There are dozens of feature requests that more or less repeat this one, but with less information and often an angrier bent. I hope that, instead of starting a new request or complaint along these lines, people start to upvote this one, as it is the most comprehensive and has the most votes. Then again, maybe seeing the sheer number of different requests for reverting permanently to the old UI will have some effect on Adobe.

This new user interface "update" is one of the worst changes to a program the world has ever seen. Luckily, I found the option to revert back to the old interface because I was dreading to have to use Acrobat after the change. If this new interface is shoved down our throats and option to use the old interface goes away, I will no longer use the software. Focus your efforts on making sure your program runs perfectly and squashing bugs that have remained for several years.

Trying to improve the product is a gutsy call.

The first thing you should have targetted was to make the product fast and light.

Then, you need to give me the ability to turn on/off docker menus. For example, I want easy and direct access to hand, point/select, zoom tools without having to dig thru a series of sub menus.

Much like AI and other products, let us decide where we want and what we want to be efficient.

EVERYTHING Adobe introduces in each update makes the software worse, whether it be InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat.... it doesnt matter which. IT IS VERY OBVIOUS that the people designing the software do not need to use it in a professional time short environment. (for example, just creating a new document in InDesign involves atleast 2 new windows and 6 more clicks of a mouse or keyboard compared to previous - just to create a blank doc!! And EVERY system after that is just as unhelpful or cumbersome). There are a million examples of how the softwares are getting less user friendly and streamlined. But hey, atleast it costs a lot more these days and we have access to their amazingly arrogant 'Adobe Experts' who know nothing about designing for print. Fools. Its no wonder people are leaving the industry or looking for alternatives.

I completely agree with this post. I use Adobe Acrobat daily (I do legal support work remotely) so I do a few things regularly. I felt assaulted when the interface changed on me when I was under time pressure to finish regular tasks and had to TRY and figure out where the buttons etc were. I finally found the revert process, and have done so.

Adobe ruined Acrobat years ago, when it introduced the current mess that is so slow and unpleasant to use. Please sack the incompetent UI "designers" who clearly have no idea about smart UI design or snappy interfaces, and cannot improve the slow and bloated monster that Acrobat has become. Most open-source freeware easily betters Acrobat's expensive lump for usability and speed!

I agree, what a huge step backwards

Horible, what were you thinking, had there not been an option to disble I would be looking for a different programme.

This update is the opposite of an upgrade.

What a big blunder!
Reminds me of Office 2007 when MS removed all of the menu shortcuts that had been in place for ages and help make using Word so much easier. MS backtracked soon after; let's hope Adobe do, too.

I defenetly prefer adobe

I was so relieved to find I could go back to "old" Acrobat, and while I was at it, to disable autoupdates for Acrobat. There are so many pertinent and good comments here, all of which I agree with. One thing that stood out to me that was particularly awful for my work flow is that the documents now all open as tabs, and even if you separate them, the name now has to fit in a tiny tab so it is truncated. Did your interface people ever stop to think that a user might have multiple iterations of a document that she needs to see at the same time, and that she is not helped by seeing only the first dozen or so letters of the file name? This is just one bad feature among many. I have never seen such a poorly thought-out and totally unnecessary "upgrade." People doing professional work with Acrobat are most likely doing it on a desktop (or laptop) computer, not a phone. Things that make sense on a phone do not make sense on a large screen. I get the feeling the update was put together by people with no experience or understanding of how Acrobat is used, and moreover, that they they (the "designers" of this update) are people enamored of staring at their phone and navigating with their thumbs on a tiny screen. The kind of work that I, and I think most of the people on this forum, do is not like making instagram posts on your phone. Please grow up!

The whole initiative to redesign the user interface is fundamentally out of touch with what other industries use software for. No we don't want new features, and a new look is not value added, it is an irritation, or worse, a waste of time.

The culture of software developers has the confused notion that it is acceptable to release unstable or half finished work, or require users adjust their workflow to accomodate the whimsy of interface designers. Imagine now that you work in aerospace, or law, and you find out that the product you rely on for work flow has suddenly become unpredictable.

Please dismiss which ever employee thought this was a good idea.

Get rid of the new interface. Keep the table of contents view on the left. Don't know what you guys were thinking...

Please again provide an option in Acrobat Reader DC and other "new UI" products to force separate windows, instead of tabs.

Microsoft Excel designers once decided to change to tabs instead of separate windows. After endless complaints, they had to go back to separate windows.

(Yes, I know that we can revert to the "Classic" interface, at least for now. And yes, I know that we can drag a tab to create a separate window, clumsily and at a waste of time. Neither "feature" is equivalent to having the original option to open a new window by default (i.e., except when a pdf is being dragged into an existing window).)

Absolutely hate the update. It is not intuitive - the icons are random and I have no idea what they mean. I miss the word "edit" for example. I am thankful for the "disable new adobe" option and hope this is never removed.

I have never written a review for anything ever...until now. I am so irritated by this change that I created an account just to add support. I am a finance professional and work with PDFs everyday. This new version/GUI is terrible and completely unproductive. I echo the all the comments posted thus far and won't repeat them but PLEASE do better Adobe.

The new interface does not fit the needs of the user reading texts from left to right. It would be OK, if you:
1. flip the toolbar (and its panes, like bookmarks) from right to left side of the window;
2. Allow the user to add/remove from the toolbar single commands, like Previous/Next View (in the new layout you left only the Previous/Next Page commands, ad disable any customizations)

The new interface severely restricted productivity, mainly because it is less flexible than the previous one, and does not take into account the user needs related to the tex directions (For example: bookmarks are usually used to reproduce parts/chapters structure of the books.I belive, that the readers of Arab or Hebrew books are OK with the bookmarks pane on the right. But not the readers of the Greek-originated alphabets!).

After grappling with the recent update of this software for a week, my frustration peaked until I stumbled upon this thread where a multitude of users expressed their discontent. I appreciate the helpful tip on reverting to the previous format – it was a lifesaver.

Like many others, I find the abrupt changes to the user interface perplexing and inconvenient. Users rely on familiarity, and altering the layout without apparent reason can be disorienting. Adobe's decision to overhaul the interface seemingly without any significant improvements has left many loyal customers, myself included, bewildered.

In a world where technological advancements should enable greater customization, it's disheartening to witness software becoming more rigid. The ability to arrange toolbars and menus according to individual preferences is a basic expectation, and the absence of such flexibility raises questions about the rationale behind these design choices.

Is it driven by laziness, an oversight, or perhaps a lack of understanding of users' needs? The software industry thrives on user feedback, and it's disconcerting to see changes made without apparent consideration for the user experience.

In the future, I hope the developers prioritize user customization, allowing us to mold the interface to our preferences. Software should evolve with the user in mind, not force them to adapt to arbitrary changes that hinder productivity and frustrate loyal customers. Here's to hoping for a more user-centric approach in future updates.

Having a major change like this when you're trying to get critical work complete is beyond frustrating!

The fact that I couldn't find the Action Wizard (Is it even there?) was going to absolutely kill us.

This is simply change for the sake of change!

Thank god I was able to revert.