Acrobat Reader DC: Find the hand and select tools

[daviddmack]

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.  >:-((

[Sara_Forsberg · Accepted solution]

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]

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

[FrequentPDFer]

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???

[dgshuler0616]

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]

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...

[dgshuler0616]

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]

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

[Chris_J_Newman]

After “Find”, I think the functions I use most often in Adobe Reader are switching the pointer between the “Hand tool” and the “Select tool”, and the Zoom Value menu, for selecting a precise level of zoom.   So I would like buttons for all these functions to be permanently visible on the toolbar.  I find it extremely irritating with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC that whilst ‘View’ ‘Show/Hide’ ‘Toolbar Items’ will allow a host of less useful buttons to be placed individually on the toolbar, this cannot be done with these key ones.  The usually hidden Page Control toolbar includes these buttons, unless I pin it to the toolbar to keep it visible, when the buttons switching the pointer between the “Hand tool” and the “Select tool” disappear.  I hope future versions of Adobe Reader will rectify this ridiculous situation by including buttons for switching the pointer between the “Hand tool” and the “Select tool”, and for the Zoom Value menu, amongst the individually selectable buttons available from ‘View’ ‘Show/Hide’ ‘Toolbar Items’.

Chris

[brendon482]

It is strange how the hand and pointer tools are not available under the select and zoom tools. I found that if you are in another tool that esc brings you to the hand tool.

[Guest]

Why are the hand and select tool available when the page control toolbar is undocked but they are not available if the toolbar is docked?  These tools should always be available, they are two of the most basic tools in Reader.

[ifiokm72643398]

why is Adobe making the reader to be less and less intuitive?

very unimpressive !

[Guest]

Ich schließe mich der Bitte an, das Hand-Werkzeug und das Auswahl-Werkzeug wieder so in die Werkzeugleiste zu integrieren, dass diese (bei entsprechender Einstellung) dort dauerhaft angezeigt werden. Wenn man es jahrelang gewohnt ist, mit diesen Symbolen schnell zu arbeiten, will man dafür nicht plötzlich auf Tastaturbefehle ausweichen müssen.

Bitte schnellstmöglich ändern. So ist das neue Programm - egal welche Verbesserungen es auch mitbringt - schlechter als jede Vorgängerversion.

[jamesb61201803]

Thank you so much for this post! I spent 30 mins myself trying to figure out how to disable the marque search and return to text select mode.  Acrobat DC is the least intuitive software I've ever seen from Adobe.

[annes36610202]

Wanted to give my 2 cents on the fact that there is no option to deselect Hand Tool as the default.  I HATE the hand tool, find it awkward and, for my purposes, a time suck.  I would LOVE the option to set whichever tool option I prefer as the default.  Why would you not allow users to select the tool that is the primary interface with the product?  Absurd.  As it stands I have to change this every time I open a PDF, and at times I am opening hundreds at one sitting while performing a task.  Imagine how frustrating that is! Please update this product so that the end user can choose their own defaults, instead of the manufacturer.  Thank you!

[emilycurious]

I'm looking for an alternative to Acrobat, after investing in the Suite and learning all the shortcuts I've now upgraded to CC and they've switched around or completely removed shortcuts - totally f'd up my productivity. Thanks Adobe for f' all.

[SplineTimeLine]

I second this (the different thoughts on irritations being regularly introduced) I have used some form of Adobe software since 95, and it seems like the newest versions are less and less intuitive in key areas. Example :F1 help is awful, but I digress. In regard to this topic,

I do not want to EVER have to "figure out" things that are at the core of a program and have worked well for years. I think your UI designers have caught a case of new age alterations.....

In short: Just Because you CAN, doesn't mean you should.....

This nonsense of "cleaning up" or "streamlining" the interface has gone to far......PLEASE rollback the too cute UIX design.

PS the fact that UIX stands for user interface seems to encapsulate the problem.

"Grumpy Curmudgeon who regular has "getting work done", interrupted by "where the h**l did they hide it...."

Sincerely,

Kevin L

[andyb54889276]

I agree as well. I shouldn't have to waste all my time looking for basic functionality. If I have to give up and do a google search to find out how to get the select/hand tools then you did something terribly wrong in your software design.

[Ferd.Burfle]

I am SO with you on this, brother!  I was also thinking of myself as a "Grumpy Curmudgeon", but then I remembered when I used to work with independent contractor developers.

Sometimes they develop "useful improvements" not because anyone needed them, but so they could justify staying on the job a few months more.  Then everyone would need to re-learn the software's "improvements".

I am within 30 seconds of using MS Word (not that it's a panacea, Bill Gates), but I can edit it, not have to go searching for font color tools, and save it as an XPS document, which - for all intents and purposes - is all I really need Adobe Acrobat for - to create a "read only" document.

And a special "thank you" to Adobe.  You don't know how much time I'll save by not using Acrobat!

[alysonr16470457]

I feel your pain. It's a year and a half later, my company just updated my computer (thus also my Adobe) and I HATE the hand tool. Appears that there is still no way to choose and "make sticky" other defaults. PLEASE fix this Adobe!

[Guest]

Thanks David for your help! I spent at least 2 hours, broke my laptop keyboard and trew my mouse out the window trying to figure that out. You certainly saved my fist and my screen!

Thanks!

[wazubee]

For Adobe: how about just restoring the capability to dock the select tool to the toolbar? It makes no sense to have done away with that. It has to be one of the most commonly used tools so why create more steps to access it? Seems like change for for the sake of change.

[FrequentPDFer]

The best solution for many of the newly introduced flaws in Acrobat is downgrading to v. XI. That version is about 50-75% faster than Acrobat DC, requires 25-50% less screen estate and when used with Windows 10 Threshold 2 (Version 10.0.10586), you can run actions without Acrobat "steeling focus". If Acrobat loads another PDF during an action, only the taskbar flashes and you can continue working in another app. Thank you Microsoft for fixing an Adobe issue!

[Guest]

Does Adobe have a planned strategy to hide tools that humans use to operate this software?  I assume so because they plan for computers to actually use this software rather than people in the future kinda like Google cars.  The above advice does not apply to the version I have.

[FrequentPDFer]

My advice: downgrade to Acrobat XI. No point wasting time with DC.