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daviddmack
Participant
April 21, 2015
Answered

Acrobat Reader DC: Find the hand and select tools

  • April 21, 2015
  • 24 replies
  • 158176 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

Participant
May 11, 2024

Thank you for the information on moving the zoom controls to the bottom.  Now my problem is there are no 'upvote' icons (just a count of how many each response got) on this page to show appreciation

Participant
February 16, 2023

Yes thanks for this.  Adobe gets in its own way.  They are making their software worse, not better.

 

 

Participant
November 10, 2022

Thank you vert much for explaining how to get the Hand Tool to appear.  I looked for it everywhere!  One additonal detail: Below the Show Page Controls, make sure the Undock option is NOT checkmarked.  I actually got the hand tool to appear on the toolbar after selecting Show Page Controls and deselecting (no checkmark) the Undock option.

Participant
June 2, 2022

Acrobat, yes. It does have hand tool. But not for adobe reader. It's a shame...

Participant
May 27, 2022

you NEED to fix this

 

Participant
March 29, 2022

Thanks for that. I'm sure that this used to be in the toolbar but this could be a senior moment.

The air was blue looking for this option, should have used Google much earlier! 

Participant
April 3, 2020

Thank you David. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where the hand tool was located... I appreciate your post.

     - Mike

Inspiring
May 15, 2017

Thanks -- this also worked in Acrobat Pro DC.

Any way to add the Hand tool to my Quick Tools set in Pro DC, so I don't have to constantly show and hide tools?

JaySprout
Inspiring
March 28, 2016

How do I get the "text select tool" if I'm in Acrobat Pro DC (as opposed to Reader)? One of the coolest features in Acrobat used to be the ability to select text and press Ctrl+B to quickly create Bookmarks.

January 7, 2016

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
Participating Frequently
January 7, 2016

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