This is driving me crazy- I open dozens of PDFs a day, all with comments, and it's such a silly waste of time to have to go through 4 steps to open the comments on each one. It wasn't an issue with prior versions of Acrobat, and is making me consider switching to Nitro PDF (which apparently doesn't have this problem).

This would be very useful!

Amen

Agree. It's not hard to find but 95% of my Acrobat use is for reviewing comments. It's a pain opening the panel every time. It would be great to set it as my default view.

I have created my own tool (which is a combination of my most frequently used tools) -- I use this tool daily. It would be great if I could "pin" it open or keep this tool open until I decide to close it. I hope others would find this helpful.

Agreed. As a technical writer on a team of four, part of our process is to send new content for review via PDF. We review the content one at a time so that reviewers don't make the same corrections in separate documents, so that reviewers can have discussions about possible changes, and so that the creator has only one PDF from which to glean notes. Every time I open a PDF, I have to go to Tools > Comment. It doesn't seem like much, but when I'm reviewing 20 PDFs, that little bit of time becomes highly annoying. I would love to have my default view set to automatically show the comments pane.

I have made a custom toolbar that will be used for almost every document that I will open. Can you make it possible to remove the sidebar upon startup and have an option to auto-select a toolbar of our choice. This will save time from having to select my toolbar every time I open a different file.

YES! Wasting so much time switching to Edit or Commend mode after opening every document. All checkbox preference with multiple options: "Open automatically in Edit/Comment/etc. mode" - with ability to select more than one set of toolbars too.

For a more fully integrated solution, the Acrobat add-ins to the Office suite and printing options should support the comment pane opening option. If a Word, Excel, etc. document has native comments and is exported/printed as a pdf file with the native comments converted to pdf comments, an option to open the resultant file with the comment pane displayed should be part of the process.

I think Kelly Vaughn is talking about two different features: (1) the one described here (and at https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/33091900-make-comments-toolbar-open-automatically-by-defaul and https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/19479121-setting-to-open-sidebar-with-comments-by-default), which is set by the user who views the PDF, and (2) Initial View, which is set by the person who creates the PDF. Both are nice ideas, but I think the former is more helpful, as the setting is under the control of the person doing the viewing, and it only needs to be set once. Initial View would have to be set by the person creating the comments, and would have to be done for every document.

I too really want that. Of course it shouldn't open if the document doesn't have comments. And it should probably be a checkbox in Preferences so that each user can decide if they want that behavior.

I don't think it's just about not knowing how to open the Comments pane (there are three ways I know of - the arrow to expand the Tools pane is only one), but about convenience. I'm on the receiving end of many documents that have comments I need to step through and read, and I always need to see the Comments pane. Initial View would not help, because the documents didn't have comments when they were created - the comments were added by others later (in my case, magazine proofreaders, design reviewers, etc.). So here is an alternative idea to accomplish it: Include an option in Preferences that would show the Comments pane automatically when a document with comments is opened. Or both could be implemented.

Yes, there should be a checkboxin Preferences > Commenting, at the bottom: "Open Comments Pane when Document has Comments."

There should also be asetting in Document Properties > Initial View : "At the top, above Navigation Tab. There should be another option for Tools Pane: Open Comments Pane if Document has comment."

Not understanding Kelly Vaughn's response. Are you suggesting where this setting should be located in the UI when Adobe reinstates it?

Yes! This should be provided under Document Properties > initial view, as well as in General Preferences.

I open many PDFs one after another to read Comments. There should be a way to get Acrobat to open with the Comments tool already selected rather than having to select Tools>Comments every time, over and over again. Let us be able to have Acrobat open with a Tool selected by default.

Yes, please provide this feature again.

YES! I loved the ability to open a doc with Comments showing. Now I have to go through several steps every time I want to switch to that view, which is annoying at best.

Please provide a preference so the "Comment" view opens whenever I open a document in Acrobat Pro DC (for Windows).
This was a valuable feature on previous Acrobat versions and was dropped in Acrobat Pro DC.

Make possible fixed comment app on sidebar like acrobat pro version 9 and save this as workspace.