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Anonymous
April 14, 2015
Answered

How do I remove the right hand pane in Reader DC (LOCKED)

  • April 14, 2015
  • 39 replies
  • 485224 views

How do I remove the right hand pane (export pdf, create pdf, edit pdf, etc.) on Reader DC?  It takes up a quarter of my screen and I never use that stuff!

Thanks for your help!

    Correct answer Allta Media

    The July 2015 Acrobat & Reader DC update introduced a UI change for the right-hand pane. Now when you launch Acrobat/Reader DC, it will retain the last state (collapsed or open) of the tools in the Right-Hand Pane. You can find more details on this page

    Acrobat Help | New features summary.

    Edit: Just to clarify in Reader DC, it's a Preference located under Edit > Preferences > Documents "Open Tool pane for each document".

    39 replies

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    S
    saitejal
    Participant
    July 30, 2015

    Thank you.

    Just so you know, I moved the files into "Dumb Apps". And it still works.

      Allta Media
      Community Expert
      Allta MediaCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
      Community Expert
      July 15, 2015

      The July 2015 Acrobat & Reader DC update introduced a UI change for the right-hand pane. Now when you launch Acrobat/Reader DC, it will retain the last state (collapsed or open) of the tools in the Right-Hand Pane. You can find more details on this page

      Acrobat Help | New features summary.

      Edit: Just to clarify in Reader DC, it's a Preference located under Edit > Preferences > Documents "Open Tool pane for each document".

        B
        BJBBJB1
        Inspiring
        July 19, 2015

        I have an option called "Allow documents to hide the menu bar, toolbars, and window controls".  Is this the item you are described?

        I installed in July and do not show an update available and do not have the exact option mentioned.

        I am currently running with the fix mentioned in this thread but will go back to the old file if this in-program fix works...

        I assumed that would happen anyway.

        BJBBJB1

        Bartelsjuice
        Bartelsjuice
        Participant
        July 19, 2015

        BJBBJB1 wrote:

        I have an option called "Allow documents to hide the menu bar, toolbars, and window controls".  Is this the item you are described?

        No.  First be sure you are running the July update:  v 15.008.20082

        Then try this, go to:

        Edit > Preferences > Documents >

        and then DE-select the check box that sez:

        Open tools pane for each document

        NB:  This does not do what it really sez.  What it seems to do is, if you close the Reader with the tools pane closed, then it will reopen with the pane closed.  If you close Reader with the tools pane open, then it will restart with the tools pane open.

        If there is a check in the box, then it will always open with the tools pane.  Here's a look:

        Hope this helps.

        bc

        PS: be sure to put those files back (AppCenter_R.aapp, Home.aapp, Viewer.aapp) in order for this to work.

          A
          Anders Juul
          Participant
          June 30, 2015

          Delete the whole folder "AcroApp" under C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader

          M
          markw18012342
          Participant
          June 25, 2015

          Thanks for the workaround guys.

          To Adobe this is the most frustrating viewer, not being able to turn off the right hand pane is really annoying. My trust in Adobe and its products has gone.

          D
          DaveSPI
          Participant
          June 24, 2015

          Just adding another voice...

          Please fix this Adobe and thanks to those that came up with the workaround.

          determined_Zenith15D5
          determined_Zenith15D5
          Participant
          June 9, 2015

          I wanted to deploy Reader DC with SCCM 2012 to all the clients in our Enterprise and found the right hand pane to be a real pain for my users.

          I used the Acrobat Customization Wizard DC (ACWDC) to create a custom .mst file to disable all the auto updating and other online services but that right hand pane just wouldn't go away.

          Finally I ended up using the previously posted solution of editing Viewer.aapp to only contain the following:

          <Application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/acrobat/app/2014" title="Viewer" id="Viewer" majorVersion="1" requiresDoc="true" minorVersion="0">

          </Application>

          In ACWDC I then went to "Files and Folders"/"Destination Computer"/ProgramFilesFolder/Adobe/"Acrobat Reader 2015"/Reader/AcroApp/ENU and dragged the edited Viewer.aap file to that location and confirmed that I wanted to replace the already existing file.

          The on the Transform menu I selected "Generate Transform" and saved the transform as "AcroRead.mst". All extra files you drag into the file structure will be saved inside the .mst file.

          To install I then use:

          msiexec.exe /i AcroRead.msi TRANSFORMS=AcroRead.mst /norestart /qn

          This will install Reader silently and apply the transform with the edited Viewer.aapp file.

          <sarcasm> Thanks Adobe for making it so easy to manage your software in an enterprise environment! </sarcasm>

          saschao25393384
          saschao25393384
          Inspiring
          June 22, 2015

          Hi Oskar,

          did you changed anything in ACWDC under "security" -> Protected View is off per default -> changed to "files from potentially unsafe locations" (and some more changes) but they are not deployed to the client. Was not a problem with ACW for Adobe Reader 11 before.

          Will try tomorrow with direct registry settings. Anybody else with that problem?

          saschao25393384
          saschao25393384
          Inspiring
          June 26, 2015

          just to answer my own question, little off topic, but maybe someone is interested - why ACW is not setting protected view in the way you configure it -> regkey seems missing

          check      https://forums.adobe.com/message/7691825#7691825

          R
          Robin Meadow
          Participant
          June 4, 2015

          THANK YOU all for the solution to thiis vexing interface problem.  I chose the file-removal approach, and it works perfectly.

          And here's an additional tip that I don't think is in this thread (I picked it up while trying to find out how to turn off the pane):  Hitting Shift-F4 toggles the tool pane on and off.  I've been using this with every new document, but by eliminating the three app files I now get no pane by default -- and Shift-F4 still works when I need the tools!  As a keyboard-centric user I much prefer this to clicking on a menu.

          I have to say that I actually like the new pane and the various toolboxes when I want to use tools, which unlike some here I do fairly often -- but not otherwise.  So this solution is perfect for me.

            P
            Pixel Whisperer
            Participant
            July 2, 2015

            Thanks to Robin Meadow (Post #45) for adding to the brilliant solutions. I love this shortcut!

            T
            tomgafford
            Participant
            May 30, 2015

            not to put too fine a point on it, it's probably up our a***es and down our... well, you get it.  can someone perhaps tease out the syntax of these xml files?  they might be useful once we know how they work.

            D
            dysfunction
            Participant
            May 29, 2015

            FYI - You can easily comment out the lines in the Viewer.aapp XML file instead of deleting them in case you want to bring the tool pane back for some reason. I suppose that making a backup copy of the file is another alternative but I just simply commented out the lines and I can always remove them later if I want.

            You can comment out the lines by adding <!-- before the first line that is not needed and --> after the lines that is not needed. This comments out the entire block of lines. See below.

            <Application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/acrobat/app/2014" title="Viewer" id="Viewer" majorVersion="1" requiresDoc="true" minorVersion="0">

            <!--

                <Layouts>

                    <Layout name="Default">

                        <RHP>

                            <Component name="AppShortcutListView" type="Custom"/>

                        </RHP>

                    </Layout>

                </Layouts>

            -->

            </Application>

              P
              Pixel Whisperer
              Participant
              July 2, 2015

              Thanks so much to everyone in the community who worked so hard and found solutions to this hassle! I loved the fixes by HHugo and Dysfunction especially. (I chose Dysfunction's solution, as for me it was the easiest and least, uh, dysfunctional.)

              Now, onto disabling Mobile Link and its constant harassment messages. Fight the Power!

              A
              Anonymous
              May 15, 2015

              Hey Huh,

              to disable the right pane, you can follow the answer from tmmcentyre https://forums.adobe.com/message/7472578#7472578 or the answer from HHugo https://forums.adobe.com/message/7544218#7544218

              The problem with both workarounds is, if you click on "Home" or "Tools" on the toolbar, you can't go back to "Document."

              With tmmcentyres workaround you lose some more features too.

              To fix this follow HHugos workaround, but keep the last line form the file too.

              So edit the "Viewer.aapp" file located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroApp\ENU\".

              Here remove line 2 till 8:

              <Layouts>

                  <Layout name="Default">

                      <RHP>

                          <Component name="AppShortcutListView" type="Custom"/>

                      </RHP>

                  </Layout>

              </Layouts>

              So the content of the file is only:

              <Application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/acrobat/app/2014" title="Viewer" id="Viewer" majorVersion="1" requiresDoc="true" minorVersion="0"/>

              </Application>

              Now the right pane should be closed if you open a .pdf file. You can switch between "Home", "Tools" and "Document" without issues and the remaining features should work as intended also.

                HHugo
                HHugo
                Participant
                May 15, 2015

                user231‌ are you sure about the final content of the file? I am pretty sure the content you suggested is not valid XML. The "/" before the ">" is a short way of writing "</Application>" if the tag is empty, see also the "<Component …/>"-line you posted.

                Maybe you overlooked the "/" at the end of "<Application …/>" when you edited the file. I should have mentioned that you need to add it. I intended for people to copy the line I posted and replace the contents of the file, sorry if this causes problems.

                A
                Anonymous
                May 15, 2015

                Hey HHugo,

                you are right, i did not see that you put "/" at the end of the line. I'm sorry .

                short version:

                <Application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/acrobat/app/2014" title="Viewer" id="Viewer" majorVersion="1" requiresDoc="true" minorVersion="0"/>

                long version:

                <Application xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/acrobat/app/2014" title="Viewer" id="Viewer" majorVersion="1" requiresDoc="true" minorVersion="0">

                </Application>

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