Skip to content
← Acrobat for Windows and Mac

Feature request / Bug report

Acrobat for Windows and Mac: User Interface

Categories

JUMP TO ANOTHER FORUM

(thinking…)

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. The left panel is permanently positioned on the screen and obscures part of the document below. Seriously Adobe, WTF.

  4. The entire menu/panel system can't be customized, moved, or docked. Another WTF.

  5. 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?

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  1. Revert the interface back to what it was.

  2. Fix Acrobat's bugs. There are so many!

  3. 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.

857 votes

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close

We’ll send you updates on this idea

Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
Submitting...
An error occurred while saving the comment
  • Douglas Marken commented  ·   ·  Report

    I couldn't agree more. I hadn't even considered the accessibility issue these changes raise. Hundreds of thousands of workers are having their workflow interrupted by these unnecessary changes to the UI/UX. I can work quickly because I know where the different parts of the software exist and I can navigate it easily. If it's going to take me the same amount of time to learn how to use a different pdf editor as it's going to take me to learn Adobe's new layout, why wouldn't I switch away, especially if I've been considering changing anyway?

    I thought it was one of the single most fundamental design principles that you don't mess with expected behaviour (e.g. don't make your radio buttons square). Surely that extends to long-standing UI/UX? I don't want a different experience. I want the one I'm used to.

  • Mister Bee commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please, at the very least, retain "Disable New Acrobat" as a permanent option. It would be the height of arrogance to force users against their will to use a less readable, less usable interface.

  • Roger & Lois Mullins commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have been denied access and delayed access for the past several days. I have an active legal practice and do not countenance this BS!

  • Stacey commented  ·   ·  Report

    Our office is just about at a standstill between the new interface completely throwing everyone off and the bugs forcing us to shut it down and start over.

  • Dino commented  ·   ·  Report

    Rhetorical Question: Who is the rocket scientist who decided to RADICALLY change something that works great and has been the same for 10+ years? THEY SHOULD BE FIRED OR REASSIGNED to customer service. This program is NOT FREEWARE, I pay handsomely for an Acrobat PRO Subscription because it's a useful tool... just the way it is! This has to be the most idiotic decision in the history of decisions. I'm in construction, I easily spend 50% of my screen time working with PDF files. To radically change the user interface and tell me AFTER you have done it is even worse than changing it in the first place.

    I'm in favor of improving the product just make the changes gradually.

    STOP THE MADNESS!

  • MjP39532 commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thank you Bevi!
    Say it louder for the kids in the back of the class, obviously those kids dinking around in the back are the Adobe designers that made it look real pretty but took away the total functionality of the program.
    This change has left me dead in the water and not able to complete tasks for my job.
    Thank you so much for the information how to disable new Acrobat.

  • tmedearis commented  ·   ·  Report

    Who the **** thought it was a good idea to completely ***** up this program while people are trying to WORK! I will be cancelling all of my products, this is BS.

  • Paul commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thanks for the opportunity to vote on this - shame we have to log in, more people would vote without the hassle.

  • ihateacrobat commented  ·   ·  Report

    I work for an international well-known company that makes $5 billion annually and has 25k employees. And they dumped Adobe Acrobat for Foxit. I wonder why...
    Whoever is in charge of Acrobat needs to be fired immediately.

  • Robert Spataro commented  ·   ·  Report

    Stop messing with workflow for NO REASON. Give things a coat of paint, sure. But keep the tools near where everyone is used to them being.

    This needs to be opt-in, it is inexcusable to move everything around in an application most of us use for work, not for fun.

  • corey commented  ·   ·  Report

    I think this user interface is terrible, but some people may think its amazing. It doesn't matter, either way you should NEVER change an entire user interface without warning and without even a pop-up box asking permission, or at least telling you how to undo it. I should not be put in a situation where I can suddenly no longer function in the middle of my work day. I was on a zoom meeting with important clients and shared my screen and opened a PDF and was totally lost. very embarrassing and I should sue for emotional distress be ashamed, repent! your company is named after mud for a reason.

  • Richard Roland commented  ·   ·  Report

    I use Acrobat Reader daily to read MANY documents. It was bad enough that I was forced to click on F4 and Shift-F4 upon opening each document to hide the left and right panes. Now we have this new insane space-hogging pane on the left side. And don't get me started about the removal of the standard menu that the world has settled on for good reasons. Indeed, Adobe's calling this monstrosity 'modern' is nothing but gaslighting. Someone at Adobe with some clout needs to let the poor dears who came up with this have their little feelings hurt and save the users from serious and ongoing pain.

1 2 … 29 30 31 33 Next →