how can i hide navigation panel buttons

Report · Oct 25, 2007

Hi, i would like to know how can i remove or hide programatically the navigation panel buttons because i have an applicattion where i open the pdf documents and i don´t want this buttons are shown never.i want that, when the application is open, the buttons don´t be shown. i´m refering to the button on the left of Adobe Reader 8: the botton are "pages", "how to","atachments", and "comments". thanks a lot for your help
susana

Report · May 20, 2012

Guys, the proposal here is NOT to remove the "Navigation Pane Buttons" completely, but to add a setting somewhere in your preferences to not show the buttons for any new open document. You can make the default setting for the buttons to be shown (so that your "average" users would not get confused), and if one hates the buttons (like me and many other not-so-average-by-adobe-standards people), then it should be possible to change a check-box to not show the buttons when any new pdf-document is open. The stuff which you put into the pane is useful occasionally, but in 99.9% of cases I open a pdf file, the pane and the buttons in it are nothing but a hindrance for using the program (Adobe Reader) efficiently.

Report · May 22, 2012

I have an electronic signage system which displays jpegs, video and I’d like it also to be able to display PDF files. I can’t do this because the damn buttons keep showing up on the display and there’s no way to turn it off.

This is just one application. I’m sure there are dozens of others where the buttons interfere.

Report · May 22, 2012

For an application like your signage system, you can configure the PDFs

that you what to display with an initial view of "Open in full screen

mode". That will hide everything but the document - no toolbar, menubar,

navigation pane, ... Just the document.

The document author has the option to hide the navigation pane. If a

document does not benefit from that pane, I would assume that the author

would set the appropriate initial view. If a document benefits from having

the bookmarks pane visible (e.g. because it's helpful in navigating a

complex document) I would hope that the author enables that setting, and if

a document contains a lot of attachments that I need to work with, I would

hope that the attachments pane would be the one visible. And so on...

If the document author takes the time to setup how the document should be

displayed, I don't think that the user should be able to override that

setting with a preference setting. What would be interesting is a setting

that would be applied for documents that do not explicitly set the viewer

preferences.

Karl Heinz Kremer

PDF Acrobatics Without a Net

khk@khk.net

http://www.khkonsulting.com

Report · May 22, 2012

Running in full screen is not a good solution for me since the PDF appears in the center of the screen but there is other information displayed around it.

Report · May 22, 2012

To Karl Heinz Kremer:

Those are just some lame excuses to keep torturing users with these stupid buttons. I do not care what the creator of a pdf-document had in mind (he/she probably also thought the same way as Adobe, i.e. that an "average" user is an idiot, and so the buttons have to be always shown), I do not want the buttons to be visible regardless of the opinion of the pdf-file creator!!! Moreover, I my first guess would be that the visible buttons are the default setting for any newly created PDF-document and that the average "creator" is a lazy and not-too-bright dummy, who did not care to spend any time to figure out how to hide the buttons for the sake of user convenience.

Report · May 22, 2012

These are not stupid buttons.

Report · May 22, 2012

All right, they are not stupid, they are just annoying and useless in 99.9% of real life usesage cases of Adobe Reader...

Report · May 22, 2012

Let me put the issue into perspective: let us say, once in 30 years it might snow in May, and on such a May day it would be useful to wear winter boots and a coat, however you do not expect people to wear such clothes every May day of every year (even though, occasionally it is a good idea), because it would a huge inconvenience. The situation here is the same, on one day in 2 years these buttons are useful, but it does not mean that it is a good idea to for us to suffer their presence the remaining 729 days...

Report · May 22, 2012

I use the buttons every day.

Report · May 23, 2012

Good for you! I almost never use the buttons. Obviously, the only way to make us both happy about the program is to add the check-box to the Adobe Reader preferences.

Report · May 29, 2008

Actually, none of the solutions above work. The Panel still keeps showing up every single time the Reader is launched.

*shrug* where I'm from, this forced feature is called a bug.

Report · May 29, 2008

> Actually, none of the solutions above work.

They do work, actually. Would you like a Captivate video? Whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

Report · Jun 02, 2008

The post at:

PDL - 2:45pm May 8, 08 PST

Worked great for me - exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Regarding the comment:

"...why not just set the PDF to open in fullscreen mode?"

In my case, it is a document management system and the files are retrieved one at a time from an Oracle db for some manual indexing - index fields to the left and the document to the right, with ability to navigate from one doc to the next/previous. Opening it in full screen doesn't work for users in this scenario b/c they'd have to constantly switch between windows for thousands of documents. The documents are also disassociated from the additional fields this way. Just wanted to point at a scenario where the desired "more real estate with embedded pdf" is really necessary. The ability to hide the menus and offer the most space for document viewing within the browser is definitely important.

Thanks again - Ron

Report · Jun 02, 2008

Several ways to achieve this are posted above, Ron.

Report · Oct 06, 2008

How come they took Search off the Navigation panel?

Is there a way to add it back - I can't seem to figure out how to do this?

Report · Dec 12, 2008

Interesting thread! Let me say up front that my inquiry results from mgmt directive. It's not personal, so don't shoot the messenger.

I've had success turning these things off and having them stay off with the standalone Reader v8.1.2. However, I have not been able to achieve the same thing with the ActiveX Add-On for Internet Explorer 6.0.x. I think it is AcroPDF.dll.

Can anyone help with how to configure this to never show the Navigation Panel Buttons on open?

We're actually experiencing this problem when our IBM Cognos BI product is used to email hyperlinks to PDF outputs saved on the Cognos server. The reports open as a PDF inside an Internet Explorer window. I don't have control over the Cognos server based report viewer settings. However, if I can get it figured out for my workstation, I might be able to get our Cognos support people to change similar parameters.

TIA

Report · Dec 12, 2008

Clarification: The Cognos report viewer seems to operate independently from my desktop world. If I disable the ActiveX control in IE, that prevents me from opening intranet PDF files from within IE. However, it does not prevent me from using the Cognos browser/pdf combination...

Report · Jan 20, 2009

How do I have the navigation panel buttons hidden but the bookmarks shown, if I drag the bookmarks off of the Navigation panel, then the rest of the document does not wrap to the right side of the bookmarks, part of the document is under the bookmarks.
I just want to have the real estate of the navigation panel back, full page mode does not show the bookmarks.

Thanks

Report · Jan 20, 2009

Adobe can rot in hell, they are arrogant pricks. You've only got to look at the way their Updater5 installs without permission, eats your bandwidth, hogs your CPU time, then interrupts your work and asks you to reboot. RUDE, RUDE, RUDE!

Report · Feb 17, 2009

Jeez this navigation pannel is annoying as hell, It's pathetic that users who don't want it and bookmarks have to hide them EVERY freaking time they open a document!

Thanks PDL for solution, so far it seems to work although I haven't checked the browser plug-in yet.

" The navigation panel is also an information panel for letting you know when a PDF contains certain features (security, layers, etc.). That's why we don't want you being able to permanently hide it."

You are making a grave mistake, no one is interested in your new useless features, thinking that you know better what users should see on their screen won't get you far.

Luckily I didn't have to deal with the updater Grant mentioned in the post above because the kind behavior he described I find EXTREMELY F*ING IRRITATING in software. It's just amazing arrogance on your part!

I really thought Adobe would know better, maybe it's cause up to know I was happily using acrobat 5.0, I was reluctant to switch because I know all too well that once basic functionality is fine developers will keep adding tons of useless "features" to justify their jobs. Too bad I had to fill some forms, and now I know I was right.

Nothing is as pissing off as a software which acts as if it knows better then it's user.

Report · May 27, 2009

I also am having a issue with the Side Panel.... I am calling the pdf with delphi 2007 with code....

something like:

################

var

mypdf : tacropdf;

Begin

...

//Load Method to Call loading of PDF

mypdf.Loadfile('c:\myexample.pdf');

...

end;

################

As you can see the above bit of code that I am calling the pdf object by a non command line method.. so adding any switches is not possible..

ie:

mydpf.loadfile('navpanes=0 c:\myexample.pdf');

just does not work..... as the loadfile method in the dll is looking for a harddrive location not a switch....

I am been trying to see of the DoObjectVerb command could take a command ... to minimize the Panel... Please let me know..

ie:

mypdf.DoObjectVerb(WM_?????); //???? is a windows message that I would like to send to get the panel to minmize through code....

Thanks alot for any help.

I have tried to add the Reg Key ... ... I am version 9.. so I added all the keys and Dword values that were not present.... still no luck..

Lenn Dolling

Skyboard Software

Report · Sep 10, 2009

Hi All,

There is a registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\9.0\RIF\bOpenNextWithTabs that controls displaying of navigation panel buttons. A value of 1 displays them while a value of 0 hides them.

There is also a registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\9.0\RIF\bOpenNextInReadingMode setting which can disable the toolbars also.

Report · Sep 10, 2009

Do these settings work when opening the doc thru the browser ? or only thru the reader ?

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\9.0\RIF\bOpenNextWithTabs <-- also, is there a blank before OpenNextWithTabs ?

Thx

Hi All,

There is a registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\9.0\RIF\bOpenNextWithTabs that controls displaying of navigation panel buttons. A value of 1 displays them while a value of 0 hides them.

There is also a registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\9.0\RIF\bOpenNextInReadingMode setting which can disable the toolbars also.

Report · Sep 10, 2009

Should work for browser as well...

Report · Feb 15, 2010

Using Adobe Acrobat Professional 7 I made a form with fields which is served from a Tomcat HTTP server.

When I use a URL like:

http://192.168.30.106:8080/qforms/pdfs/templates/30799_Appraisal_Form_Template.pdf#navpanes=0

The form is loaded and the navigation panes do not show.

When I use a url like:

http://192.168.30.106:8080/qforms/pdfs/templates/30799_Appraisal_Form_Template.pdf#FDF=http://192.16...

The form loads and the FDF is loaded into it and the navigation panels are visible.

But when I use a url like:

http://192.168.30.106:8080/qforms/pdfs/templates/30799_Appraisal_Form_Template.pdf#navpanes=0&FDF=ht...

I get the message:

"This operation is not allowed."

After that the form loads but the FDF is not loaded into the form and the navigation panels are visible.

All three URLs conform to to the "PDF Open Parameters" document for Acrobat 7.

As this thread has clearly established, there does not appear to be any way to hide the navigation panels using Javascrpt.

As far as I can see what I have described above is a bug. Is there a fix or a workaround?

thanks,

Terry