has been removed from Acrobat X. The File>History tree was maintained by the Organizer plugin, so this is also removed.

[borton1035]

Dave: thank you for your response. if I recall correctly, my original posting acknowledged the History function was absent as told to me by  Adobe tech support . my question , and one that did not get answered, is  "Why oh why did Adobe remove this History tool?"  I do not see a rationale in your answer as to why the 2 was removed .  it is difficult for me to persuade you/Adobe of the value of the tool  unless I know why it was thought to have so little value it was removed .  Admittedly, I do not know "enough" about "why" a company adds/changes/modifies/deletess things within  program.  If "enough" people call in and make a suggestion about something they would like to see, it makes sense to add it even though not 100% of the people ask for it or would use it.  So, what is the theory behind removing "History" or the "Organizer" plug-in?  If 20% of your customer base says they don't use it, that still leaves a lot of people who do or may use it.  Thank you for your anticipated attention to the question and reply.

Chris

[Dave Merchant · Accepted solution]

Usage data indicted that _very_ few people used the Organizer feature, and the amount of work required to ensure it functioned robustly in modern operating environments with distributed storage, SAAS, etc, was not considered practicable - even in Acrobat 9 it was easy to break. If you want more detail on the decisions behind version changes you'll have to ask the product team themselves.

File>History was generated by the Organizer plugin, so this was removed as a consequence.

[motivated_Euphoria1549]

Thanks a million for the information Dave.

Much appreciated.

sf d;-)=

[MJGAiken]

Hi Dave:  I thought the History function was simple but brilliant.  It was awesome having the extensive history.  It was such an obvious improvement over the typical 5 or 10 recent files, I actually thought all the other software companies should/would eventually copy Adobe's history feature, especially Microsoft Office.  Please bring it back! 

I think it's safe to say my post represents the opinion of about 1,000,000 other users who didn't take the time to speak up :-), so again, please bring it back!  Thanks.

[Dave Merchant]

I can't discuss what might be happening with future versions, but to put it bluntly if someone wants History in Acrobat X they'll need to write their own plugin - the SDK makes that possible for someone with skills in C++ but the Organizer plugin which History used as a back-end was a beast. It wouldn't be a bedroom coder project.

As to 'the opinion of about 1,000,000 other users' - as I said in my previous reply the product team knows  how few people used Organizer; if it was genuinely popular it'd still be there. Sorry, but it's a commercial world and to invest time in new features, the old and unpopular ones have to be dropped. If you used History then I know that's not good news, but the same can be said for geospatial registration, desktop reflow mode or ADBC.

It's quite telling that no other vendor has copied Acrobat's History idea in their own software - they appreciated how much of a Pandora's Box it was to support.

[MJGAiken]

Thanks Dave.  I appreciate the quick response.  Mike

[Sokac_12]

Thanks Dave

I appreciate your firm response, but do not agree with your reasoning - and apparently a lot of long-time users of Acrobat (myself since 5. or 6., don't even remember anymore). As many of the SW vendoirs, Adobe should from time to time use User's Pool and give the results to the product managers. Sometimes those guys even do not use the product they are setting a road maps ahead!

[Guest]

It was an absolutely inane decision by Adobe!

I am a university researcher and have tons of pdf journal articles in my computer. The Organizer feature was great for organizing different pdfs according to topics and areas. With this feature gone, I have to manually go to the different levels of the file directory to retrieve the files.

Please bring it back!! I can't think of anything more stupid than what you have done!

[gener7]

Bridge would do the job far better. If you have an Adobe product like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesgn, it should be there free of charge.

Bridge has Smart Folders similar to the Organizer's Smart Collections, so you can collect your papers by certain criteria, yet it will stay in what ever directory level it is.

You can select and preview the paper with the spacebar before opening it in Acrobat.

Perhaps you can give that a try.

If you only have Acrobat, you may not be able to get Bridge, but the ideaa is the same. Use some form of Digital Asset Manager that will organize your files as the Organizer has done.

[Michael BC]

For the University researcher, EndNote would be better. EndNote will enable you to create automatic bibliographies but has added advantages if irganizing papers in an automated as well as manual fashions. In addition it can retrieve the PDF of a reference automatically and attach it to that reference in the endnote library.

Even with this workflow the loss of the organizer from Adobe Acrobat is huge. The ability to attach and email certain PDFs in this workflow requires an organizer to be built into the PDF program. In addition the PDF program needs not only to r a reader but also need to offer the ability to attach and save notes and make and save highlights.

There is no substitute for endnote but maybe there is a substitute for Adobe acrobat? Anyone?

[Stepic7]

It seams Bridge would be the solution, implying one has to buy the whole Suite or at least Photoshop!!

However this raises a series of questions:

a) Is Bridge an organizer also for pdf files?

b) does it work as a journal accounting of all the files opended and permitting a classification (for example subject, interesting ...)?

c) another post refers to Endnote for organizing research articles. I use Mendeley which however does not have a journal keeping trak of opened pdf files. Does Endnote have this feature?

and finally a last obvious question if the previous ones are verified

d) why Acrobat users who did have this tool in previous versions (before vers 9 was available) cannot have the same feature, I mean Bridge for pdf files, as an addition without the need for buying either the Suite or Photoshop?

thanks

[gener7]

a) You could organize pdfs in Bridge, even as collections, and you could have Favorite folders, but the problem is that while Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign documents are incorporated into Bridge History, PDFs are not.

b) There are "keywords" you could assign to a PDF, and of course IPTC metadata such as the Subject and Author, but again no tracking of when PDF files were opened.

c) I have not used Endnote, so I can't say anything there.

d) Sadly, I found out while you can organize PDFs in Bridge, it doesn't come with Acrobat.

I suppose for PDF file organization, it does not replace Organizer. One thing I liked was that organizer would remember PDFs you accessed online but did not download.

I had thought Bridge might have been adequate,but after looking closer, not for academic papers.

Mendeley might be closer for that. Here's how it compares with other software like it.

http://www.mendeley.com/compare-mendeley/

It's free and cross-platform.

http://www.mendeley.com/features/

[tsfg]

Not only for scientific users CITAVI (www.citavi.com) meight be an option (especially for Windows users)

This package has an integrated preview and options for comments and extracting as well as organizing.

But like all of this literature management tools it is different to a history which logs all opened Files.

I am not quite sure whether it would be possible to add this functionality to the Bridge...

[tsfg]

And again :

I don't understand why ADOBE does't put the package to a free community based development.

Might be under a special license which allows them to include the package as they want to the product again and then bring it back to closed source as long as it is included in the standard installation option...

Please Adode development and product management give it a chance, it could be an option for other features in other products as well 😉

I could think about participating in a making the changes, but I will not develop the wheel again.

[Guest]

In an age where digital and online privacy is of paramount importance it seems total craziness that Adobe has decided to remove the ability to clear history.

Every other organisation seems to be enabling users to control their information whereas Adobe seems to think that it knows best for all.

We all have unique circumstances which require us to use products in different ways. Adobe has made a serious error in making history deletion so difficult.

What about people viewing PDF files in areas controlled by oppressive regimes? What about someone opening their resume on a work computer? What about… all sorts of different scenarios!

Adobe, bring this feature back.

[iBabs2]

For so many of my own needs, and my clients needs, we loved the Organizer.

It was truly a life saver for us.

With so many PDF files constantly being printed and emailed and then printed again a day later etc, or a week later....this was truly one of the best features I thought Acrobat offered.

I'm usually OK with these sorts of things happening in upgrades and can normally just go with it, but this was truly hurts.

Bring it back!!! Please!!!

[MichaelKazlow]

If you have one of the Creative Suites, you might find that you can use Adobe Bridge to replicate some of the lost functionality.

[iBabs2]

hello...thanks...but, it really isn't the same...The organizer dynamically organized any PDF file opened today, yesterday, last week etc, and you could quickly e-mail or print from here. It was awesome...The Bridge is the best we may have, but it really lacks the simplicity but powerful workflow the Organizer gave to us.

But thanks!!!!

[maxwyss]

If you happen to be on Mac, DefaultFolder or similar utilities might provide a little bit the History function did.

[RenéG-5ha3S1]

Too bad, once I found out how that feature worked, I started using it immediately to file my fillable PDF so that I can later open a specific PDF and copy and paste a Form Field in a new PDF. It was simple and so useful.

[Guest]

Likewise, many of us in my organization used the Organizer's "History" function.  It is a disappointment and an inconvenience that you have decided to remove it.  As a customer, I don't remember receiving a survey or query about whether I found this function useful.  So much for customer satisfaction...!

[TRAXPS]

Hi

Same here, I spent quite a while searching around in the user interface for it. Found a few other useful things that had randomly been located somewhere new.

Web search brought me here.

Why is it that new software always goes on about the "great new features" and then doesnt mention the "great old features" it has either deleted or hidden so thouroughly you cant find them.

I considered this feature extremely useful and am disappointed it isnt there any more. It is even more irritating to read posts telling me I can search for files using the OS--I certainly knew that already and it really is not a "workaround".

Why not enable some sort of plug in system where things like this can be available for those that want it?

As a further comment I dont really see why so many other frequently used features had to be put in the irritating side panel.

Makes me feel good about the MS ribbon... I recall changing to Word 2007 when it first came out, it was definitely easier to find things that in this new Acrobat. So maybe your developers should learn something from that.