how can i hide navigation panel buttons

[_susana_albor_]

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

[lrosenth]

Do they have the preference for opening in new window set or not? When you created the link, did you set the "open in new window" flag or not? Are you viewing this in a browser or stand-alone in Reader? Mac OS X or Windows?

[Cheriberry1]

Sorry I left that information off.  This is functionoing in a Windows environment. We do a custom link for the link action, then select "Go to a page view", and we set a destination in the glossary document.  This is viewed stand alone in Reader.  Thank you.

[rgoenner]

Let me ask this, if you will indulge me.

Is this possible... at all ... w/o recompiling and cracking open the code?

Are there Adobe professional services that can assist or is this "use case" just out of question?

[Patrick_Leckey]

Aside from using the PDF Open Parameters described above, no, there is no way.

You can open a case with Adobe Developer Support and log an enhancement request, but in the current versions this can't be done other than as described above.

I notice above that you said the Open Parameters work for you in the OS, but not in the browser control.  How are you passing the Open Parameters to the browser control when you're loading the PDF?  I just tested on my machine (Acrobat 9.1.1 Pro Extended) and they are working ...

[rgoenner]

Not sure I follow, I'm not a developer so I can't elaborate too much on how we're passing the Open Parameters from the browser to Adobe..

The PDFs are merely links from a webpage.. so however IE handles that by default is how we're doing it.  I'd assume IE would call one of the Open parameter keys already present in the registry that has my appended "nonav" parameter, but apparently this is not the case.

[Patrick_Leckey]

That assumption is incorrect.  The registry only controls the open parameters for the Acrobat/Reader application - not the browser control.  If you're just linking to the PDFs from a web page, try adding the following at then end of the link:

#navpanes=0

So your full link URL would look like:

http://my.company.com/path/to/document.pdf#navpanes=0

[rgoenner]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\8.0\RIF]
"bOpenNextWithTabs"=dword:00000000

[Patrick_Leckey]

That is by no means a solution for a production environment, if you're truly concerned about security.  That key can be overwritten by the Acrobat application for any number of reasons, which is why it is not listed in the public documentation.  Unless your application specifically sets that key before it launches every PDF, that is not an enterprise-ready solution.  Even then it's not secure, as the user can simply re-enable the nav panel from the application or with a hotkey.

For example, a user could accidentally hit the hotkey to show the nav panel and now they have just circumvented your "security" based on that registry key.  That key will then also get set with the new value when the application closes and all your future PDFs will open with the nav panel open.

Opening the PDFs in fullscreen mode and writing a simple plug-in to not allow exiting from fullscreen mode is a much more secure option.

[rgoenner]

I have kiosk software to prevent hot keys and right click context menus.

And I do believe that I asked earlier if "professional services" could assist in the matter.. your response was.. you could not accomplish what I needed...it could not be done.

"Aside from using the PDF Open Parameters described above, no, there is no way.

You can open a case with Adobe Developer Support and log an enhancement request, but in the current versions this can't be done other than as described above.

I notice above that you said the Open Parameters work for you in the OS, but not in the browser control.  How are you passing the Open Parameters to the browser control when you're loading the PDF?  I just tested on my machine (Acrobat 9.1.1 Pro Extended) and they are working ..."

Now I have a solution.  Thanks.

[phammk]

What parameter can i use to disable all the hot keys ?  Is there any document that enumerates all these parameters ?  ToolBar, Navpanes, etc...

Thx

[toecutter123]

yippie

vb.net:

WebBrowser1.Navigate(ofd.FileName & "#navpanes=0")

[richardbrucebaxter]

"we never considered a use case for it."

Restoring screen space which has been removed from the user unnecessarily is by definition a "use case". Adobe can be ensured over a million people have noticed their screen space has been removed when upgrading to Acrobat 8.

(On a lesser note, your UI team should not just remove icons from the toolbar which were there by default in a previous version - such as the hand button or save button).

Best Regards,

Richard

[markkesty1]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks very much for the info. I am using the pdf viewer control in a winforms program (AxAcroPdf) which displays PDFs on a big TV screen one-by-one together with other information. Full screen is not an option here because of the other information which must be displayed alongside the pdfs. Currently, my users have to remove the navigation toolbar for each PDF the first time the program cycles through them and they are OK after that, but as you can imagine, it's a pain to have to do that each time they run the program and impossible to do it with large numbers of pdfs.

I saw your solution for modifying the registry which I tried, but it didn't affect the control, just the reader program invoked from windows explorer. I noticed there are many such registry entries. I don't want to modify all of them so could you tell me the exact registry entry I need to modify which will affect JUST the AxAcroPdf control?

Also, given this use case, do you see any justification to expose this option in the API? I imagine this functionality is already there, since we can use it via the web browser with navpanes=0, so it's really just a matter of providing a method like you have for the toolbar: SetShowNavPanes.

Thanks,

Mark

[lrosenth]

Even if we were to provide such an API, it would be in a major software release and wouldn't help your existing customers.

[markkesty1]

Thanks, I certainly appreciate that.

What about the registry key to change in order to work around the issue? Can

you point me to which one controls the behavior of the AxAcroPDF winforms

control?

[vklrc]

Patrick Leckey wrote:

...

Well then you can just use the PDF Open Parameters.

Examples:

....

Wanna go all out and have it permanently disabled on your system? Edit the .pdf file association in your registry to launch

Acrobat.exe /A "navpanes=0" %1

instead of

Acrobat.exe %1

And your navigation panes will be off for all your PDFs.

I tried to prevent navigation panes from appearing when using Acrobat Reader X.

Using "ftype" I modified the open string for AcroExch.Document to include

AcroRd32.exe /A "navpanes=0" "%1"

However, it didn't make any difference. I verified that the appropriate key in the Win7 registry had been changed.

I know AcroRd32.exe accepts the /A switch and navpanes argument because I invoked it from the DOS command line with those parameters and it worked (no navigation pane).

I tried it with various permutations of quotation marks and that made no difference, either (except one of them gave an error).

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[lat99]

More than a bit condescending for people that want to get on with business.

[_Annoyed_Reader_]

> 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.

"We know what's best for you, we don't care what you want. It's our way or the highway. LA LA LA LA LA, NOT LISTENING, I CANT HEAR YOU!"

Not a nice way to treat the customer. But I guess that's the way large corporations can be.

Switching to Foxit.

[Patrick_Leckey]

> LA LA LA LA LA, NOT LISTENING, I CANT HEAR YOU!

Seems you should be the one saying that since perfectly workable solutions to all your complaints are in the message directly above your hissy-fit post.

"I want you to redesign your application to suit ME ONLY, and ignore the millions of satisfied users! ME ME ME!"

Yeah, great business strategy. How much is your company worth compared to Adobe? So who has the better business sense, I wonder?

[Mark Gates]

It's not about "me me me", it's about sidebar being STUPID.

"Millions of satisfied" customers don't have determination to complain nor are many professionals.  We're professionals, I am very particular abou tmy settings, I WORK on computers, not playign games "pictures & videos" kraap.  I agree w/OP poster that sidebar is a dog, and YOu are an IDIOT.

you're an Idiot Adobe employee.

End of conversation.

[Lenn Dolling]

hahah I know I have already hacked it in the past. I have integrated a fast

version of it in my own skyboard system. I will see what I did and get

back.. I am on your side of things as the side bar bs is just that.. like

what where they doing.... i remember I had a few hudnred pdf's showing all

at the same time. in test runs.. .

geeze nobody has called me "leonard" in years....

I do remember though I had to encase a little wrapper over things... I will

be back when I can.

lenn

[Lenn Dolling]

ohh I replied to a Leonard message when I shouldn't of... ahhaha please

ignore / delete the last message from history in this thread... I am no

"leonard" ...

comon leonard R. bend some spoons and get your adobe to listen to their

customers requests.

Lenn Dolling

[Zhopa_Dura]

These idiotic "Navigation Pane Button" annoy me so that one day, I am afraid, I will throw my laptop into a wall. Three years later and still there is no way of getting rid of them by default. Adobe, please, pay somebody to add a check-box somewhere in your preferences to not open the buttons by default (if I need them once in two years, I can easily open them from the right-click-anywhere-on-the-document menu). You have a ton of junk settings in the preferences which nobody needs, however there is no way to adjust something big that faces the user every time a document is opened - that does not make any sense!!!

P.S. Tried to implement some of the solutions posted above (in Mac OS X) - the solutions do not work!!! I am not a hardcore programmer, but I am not a dummy in software and computers either. I could not make them to work...

[lrosenth]

That is because we don't want them hidden as the average users finds them quite useful as they serve not only an active role but also status for many features of PDF.

[Lenn Dolling]

hahah "average" .. pretty lame.