Ditch the 2023 User Interface in Acrobat
There are so many shortcomings and problems with the new 2023 GUI interface. Here are just a few:
Swapping left and right-hand panels for no reason. This does not improve anything for users. It just forces users to change everything about how they work in Acrobat every workday.
Functions are indicated by random icons. In the 90s, we learned that icons in software and websites don't work across different populations. Users have a difficult time figuring out what the heck they mean. Give text labels.
The left panel is permanently positioned on the screen and obscures part of the document below. Seriously Adobe, WTF.
The entire menu/panel system can't be customized, moved, or docked. Another WTF.
Hamburger menus (those obscure 3 horizontal lines) are used on mobile interfaces to collapse menus. They are totally unnecessary and inappropriate on desktop interfaces — where working people spend most of their time working. Give people real menus with real names. "Menu" is not accurate, either. What is the name of the other menu to the right? Menu 2? Cheeseburger Menu?
The new interface is inaccessible for those with disabilities who use assistive technologies, especially screen reader users. Adobe has seriously violated its VPAT with governments and corporations worldwide who are required by law to provide accessible work environments and tools.
Grey on Grey is not an accessible color scheme. Can't tell if some icons are active or disabled. Those with low vision can't discern the icons.
Digital signatures, Document Cloud (where Adobe stores your files by default), subscriptions, OCR, file creation, file combining, and accessibility all have reported major problems for the past few years...but rather than fix these critical problems, money was instead spent on rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic.
As long-time PDF consultants, my firm has found that the majority of customers are professionals who use Acrobat for their jobs. These are not "casual" users working on their smartphones. They are using desktops/laptops with full screens, not mobile devices to do their jobs. And they work with PDFs a lot.
They have developed actions and scripts to automate processes on dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of PDF files every day. These industries include print, prepress, graphic design, accessibility & remediation, accessible forms, variable forms, variable printing, data validation, financial institutions (think of all those bank statements every month!), health care, investment and finance, and manufacturing.
Dramatic GUI changes like 2023's completely change how these automated processes work...if they still work at all.
The cost to these industries to correct the now-broken processes — brought on by Adobe's whimsical, untested design idea — is appalling. If I was a major corporation hit by this unnecessary expense, I'd ban Adobe products from my company and look for another PDF vendor.
There are now many reputable competitors to Adobe Acrobat: See:
— https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-pdf-editors
— https://www.techradar.com/best/pdf-editors
— https://www.pcworld.com/article/407214/best-pdf-editors.html
Calling this Acrobat's "Modern Viewer" is a form of gaslighting Adobe customers. It's not modern at all — 30 years ago, using icons failed in software and web interfaces, and it's failing again with Acrobat 2023. Sometimes retro isn't good, especially retro user interfaces. Please don't attempt to bring back disco, old-fashioned 20 inch TVs, polyester suits, rotary phones and VHS tapes as being "Modern," too.
Ditch this "Modern Viewer" and instead give us a working tool to get our jobs done.
Revert the interface back to what it was.
Fix Acrobat's bugs. There are so many!
And improve the accessibility for those with disabilities (who can't get to the Comments panel, Bookmarks panel, understand what and how much is redacted, make edits or change the content, scale/enlarge the interface, nor sign a PDF).
For those still reading this, users can revert to the old interface for now (August 2023).
— Windows: Hamburger Menu / Disable New Acrobat
— Mac: View Menu / Disable New Acrobat
I have no idea who long Adobe is going to let us revert to the "real" interface.
-
Mike Fiedler commented
GAG!!! The latest is a complete boondogle! Comments entered to a document under review end up repeating on multiple random pages . . . Tools that I used to use regularly are nowhere to be found, and Adobe offers no "search" function to learn where the heck they hid the tools.... What LUNACY.
-
Mark commented
Totally agree.
The same issues have arisen with other GUI changes to other applications (not Adobe product) that were not necessary.
If it's not broken...
Improving functionality, absolutely. But the new GUI means productivity is affected. It's not just "change taking time to get accustomed to" the frequently used tools and layout are now more complicated to access just for a minimalist workspace.
I don't put my pen in the drawer every time i stop writing with it. It's on the desk at hand so it's efficient to work. I put the pen away to keep the desk tidy at the end of the day!
Don't mess about with the UI on a product used by commercial users. I also have to use "OLD MS Outlook" for the same reason.
-
Sharon Rogers commented
I agree with the other users. This "new" version is counterintuitive and disruptive to our productivity. It distracts from the documents we are working with and provides no additional assistance. Simple works.
-
Misty Hamann commented
I like the old interface and wish Adobe would leave as is. I prefer the review/editing toolbar ribbon to run across the top of the screen, not along the side. It slows me down when I have to go and select from that new minimal side toolbar; it's so much easier to just select what you need from the top ribbon where every tool is visible. I also like having the file, edit and view sections separate and visible as well. If the new interface is inevitable, then definitely include an option to move the toolbar along the top before completely shutting down the old interface. Thank goodness we're still able to disable the new one.
-
InstyButte Typesetting2 commented
I just realized that this is like a h o s t a g e situation, and Adobe is hoping we experience Stockholm Syndrome. I bet they get rid of the option for the old interface soon, and just sit back and wait for us to numbly acquiesce to their demands. Who knows where this will end? Changing Photoshop's interface? Making Illustrator into a clown show? At least Acrobat now crashes every time I open a pdf. It recovers, sure, but why does it crash each time? Is this a stability improvement, to go along with the interface improvement? Buckle up, buttercup!
-
Gopa Campbell commented
I couldn't agree more with all these comments. My Acrobat switched on me yesterday with no input from me and had me tearing my hair out. I am a professional and suddenly they wanted me to do kindergarten, or lord only knows what. If their idea is to dumb everything down to the point that it is unusable, they are going to go the way of QuarkXpress! Luckily I discovered I could go back tot he old version, but , my goodness, what a waste of time!
-
Tim Bailey commented
The new Acrobat interface is absolutely awful!!! Thankfully, there was a way to convert back to the previous interface that everyone (who is paying for this extremely expensive system!!!) has become accustomed to using. Please DO NOT do a wholesale surprise change ever again!
-
Ivan Grgic commented
Also created an account for the only purpose to give this article a shout out!
Thank you Bevi, you express all my frustration in the proper constructive frame. -
Choice Hotels commented
Nope. Using the old interface for as long as possible. Then heading elsewhere.
-
Susan commented
The new format is very difficult to get used to. Even on web pages, bookmarks are laid out on the left side of a page. Moving bookmarks to the right side makes no sense at all.
-
Alan Black commented
I created an account for the sole purpose of expressing how terrible this is.
Why, why, why? -
Fred Bermuda commented
Excellent article! I cannot believe that Adobe needs a community to tell them how to better manage their software programming. Thank you for your excellent article and fact-based critisism of Adobe's failing Acrobat software program.
Yours truly,
Frustrated Decades Acrobat user for Business and Work
-
Suzanne Duyssen commented
This new "experience" is TERRIBLE!!! I have had to change our office computers back to the old style because it was hard for any of the staff to find anything or get it to work correctly when on deadlines!
-
Michael Cavallo commented
Why? why why why.
-
John Kurpiewski commented
TERRIBLE !!! Going back to the previous version.
ALL OF THE NORMAL TOOLS NEED TO BE AT THE TOP
This design is absolutely horrendous -
Kevin Abplanalp commented
The new "experience" is terrible. Counterintuitive, awkward, and clunky. Multiple steps needed to perform simple functions. I took advantage of the option to revert back to the normal layout. If Adobe decides to make this permanent I will immediately uninstall the software, cancel my subscription, and find a competitor that works the way Adobe did before its developers broke it.
-
Nancy Anne Nuno commented
yesterday I "stupidly" opted to let my computer install updates which apparently included Acrobat Pro before resuming my work deadline which involves working with legal exhibits such as medical records. I wasted the rest of yesterday trying to figure out what "happened" to Acrobat as the toolbars and side panels are all "screwed up" and my attempts to return them back to "normal" were unsuccessful. I did find a suggestion to "disable new Acrobat" but that option has a warning that doing so would permanently remove access to agreement drafts & templates, so I'm not proceeding until I look into what I will lose.
-
Michael Wood commented
Unbelievable. Unusable. Insanely stupid. Adobe is gone insane. Fix this pile of ****.
-
Joanna Gochoel commented
The recent interface modifications need a more explicit focus on the end user. When opening a PDF, locating tools or presets became challenging, leading to ambiguity in file navigation. From the perspective of what the end user typically seeks, placing tools on the left versus navigation menus on the right should align with familiarity, as observed in applications like Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and, to some extent, Figma. However, the need for recognizable icons contributes to the unfamiliarity of the user interface. It is possible that the icons are tiny, making them less relatable, or users could have previously associated colors with specific tool locations. Clicking on "All tools" was utilized to initiate a search, wherein common words like "out" for "Output Preview" and "merge" for "Merging the data" were entered. However, these do not appear in the provided list. Notably, Output Preview is now located in "Print Production," necessitating further navigation through a list of small text. The user can no longer search using the three dots to add more tools and resorts to the drop-downs in the various menus, unable to reach the goal of finding the tool needed to complete the task. The marque zoom feature has fallen off or cannot be found by the user.
In both versions, copying text from one document to another, such as from a saved PDF to an email, remains problematic. The copied text exhibits incorrect line breaks, missing spaces between words, and the content appears italicized. When copying and pasting from the new interface to an email, the text seems indented with a "fo text field box" that the user cannot remove from the email draft. Notably, the PDF form does not exhibit flashing with or without the output preview. I am thankful that Adobe offers a temporary solution allowing users to disable the new Acrobat.
-
Anonymous commented
What everyone else says: this is a mess with missing features, badly placed features, and changes that do not make any sense. I have to do significantly more mouse travel, which takes time, not to mention the time I'm wasting just using the **** thing.