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Acrobat for Windows and Mac: User Interface

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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.

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

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  • AdminShashank Jain (Admin, Adobe) commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi all, I have gone through the comments, and, while I understand a new UI comes up with some of its learning curve but it has certain advantages over the previous one such as discoverability, fluidity, connected experience and others.

    I would like to suggest to please go through this guide which captures what all has changed in this new UI https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/learn-new-acrobat.html
    to help onboard faster.

    Also,Besides this, please let me know specifically what are you trying to achieve in the new UI and you're finding it difficult to find/perform. Will take a deeper look into that specifically and help you find it in the new UI or fix it at our end if it's a bug/miss in new UI.

    Will also request to update to the latest version of Acrobat from Help>Check for updates, where we have incorporated some of the feedbacks provided in v1 such as providing a preference to open a pdf in new tab everytime, some crash & performance related fixes, ability to relocate the position of quick tool bar,
    Preference to remember current state of Tools pane in Reader, Pinning of Tools in right rail for customisation of page display and navigation tools, Customization of tools in All tools pane in left hand pane, Added “Menu” label to hamburger, Undo/Redo option in Top Bar , Upfront Dismiss/Skip option on first launch onboarding coach marks, Unique icons added for tools “Select Text”, “Select object”, "Crop Pages" & "Set Page Boxes" in Quick Toolbar and so on..

    Your feedback matters a lot and we genuinely try to fix specific issues or any bugs reported!

    Thank you!

  • Mara Ponce commented  ·   ·  Report

    My employer just migrated us over to Acrobat and everything this proposition states is bang on the money! I agree with all of it. This "modern" UI is frustrating and very unclear.

  • Jessica Jones commented  ·   ·  Report

    I'm usually loath to suggest firing anyone for a single stupid idea, but I'm in agreement with Lajama... whoever rammed this decision through, and down all the users' throats without limited public testing first needs to be shown the door. And I'm not talking the poor engineers and designers tasked with implementing it, or even the sad fool that developed this interface initially; companies have to take risks to innovate, and sometimes they're terrible. No, I'm talking the product manager or VP who saw this interface and Said "F*** YEAH LET'S GOOOOO".

  • Jim Thompson commented  ·   ·  Report

    @John_Herzog - I have a formula for this: (Earth Population - # of Adobe employees) + 1

  • John Herzog commented  ·   ·  Report

    How many votes do you think it will take before Adobe says something about this?

  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    AND don't forget to VOTE with the red button at the top of the page.

    Your comments are very welcomed, BUT you also need to vote at the top.

  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    TO SWITCH BACK TO THE "CLASSIC" INTERFACE:

    Users can revert to the old interface for now (Sept 2024):

    — Windows: Hamburger Menu / Disable New Acrobat

    — Mac: View Menu / Disable New Acrobat

  • Brett Hoffmann commented  ·   ·  Report

    To be fair, I wasn't even aware of this update when it first hit my screen. I'd just received a new company laptop and was wondering what was wrong with Acrobat Pro, a program I had to use all day, every day, to do my job. After stumbling around trying to find basic features like "Advanced Search" and how to get the bookmarks back on the left where they belonged, I stumbled across the way to "Disable New Acrobat" that others have discussed below. What a godsend! This averted the panic that was already setting in due to the immediate loss of productivity this would have caused. Of course, now I'm terrified that Adobe will eventually force this new Acrobat nightmare upon us, since they so clearly do not care about their customers!

    IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!!

  • Ted Converse commented  ·   ·  Report

    They are not even listening. Not one response from Adobe. NOT ONE. It's THIER website.

  • Lajama Trent commented  ·   ·  Report

    Why would you move the bookmarks to the opposite side of the screen?!?!? I'm used to seeing them on the left and it's a major productivity hit. If this has some kind of benefit for new users, you should reverse it. You have way too many current users to make a change like this.
    Whatever Product Manager came up with this should be fired!!

  • Gail commented  ·   ·  Report

    Nitro PDF, Fox, and SumatraPDF are all great alternates.
    I'm not surprised that nobody from Adobe has chimed in on this discussion to try to retain customers.... unfortunately not only did this update suck, but so does their customer care.

    THERE IS A WAY TO TURN THIS UPDATE OFF. On my Mac it is: VIEW>DISABLE NEW ACROBAT.

    Pretty simple, and again, pretty surprising that nobody from Adobe is offering this information up.

  • Peter G commented  ·   ·  Report

    SumatraPDF.

    Thanks.
    I'll look into it.

  • Sascha Goto commented  ·   ·  Report

    I finally decided to uninstall Adobe Acrobat. Since I'm mostly using it for viewing PDFs, I will use third party products, like SumatraPDF.

  • Maya Harris commented  ·   ·  Report

    I am never one to complain but the updated ADOBE is beyond awful. It's drastically slower for one and for two it added features that do not help but only HINDER work. Please please revert back to the old adobe. Also virtually changing everything at once is also insanity.

  • Yves Allaire commented  ·   ·  Report

    since the last update (we are Sept 6 2024), it's not productive to have the bookmark tab to be stuck to the right, how long has it been to the left... did someone ask to move it to the right ???

    if yes, then you should have given them the choice to move it... thus everybody would be happy.

    Thanks.

  • Audra DiLuciano commented  ·   ·  Report

    I agree with every comment I have read and use Adobe Pro both at work and personally. There is nothing positive about the new UI and a great deal that is highly problematic. I quite literally hate it. This is a pivotal moment for Adobe. Will this go down in the history books as "the" decision that caused the eventual demise of a seemingly indestructible giant in the industry? Stay tuned.

  • Jillian Ruhl commented  ·   ·  Report

    I HATE the new version of Adobe! I concur with everyone else who has commented with their gripes. You cannot combine pdf documents easily, or delete pages from thumbnails. Every function is so hard to find. It is TERRIBLE! The old version was intuitive and user-friendly. Why did they change everything for the worst?

  • Schnabel McSchnabel commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hate the new interface Hopefully some UI and/or marketing guys got fired.

    Peter G: It's not the developers' fault. They just build what they're told to build.

  • Majid Warraich commented  ·   ·  Report

    The bookmark panel on right is bothering me and would like to change it to the right.

  • Peter G commented  ·   ·  Report

    The new version was the worst "new version" experience I've ever had. What gets into people's heads to do something so stupid???? I'm sooo glad I could switch it back!

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