Why change everything?

Report · Jun 22, 2023

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???

Report · Jun 24, 2023

reginal79098089 wrote on 22 June:

Adobe Acrobat DC is now TOTALLY different in the toolbar layouts!

Hi Reginal,

I have yet to hear from someone who likes the "new experience" in Acrobat, but it is easy to turn off!

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

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Report · Feb 24, 2024

Was this even tested before it was released to the public?
By DCProud 202

Adobe has pre-release testers for all the Creative Suite programs and Acrobat. Occassionally I see Adobe announce for people to join the testing program.

Many of us community experts here in the forums are testers for Adobe, and many of us have been doing this since the 1980s and 1990s.

I can't recall much positive feedback from the testers before the "modern" Acrobat was released to the public. I know my comments back to the engineers were fairly extensive. Some things were improved (darkening the icons from a light gray to a dark gray, for example). But for the most part, the comments have fallen on deaf ears.

Over the past 18 months, I personally have continued to use and test the newest beta releases, but I often have to abandon them and switch to another computer that runs the "classic" interface. I have only so much time to donate to Adobe to dignose problems (and provide detailed bug reports and comments to the engineers). I, like most folks here, have a job to do. Working for free for Adobe is not on my to-do list.

3 suggestions:

Disable the new Acrobat and revert back to the "classic" interface. I believe that all of the old functionality is still active there.
Join the Acrobat beta testing group. I don't know where to direct you to join, but try searching for a public page in the Acrobat section of Adobe's website.
Consider another brand of PDF editing software. The PDF file format was placed into the public domain about 15 years ago and since then, other companies have developed competing programs. Wikipedia has a decent list of other brands. One of our favorites is ABBY Fine Reader/PDF.

But note that none of these competing programs have all the features of Acrobat, so if you're in certain industries, you're really stuck with Adobe Acrobat. These industry-specific features include:

Accessible PDFs and documents
PDF forms
Printing, graphic arts, and preflighting for print
Security
Digital signatures
Automated PDF documents (aka, stuff like bank statements created from a database a on grand scale)

So see if any other alternative brand gets the job done for you. Be careful of the company's country of origin: you might not be able to install software from certain countries, which is the case here in the US for government computers. Example: FoxIt is a Chinese company and usually is not allowed on our government clients' computers.

As always, don't forget to voice your comments on UserVoice and click the button to VOTE. That is the only place where Adobe takes notice of customers.

Let Adobe know:

You can voice your opinion about the new interface at UserVoice: https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/47082691-ditch-t...

Be sure to leave a comment about your experience with the new interface. They need to hear from users. And don't forget to click the VOTE button.

FYI, UserVoice is Adobe's official website where it reads and takes into account suggestions and complaints from users of its various products. On the other hand, this community forum is a user-to-user help forum.

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Report · Jan 25, 2024

The "Modern" Acrobat interface inflicted itself on me today. Very thankful for the comprehensive GUI interface reset instructions.

The new page navigation panel is so tiny that I couldn't locate it at first. Placing the navigation controls off to the side is inefficient—forcing the user to look away from the document body!

Once again, I've sent my feedback to Adobe. Trying to maintain hope that someday the Acrobat interface will improve...

Report · Feb 01, 2024

Hi,

I would like to report that the Thumbnails formerly present in the PDF Portfolio are missing. The portfolio is now represented just as a list.

After switching to the old UI, the thumbnail pan appears on the left side as it used to be, however, it shows only PDF icons, not the actual thumbnails.

Also, notice that in the new "list" GUI the files are opened separately in a new tab. When you switch to the old GUI you can browse through the files seamlessly, all switching within one tab. That is a crucial feature! I cannot emphasize this more!

Adobe, stand by your claims that all workflows and functionalities retain their quality! Restore the powerful functionality of the PDF Portfolio. It is now completely impaired.

Thanks,

Martin Jezek

Report · Feb 01, 2024

Agreed! I cant stand the new layout they pushed out! At least give us the opportunity to revert to the classic layout! Honestly (cursing removed)

Report · Feb 01, 2024

@David35187565eaf7

you can:

mac: view > disable new acrobat

win: hamburger menu (upper left) > disable new acrobat

Report · Feb 02, 2024

I couldn't agree with you more. This version is horrible

Report · Feb 04, 2024

I heartily agree - they broke what workflow I have developed to be productive. Thank you and to others that gave me the proper tools to reset to the classic menus.

Report · Feb 06, 2024

For what it's worth, I HATE the layout changes Adobe made to Acrobat Pro, and I find it incredibly stupid to not give users the flexibility to choose their own layout.

Did I mention I HATE the layout changes?!

Report · Feb 06, 2024

I already didn't care for these changes, but they're especially confusing to older folk who might use computers. One user thought they were still in Firefox, presumably because of the prominent tabs lining the top of the window, you know, like a BROWSER. Thank you for the option to go back to the old Reader.

Report · Feb 08, 2024

I generally like new versions in every apps but really dislike this new Adobe reader. I really appreciate developers effort to bring us something new, but after some time trying it I happily reverted back.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

On top of the new horrible interface, Acrobat is now crashing when we try to open a linked PDF file. Again. After disabling the new interface, it doesn't crash anymore, so it's definitelly connected to the recent changes. This happened on ALL computers at my workplace, which means that it's not a problem with a specific machine. Also, some important functions for the production of our newspaper suddenly disapeared in the new version. Sometimes, Adobe seems to hate its professional users.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

@Miguel Medalha

disable the new acrobat if you don't like it.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

It's not just a question of "not liking the new version", as if it's an issue of personal preferences. The new version is riddled with bugs. We keep finding new ones every single day. It should never have been released in this state for public consumption. It's barely a beta version at this point. Adobe needs to first fix all of these issues, and then start thinking about whether it's a desirable change in the first place. For many people it's not, even if it worked perfectly.

Report · Feb 14, 2024

@kglad

My concern is how long we will be able to disable the new Acrobat interface. At what point might this workaround be discontinued?

Report · Feb 14, 2024

kglad

My concern is how long we will be able to disable the new Acrobat interface. At what point might this workaround be discontinued?

By Martin24483200eus3

that, i do not know. and good suggestion for adobe:

to report bugs or ideas or wishes to adobe: for applicable apps, use https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/x-productkb/global/how-to-user-voice.html

for createive cloud assets:

bugs, https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-collaboration-experiences/ct-p/ct-adobe-collaboration-experienc...

requests, https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-collaboration-experiences/ct-p/ct-adobe-collaboration-experienc...

for others, use https://www.adobe.com/products/wishform.html

if neither show a place to report the issue, just leave it here. that's the best you can do.

Report · Feb 15, 2024

At what point might this workaround be discontinued?

Nobody knows, I asked the development team a few weeks ago and they promised me an answer... Soon.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Report · Feb 13, 2024

That's not all that Acrobat "crashes." Every time the Acrobat undate installer runs, my computer bogs down so much that I can't function. I end up having to shut down and reboot my computer.

Report · Feb 13, 2024

For example, the "Manage Actions" tool just disappeared. There is now a button for something called "Use guided actions" but when we try to use it, a window pops up saying "The new Acrobat experience does not support this feature yet". Meaning, they decided to completely change the thing and realease it without even having completed their work. This is very serious for our workflow. If Adobe continues on this path we will start searching for a new PDF editor, made by someone who doesn't hate its users.

Report · Feb 14, 2024

Another issue is the background color. It's too light, resulting in a very poor contrast between the displayed pages and the window background.. This issue had already appeared when Acrobat DC was first launched in 2015 and it was heavily criticized. Well, there it is again!

Report · Feb 15, 2024

View/disable new Acrobat causes the program to crash on my Mac. So I am stuck with searching for my tool bars!

Report · Feb 19, 2024

Try uninstalling and reinstalling. I know it's a pain but it may work.

Report · Feb 28, 2024

ACROBAT TOOLBARS:

The problem was just corrected with today's release. From Adobe's notice:

The issue has been resolved and is available in the application version 23.008.20533 and above.
We now have a preference to enable a scroll bar.
Details can be found at:- https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/scroll-framework-upgrade-macos.html

Report · Feb 27, 2024

Some things are better left alone.

Report · Mar 12, 2024

I've come to this thread because I've had enough to the new format. I've had to go back to the old version. Why move everything? It's so buggy and crashes all the time. Like someone has said in this thread already... "Why? Just why!!"

Report · Mar 14, 2024

The ability to revery back to the "old" layout has disappeared in the latest version of Acrobat Pro. I hate that page numbering and document zoom are on the side & can't be moved back to the top. Stop changing things that aren't broken ! If you're going to move layouts, at least give users the ability to move the bars back where we want them . . .the users !

Report · Mar 25, 2024

It is still here after the latest update...