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
  • Bob Fillmore commented  ·   ·  Report

    Responding to Shashank Jain (Admin, Adobe) who said "...With the new interface we aim to..."

    You failed...

  • Donald Miller commented  ·   ·  Report

    Everything this person said....literally. What a disaster. I have absolutely disabled the new Acrobat. If I can't disable in the future, I will definitely be using another PDF program.

  • Alan Robertson commented  ·   ·  Report

    I've just seen the official Adobe response and am sorry to say it is factually incorrect - the ability to sign documents was NOT the same and I could not add my signature to documents until I reverted to old system. They have also ignored the total lack of warning to customers around the change or confirmed they will continue to support the old interface.

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

    We appreciate your valuable feedback! We're always looking for ways to make Acrobat better, and we appreciate the time and effort you have taken to share your feedback with us. 

    We acknowledge that the new Acrobat represents a notable change, however we hope that as you get familiar with the new interface, you are able to be more productive & get more out of Acrobat.

    With the new interface we aim to

    Provide a simplified viewing experience that helps reduce clutter & optimise it for most used PDF actions that are relevant while viewing a document.
    Easily allow users to discover PDF tools they need by ensuring tools are intuitively grouped and a click away,
    * For example, all tools that allow content, page & file level edits can be found under one action based verb called “Edit”; tools that allow converting files to & from PDFs can be found under “Convert”; tools that allow filling & signing documents or requesting signatures from others under “Sign”.

    Most importantly, the new interface enables users to effortlessly move between different PDF tools to complete their document related tasks
    * For example, someone viewing comments in a PDF should also be able to easily edit the text of it without interrupting their workflow
    * A user can seamlessly perform page level edits such as reordering, inserting, extracting, rotating or deleting pages while editing content and/or commenting on the file

    Rest assured, we have been actively listening to the feedback from this community to swiftly incorporate them into our upcoming releases, few of which are as below 

    Lack of an ability to customise the user interface  
    * Users will soon be able to drag the floating quick tools bar anywhere within the viewer to prevent overlap with the top left of the document 
    * Ability to pin commonly used tools for easy access 

    Discoverability of certain top user actions & tools
    * Easy access to undo & redo on the top bar , page display, navigation & zoom tools such as 2 page view, 2 page with scrolling, marquee & dynamic zoom etc, from the bottom right menu 
    * Improved discovery of common file level actions such as Save As, Print, Protect using password from the Menu 

    Bugs, performance & stability issues
    * Fixed several crashers and bugs, and continue to address these issues with the highest priority

    With the July update, we ensured that users are notified of the impending change, and have the option to try out the new UI before being migrated

    We are working on ensuring all pending accessibility issues in terms of contrast issues, keyboard functionalities amongst others are addressed in the upcoming releases this year
    A point to note is that as we made these changes in the interface, we have ensured all tools & features that are currently supported, retain their familiar functionalities and workflows as they did in the previous version. We are proactively addressing any gaps or issues reported by users related to any break in current workflows.

    Certain tools such as Action wizard, Custom Verb creation & portfolios are not supported with complete capabilities on the new Acrobat, and we have ensured that users are guided on how to switch back to the old UI to continue using these tools.

    We will follow up on this response with a detailed blog post explaining the changes, a guide to help familiarise you to the new interface, along with regular updates on upcoming changes.

    Thank you once again for your feedback, and do look forward to our upcoming releases !

  • Megan commented  ·   ·  Report

    Why was the preview page for PDF portfolios dismantled? I can't believe that there's not even a "Portfolio" submenu anymore. Users need the preview page in conjunction with the navigation panel on the left for a PDF portfolio. Sometimes users don't know the name of a component document, but they recognize which one they need by viewing the preview.

  • Jason Macer commented  ·   ·  Report

    Yeah, whoever came up with this new interface apparently failed to take into account one critical thing: Don't fix what isn't broken!

    Whoever did this made this changes just to make changes. No one asked for them, no one needs them, and they don't fscking work.

  • Trace commented  ·   ·  Report

    I can't even get into the Adobe Community forums - it just makes me log in over & over again - and I've tried that on 3x different browsers, cleared caches, restarted, etc. Still can't get in to even view the forums!

  • AR commented  ·   ·  Report

    Perhaps it would be helpful if everyone crossposts their concerns to the Adobe Support Community Acrobat General Trouble Shooting discussion. Maybe Adobe will have a better chance to get the message. You'll need to sign in there with your Adobe I.D.
    https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/ct-p/ct-acrobat?page=1&sort=latest_replies&lang=all&tabid=all&topics=label-generaltroubleshooting

  • Sharon Wood commented  ·   ·  Report

    I had a hard times seeing every item on the left sidebar, I tried every possible way I could think, still would not work. I can say I did try to utilize the new Adobe, just didn't work out for me, so had to switch back to the old Adobe today. I just had the basic Adobe for my own personal use and I'd like to keep it that way from now on. I HATED THE NEW ADOBE!

  • Sarah Hansen commented  ·   ·  Report

    100% Agree with Bevi Chagnon and many posters here. I am a small business owner with a sizeable client portfolio and I depend on Adobe for PDF file sharing, managing and executing contracts, and more. To be in the middle of a work day and suddenly my entire user experience has been changed and is now utterly inaccessible for no apparent positive reason is not only frustrating, it has immediate impacts and implications on my and my colleagues' ability to do our work! Such a nightmare, as so many folks have stated, and we're paying for this?! Why not give us 1) better opportunities to give you input on the changes users actually want, if any, 2) a very clear opt-in or opt-out instead of just changing it on the fly?

  • Brenda Malone commented  ·   ·  Report

    THIS IS AN ABOMINATION. We pay DEARLY for Acrobat, but Adobe should pay US for the time suck when actually using this version of Acrobat.

    It is THE WORST. It has me search for alternatives.

  • Celeste DeAngelis commented  ·   ·  Report

    It was a nightmare that cost me one deadline so far and continues to cause me delays. Thank you sooooo much for the info on how to disable. Why didn't acrobat have a pop up when they changed it to notify us of this option?

  • Jerrod H commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is similar to an automotive engineer designing a car with the gas and brake peddle locations swapped. Seriously - whoever pushed this new update out has cost me hours of trying to retrain habits that have been formed over years. Whoever did this should be fired.

  • Bevi Chagnon | PubCom.com commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hamburger menu:
    It's a special design of a menu that is collapsed and represented by 3 horizontal bars.

    In Acrobat, it's in the upper LEFT corner where the File menu used to be. Hamburger menus are used in mobile interfaces where screen real estate is scarce.

    But they are slower to use, especially for mouse/trackpad users, so they aren't used on main desktops with full size or laptop screens.

    Someone at Adobe didn't realize that just like a website, the interface has to be custom designed for desktop monitors (full-size screens and mice/trackpads) and also mobile (tiny screens and touch screens).

    It's called responsive design because the interface "responds" to the device to make it most efficient for that device.

  • Roger Wadleigh commented  ·   ·  Report

    For the love of all that is sane, don't keep this mess active, it's a steaming pile of foolishness unintended for use by actual people.

  • Montie Stewart commented  ·   ·  Report

    HATE HATE HATE this new version! Cant see enough of my standard tools. Scanner crashes EVERY time unless I "print" to pdf instead of save. WTF is hamburger menu so I can turn this **** off? Working from laptop and I do not see the 3 lines in upper right

  • Sandra Demaria commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thank you for the tip how to turn off the "new experience". Glad to learn that it is not just me having troubles using Acrobat, it will save me from wasting more time trying to figure out how to do what I was able to do before

  • Bryan commented  ·   ·  Report

    This terrible Acrobat update is more than frustrating - it's costing me real time and money having to unnecessarily re-learn things that used to take minues. Changes are fine, but downgrades in functionality are not!

    It kills me that Adobe keeps pretending that real work is done on a mobile platform. Please stop foisting your GUI "experience" with over simplfied and less functional layouts.

    Thankfully, for now, the "Disable new Acrobat" exists. But it seems the writing on the wall is these new assinine changes will be permanent at some point.

    More than anything this just shows the mindset of their developers being misaligned with the end user - at least for myself and apparently many other users here. I doubt that people doing work on PDFs daily are some fringe minority of users, and that most are just noodling about on their tablet with Acrobat. It makes no sense.

    I don't see this getting better. It has become necessary to look elsewhere.

1 2 … 28 30 32 33