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daviddmack
daviddmack
Participant
April 21, 2015
Answered

Acrobat Reader DC: Find the hand and select tools

  • April 21, 2015
  • 24 replies
  • 158177 views

Here is a problem and a solution. In Adobe Reader DC you may want to use the hand tool and the select tool. But you won't get them to show in the main toolbar, no matter how deep you dig in the Show/Hide menu.

SOLUTION: hover your mouse in the lower part of the screen to show the Page Control tools. That's where you'll see the hand and select tools.

The complete steps are:

1. Click View > Show/Hide > Page Controls, and make sure that Show Page Controls is selected.

2. The page controls will appear either on your toolbar or at the bottom of the screen.

3. To move the page controls to the bottom of the screen (or back to your toolbar), click the icon that looks like a bar with a downwards arrow.

4. You will only be able to see the hand and select tools when the page controls are at the bottom of your screen.

Adobe, I usually love your software, but I spent a half hour looking for a hand icon. Frustration.  >:-((

    Correct answer Sara_Forsberg

    Hi daviddmack,


    Thanks for sharing that with the community! You might also find this tip useful:

    If you select Use Single Key Accelerators to Access Tools in the General preferences, you can access the Hand tool by pressing "H" on the keyboard.

    Best,

    Sara

    24 replies

    Show previous replies
    D
    dgshuler0616
    Participant
    May 14, 2015

    Well, that reply was to the original post, but for your specific problem Click Edit => Preferences => General and tick the box for "Make hand tool select text and images"  Now, you can use the hand tool in the open spaces and when you hover over text or images it automatically switches to the select tool.

      FrequentPDFer
      FrequentPDFer
      Participating Frequently
      May 14, 2015

      It takes a little to get used to but that's an acceptable solution! Thanks!

      D
      dgshuler0616
      Participant
      May 12, 2015

      Click View > Show/Hide > Page Controls  and uncheck the Undock and the controls will be placed on the toll bar at the top of the page.

        FrequentPDFer
        FrequentPDFer
        Participating Frequently
        May 14, 2015

        What "solution" is that? If the page controls are visible, I have to click the select tool and if they are not visible I have to right click in the document and select the select tool. 1-2 useless clicks for EVERY document opened...

          FrequentPDFer
          FrequentPDFer
          Participating Frequently
          May 8, 2015

          I find it extremely annoying that for every PDF that I open, the Hand Tool is active and not the Select Tool. That's extra work for upgrading and paying for Acrobat Pro DC. Is there really no way to set the Select Tool as the standard? Users are demanding such a setting (Hand Tool or Select Tool as standard) for a long time, so how difficult is it to implement this???

            S
            Community Manager
            Sara_ForsbergCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
            Community Manager
            April 21, 2015

            Hi daviddmack,


            Thanks for sharing that with the community! You might also find this tip useful:

            If you select Use Single Key Accelerators to Access Tools in the General preferences, you can access the Hand tool by pressing "H" on the keyboard.

            Best,

            Sara

              daviddmack
              daviddmackAuthor
              Participant
              April 22, 2015

              OK.

              H to get the hand tool, and

              V to return to the selection tool.

              For a list of keyboard commands for Acrobat Reader 6 click Section Four: Using Keyboard Commands

              And Sara, please tell them to write a complete manual for DC soon.

              Thanks,

              David

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