Why change everything?

[reginal79098089]

Why? Why do you "creators" feel a need to completely change the layout of toolbars, etc. in a program?! Do you have nothing to do so you just search out what you can do to aggravate us? Adobe Acrobat DC is now TOTALLY different in the toolbar layouts! WHY???

[Nancy OShea]

If developers don't dream up more and more changes all the time, there will be no development to do, and they'll have to go find different jobs.

By @Mark25055654fwx5

=======

That's such a silly remark.  There's no shortage of jobs to do.  Adobe makes changes to software to keep pace with what Microsoft and Apple are doing.  If Adobe didn't make changes, your software would be incompatible with your computer's operating system.  Full stop. 

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

2 things to note:

1) Adobe's developers don't make the decisions about what goes into or gets changed in the software. The marketing department does that, which is why comments at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/, which is overseen by marketing, have greater weight than those in the volunteer user-to-user Community Forum where this post resides.  Today, programmers are just code jockeys who are told what to do. They even have to get approval to correct bugs.

So don't beat up the developers for this fiasco of a revamp. They were just doing what they were told to do.

It's the design team that did this, but again under management's instructions. They threw out 40+ years of research on human behavior and GUI / UI / UX design and created a mess that doesn't even allow access to some of Acrobat's widely-used utilities — tools that many businesses and industries need to run their businesses every day.

2) I've been a beta tester/advisor for Adobe and hundreds of other companies for nearly 40 years. I've been through a lot of operating system changes for all OSs.

As a beta tester, I'm starting to see the new features and utilities planned for Acrobat-Sometime-in-the-Future (and I'm very excited about them)!  But none of those features, or the current features, or their operating systems require changing icons, or designing 2 icons to look nearly identical but have polar opposite functions, or leaving lables off icons so users play "WTF is THIS icon for", or superimposing tool panels on top of content, or hiding some long-standing tools altogether, or making the scroll bars invisible on Mac OS, or flipping the location of tools left-to-right and vise versa, or...?

Operating systems generally don't control functions or GUI design, just behind-the-scenes coding requirements. When it comes to the cosemetic interface appearance, they recommend certain overall design aesthetic or theme, but don't require it AFAIK.  When a change like that is made by Adobe, I haven't seen it change functionality, just merely a facelift of what's there already, like the movement to a simplified less-cluttered interface design but not the elimination of a function.

As far as I can tell from Adobe's beta/prerelease comments, nothing in this last GUI overhaul was caused by a change or requirement in either OS. (And if it did, think a little stronger about that idea — which OS would Adobe comply with, Windows or Apple? Mobile or desktop?)

Something positive:

If you'd like to contribute an idea of what would make Acrobat work better for you (no complaints — Adobe has heard enough of them!),  hop over to an Acrobat Wish List post https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/48153893-new-acr...

Let Adobe know what's missing from the new version, what you need to have restored, and what new features you'd like.

We might actually see some progress on this!

[jilll47525288]

Adobe needs to pay attention to this resource.  I've tried providing feedback through other sources when people like you post different website addresses.  I've never been able to actually post anything.  And by now, I'm so aggravated by all the problems that Adobe has created that I can't even remember all of my complaints.  

The information Adobe needs to know is well documented throughout these community discussions.  If Adobe really cared about user input, they would look here instead of ignoring this resource.  

The latest version of Acrobat was so horrible that I reverted to an older version and will never go back to the new one.  Nonetheless, Adobe continues to cause problems for me on at least a weekly basis.  At least once a week, my computer chokes because of Adobe updates, making it necessary for me to reboot my computer.  Sure, I could turn off automatic updates, but that would create other problems.  

You say you're a beta tester.  Why don't you let Adobe know that they need to look here for customer complaints?  You clearly have a way to communicate with Adobe that most of us don't.  

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

... You say you're a beta tester.  Why don't you let Adobe know that they need to look here for customer complaints?  You clearly have a way to communicate with Adobe that most of us don't.  

By @jilll47525288

Why do you assume that I and other beta testers haven't tried?

Adobe's honchos don't listen to us any more than they listen to customers like you.

Like most software companies today, they are owned primarily by private equity investor groups who get to stack the board and management suites with their people. Unlike the original founders who came out of the then brand-new digital publishing industry, current management doesn't have a clue what any of us do with their software.

And I wonder how much they really care. After all, don't we all still let Adobe take hundreds of dollars a year out of our bank accounts — whether the software works or not?  If you're a professional, what other software can you use?The competitors have all been bought out by now.

It's a lousy situation for us customers, whether we're talking about Adobe or Microsoft or Canva or any other software company.

[JR Boulay]

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com If you're a professional, what other software can you use?The competitors have all been bought out by now.

If Adobe definitively imposed the new Acrobat interface on us with no other choice, I wouldn't hesitate to use Foxit Editor.
Not out of spite, but because its interface is more productive and it's much less buggy than Acrobat. I use it to work, not to have fun clicking endlessly in absurd menus/tools.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Everyone has different tasks they want to do in Acrobat or another PDF editor, so your choice of software depends on what tasks you need to do.  I classify these tools into these levels:

Level 1 — Ultra basic tools to open and read a PDF file, save it to your computer, or print it on a desktop printer. Even the cheapest freebie should be able to do this.

Level 2 — More functions, like adding comments (aka, markup) to the PDF, fill in form fields, add digital signature, combine different tyes of files into one PDF, redact content, and edit the content (swap photos, correct typos, etc.).

Level 3 — Advanced tools, such as OCR/scanning, stamps, Bates numbering, compare PDF files, export to different types of files (such as Word and PowerPoint), and add rich media (aka, video).

Level 4 — Pro tools, especially those for specific industries. Print production / preflight tools, check for various PDF standards (/A archive, /E engineering, /X print & graphic arts, /UA accessibililty), create forms, bulk emailing for comments and signatures, security, accessibility remediation and validation.

Only Adobe Acrobat Pro is at level 4, but other programs might have one or two of the tools in that group.

Some of our browsers have recently added Level 1 tools to do those tasks right in your browser. Mozilla Firefox is one brand.

I like Foxit's interface: it appears to be easy to figure out and use. But it has many shortcomings that aren't obvious until you discover that the tool doesn't work like it should: Accessibility tools is one category that doesn't meet the needs. Also note that it is a Chinese-owned and based company; some governments (like the US federal government) won't allow it to be installed on their agency computers.

Some more ideas are in this recent blog: https://pubcom.com/blog/acrobatnew/

[JR Boulay]

Thank you Bevi.

I'm working with Acrobat since 1996 and I know this.

Last year I reported a bug in the free Foxit Reader that was penalizing one of my customers (cannot delete spawned pages). It was fixed in three weeks, and they sent me an email to let me know about it and to thank me.

Another country, another way of life...

[rishabh370576915m9m]

On Ipad OS now, they seem to have removed the option to revert back to the classic design, why is this happening, the new design is laggy as well, when i tap on screen to remove the gui from view, the whole thing moves the page up or down, and it's slow, the classic view was snappy, is there a. way for me to go back now, or do i need to shift to another pdf reader?

[defaultr75zypq33tjw]

I agree.  This is the worst upgrade ever.  Why, Why?  Looking for another markup product.  This product used to be so good (development team should be fired)!  I pay more and more and it beccomes less and less valuable.  UGH!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

The PDF file format became an open source format in 2008, and since then, other companies have created PDF editors and readers.

You might have other options to use. Just Google for PDF software.

However, Adobe's Acrobat programs are still the gold standard for many industries, including accessibility, prepress, professional printing and graphic arts, and legal documents.

[sinm62317072]

I was losing the will to live, with such simple things becoming a task. Thank you x

[nancym57539227]

The only part I truly hate is how pan and zoom are sometimes working and sometimes not.  I got used to space+mouse to pan and control+mouse wheel to zoom... But even this doesn't match any other approach to pan/zoom functions except in some other adobe applications.  The rest of the menu changes are meh, but the pan-zoom unpredictability is a real pain in the tuckus.  So much so, that I've started to look for third party PDF tools.

[jackson38725296568v]

The new version sucks - not sure who gave them feedback.

[kglad]

@jackson38725296568v 

use the previous interface with the new version.

[jackson38725296568v]

i know, is there a way to communicate that the old efficient version should be default. also adapting to simplified model just makes it a useless tool 

[kglad]

@jackson38725296568v 

to make suggestisons to adobe, https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

[jane-e]

@jackson38725296568v 

You can submit a feature request or bug report to the Acrobat Developers here: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/

Jane

[Frans v.d. Geest]

The new version sucks - not sure who gave them feedback.

By @jackson38725296568v

We all gave feedback, in the beta testing before release for example as well as after that.
Adobe choose to ignore us... again...

[Tiger_words]

@reginal79098089 The answer is because if programers didn't find something to do, theyt'd be unemployed.  So they must continuously "improve" things or they'll be out of work.

[Raj5E44]

Hi All, 

Sorry, I know I'm probably repeating similar sentiment as others, 
firstly, @jane-e  thank you very much for saving us all from this 'new experience'. 
I know this 'new experience' would have been through rigourous iterations, testing etc, but if so many of us are saying how unpleasant we're finding it - was a part of your UX and user feedback missing ? 
regardless of whether the new experience, will eventually be more productive for us, it is aesthically, quite ugly UI design (certainly seems cruder than old UI), swtiching the pages to right and tools to left is pretty disorienting, and no longer using the top area for tools ribbon seems odd. Please do not remove the ability to revert 

Thanks

[jane-e]

firstly, @jane-e  thank you very much for saving us all from this 'new experience'. 

By @Raj5E44

You're welcome Raj!

Jane

[JohnnyValkonian]

Over a year later and 13 pages of replies it's nice to see the community agrees on something so passionately 😊 

Glad to be a part of this community. 

[sinm62317072]

I found a way to restore old version...happy days!

I spent the last 35 years learnign / navigating all software, and now almost 50, I really don't want to start again...TBH I feel like I'm starting again with some programmes, we've to work and don't have time for this. So annoying, but they don't care. 

[sinm62317072]

I can't really remember how I restored old version. However, I believe it was through my profile. When I did find it, it was as simple as RESTORE old layout. 

Hope this helps x

[1963tigre]

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 Acroba