New Acrobat: Wish List for a Better Interface
What users need in the new interface...
Fellow users, please add or vote up the features that are most critical for you.
(Interface-related only, not new features or utilities.)
ONE:
A totally customizable set of toolbars — left, right, top, and bottom of the application window, and also on a side monitor.
— User determines which toolbars are visible.
— User can dock or float them anywhere, including on a second monitor that's outside the application window.
— User chooses which tools are in each toolbar.
— User chooses whether each tool/utility is represented as an icon only, icon + text label, or text label only.
— Let the user develop a custom toolbar with the individual tools they use most often, and let them dock or float it anywhere on their computer screen. The majority of professional users use 5-10 tools regularly and not an entire tool panel.
— Allow all panels / toolbars to be resized to fit the user's screen and needs.
— User can save this setup as a custom workspace that can be reset, changed, and re-selected whenever the user needs to do so. (See Adobe InDesign as a model for this very helpful feature. See https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/customizing-workspace.html and https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/workspace-basics.html#Workspaceoverview)
— And make it easy for users to create their own custom workspace. K I S S.
Note: Adobe, when YOU determine which tools are in each panel, you prevent users from having ALL the tools they need for their tasks, and also make it more difficult to get to the specific tools they need.
Example that fails in the new interface: having only the Comments panel or Page Thumbnails panel open at a time on the right side prevents people from efficiently editing PDFs. The problem isn't really that you moved left-side panels to the right and vice versa — it's that some pairs of tool panels can't be open simultaneously.
TWO:
Make the program fully accessible to all users...
— Whether they have a disability or not.
— Whether they use an assistive technology or not.
— Whether they're on a full-screen monitor or small mobile screen.
— Whether they have a touch screen or not.
— Allow the user to control the color and contrast of the interface: dark mode, light mode, medium, black/white icons, and hi-contrast (for those with low vision or reading disabilities). Many of the colors you've chosen are not fully visible to those with various forms of color blindness and low-vision.
Note: Thank you for darkening them in recent updates. That helped.
— Allow the user to set the size of icons, labels, dialogue boxes, menu titles, and adjustment points.
— Let users set the text size of comments in the Comments panel. People on high-resolution monitors (used by most professionals) and those with vision and reading disorders can't read the comments easily enough. Let comment text scale up and down as the user needs.
— Hamburger menus (3 horizontal bars in the upper left) are NOT fully accessible to those with vision and mobility disabilities. Give users a choice of whether to have them in the interface or use traditional drop-down menus with text labels. Hamburger menus are best on mobile small screens; but they are cumbersome and clumsy on full-size monitors which are used by professionals in their daily jobs.
— Redesign some of the tool icons, especially those that are confusing (see attached screen capture). Consider removing some of the icons: there are too many to sort through quickly, too many that are esoteric with undecipherable icons. Text labels can be faster to recognize and translate across all cultures.
— Make every menu and toolbar accessible via the keyboard.
— Bring back keyboard shortcuts for zoom in/out and paging. And let the user arrange where their icons are located on the screen.
THREE:
Fewer pop-ups.
Please!
— Once the user has viewed a pop-up, let them permanently close it.
— And stop re-popping the pop-ups after each upgrade.
FOUR:
Clean up, minimize, and redesign the user preferences section.
It's overwhelming. Confusing. Poorly designed.
FIVE:
The default interface should be the "classic" version, not the "new experience" — at least until you rework it sufficiently and the user makes the choice to move to the new version.
— When installing a program update, warn the user that there's a new interface and let them choose whether to use the new one or keep the classic.
— When installing an update, retain the user's custom workspaces, tool panels, and preferences.
— And keep the option to Disable New Acrobat.
Thank you for listening to us customers!
And tap into the experts on the Acrobat prerelease/beta team. Most of us have worked with Adobe for decades and have helped develop the program since its its inception. Many of us teach Acrobat across many industries and know what customers easily grasp or stumble over. Some of us are professional UX/UI designers. And we know what customers need this powerful tool to do for them.
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Lamar Wiggins commented
Adobe 2024, an End Users painful journey:
Downloads and installs Adobe Pro Acrobat DC 24.003.20121
Signs into Adobe accountClicks to Help --> Check for updates
"An error occurred. Please check for updates again later.
Error: 301"
Quits Adobe Acrobat DC
Relaunches Adobe Acrobat DCOpens known good PDF
Clicks to Add Signature, screen locks up going transluscent dark grey
Frantically hits Esc key to back out
Quits Adobe Acrobat DCAdobe is absolutely useless
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David Peters commented
Exactly, Robin. And these are the reasons why Adobe Acrobat is dead. I'm only following this discussion out of curiosity. I have stopped using it more than a decade ago, and would literally die if I would depend on having to use this abysmal software.
bit.ly/Acrobat-Uservoice-Interface
bit.ly/HorribleAcrobatDC-2015Also, search Youtube with the term "adobe sucks".
It would be comedic, if it weren't a tragedy. -
Robin Surface commented
While the latest post from Shashank Jain is what it is, nothing we've brought up as concerns has been addressed and we're basically being told to either get used to it or get lost. Why should I, as the user, have to find ways to "make the program limp along for me" when it worked just fine before the update?
Why do I constantly find myself cursing Acrobat and screeching, "I HATE Acrobat" every time I need to do pretty much anything other than view a pdf at 75%?
Why do you have to constantly switch back and forth between the hand tool to scroll left and right and edit pdf? Why can't those two things work together?
Why do I have to fight with the enlarged view of complicated pdfs and the incessant redrawing of the page?
Why is no one at Adobe actually using this program in a professional way to see what the problems are with the "new" Acrobat?
Why? Why? Why?
It's pretty obvious that Adobe really doesn't care about its professional users and is just going to do what it wants regardless. The frustration level is huge!
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AdminShashank Jain (Admin, Adobe) commented
Hi all, we have gone through the post and comments and would like to update on some of the specific ones.
Regarding pinning : We now have a pinning option for most of the sub-tools in Quick tool action bar, for e.g. once "Replace selected text with comments" is selected & you pin it using the pin icon below in the same tool bar. you can continuously use the sub-tool without again going back again to select, and with simply "Esc" you can de-select it.
With latest update, we have provided and option in Preferences> General>Open documents as new tabs in the same window (requires relaunch), now you can work in different tabs with PDFs and there is a preference where you can anytime turn it Off/ONFor navigation, either you can use up and down arrows in Right hand panel to navigate, or you can go via Hamburger Menu>View>PageNavigation accordingly.
However, if there is anything specific that you find missing, please help with the screenshot., we will take a look for that as well.we still have the Read Mode in new UI which can be used from Display page from right hand panel or from hamburger Menu>View as well
For pinning more items in Right hand pane, please click on Display page, goto More and start pinning tools/sub-tools that are required, e.g: Marquee zoom can now be pinned there (pls see attached screenshot)
For crash observed, we have fixed many crashers in the updated version, however, even after update (Help>CheckForUpdates) if you're observing any crash, please let us know the workflow you are trying to perform and we will fix the same.For Fewer pop-up requests, we have introduced a limit in terms of cadence and frequency, however, if there is any particular pop-up that is coming up more frequently than ever, please let me know and I will get the same prioritise.
I completely understand, new UI comes up with a learning curve, I would suggest you all to please go through this blog-post which explicitly mentions what all has been changed in New UI to help onboard faster : https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/learn-new-acrobat.html
Besides, there are any issues/bugs you observe in New UI, pls mention them specifically and we will prioritise them.
Thanks all for your valuable feedbacks!!
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Robin Surface commented
I have a better idea - revert to the version that worked correctly - the one everybody liked (not the one it's reverting to now, but the one before that). Once you've done that and everyone can do their jobs again, then you can start over adding changes that people have actually requested. Change just to try to stay relevant is not a good thing for Adobe or its customers. No one wants to spend hours trying to figure out how to do what they need because you've given them a forced update that makes your program nearly impossible to work with. If your product works well and you aren't getting a bunch of complaints or suggestions for how to make it better - LEAVE IT ALONE!
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Lamar Wiggins commented
Hello Adobe,
Here is some feedback on Acrobat Pro, from our internal legal counsel:
"hey--is there nothing I can do about this Adobe issue causing it to go black everytime I sign? Just lost an entire document because of the continued issue..."
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Mags commented
I reverted to the old Intervace as I just couldn’t get on with the new one. However, since the interface was launched, I have huge problems with HR PDFs viewed at 100% as it just doesn’t seem to be able to cope anymore & if it’s not frozen already, I quit in exasperation. So much time is wasted!
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InstyButte Typesetting2 commented
I use Acrobat for dozens of jobs a day, ranging from simple text to artwork to CAD drawings, and it is so far stable, but I absolutely have to revert to the old interface. The new one is utterly confusing and lacks many of the tools I need, or it hides them behind multiple menus or steps. In no way whatsoever is the new interface an improvement. I know many people who use Acrobat, and, to the one, all of them have reverted to the old UI. No one prefers the new UI. No one.
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Tasrif Rezwan commented
I reported the crashing issue about six months ago, and they still haven't fixed it yet. It's becoming a nightmare. Nowadays, if I have a deadline and need to use Adobe to edit or convert a document, I make sure to allow an extra hour because it's going to crash for sure. By the way, I use the latest Core i9 laptop model. For everybody's sake, please revert to the older version or hire some new developers to fix these issues.
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JS commented
To me the most important needs for daily work are:
- maximise the document area on the screen. You should be able to hide every part of the menu you don't need. Absolutely nothing should float in front of the document.
-make needed tools accessible and easy to reach. You should be able to add every single needed action to a tool bar, where you can reach it with one click. All the most needed tools are most easily reached for me when they are on top of the screen in the middle. I need marquee zoom and fit to page permanently and I cannot use them fast enough when they are tiny little buttons in the lower corner.
- no action should take more clicks than with the old interface, with is now the case really often
- I need scroll bars, even in single page view with page size in window size (they are still missing on my macs in the old interface as well)
These are the points that prevent me from trying to work with the new interface, when I start using that I would find a lot of other points for sure.
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martin hiltmann commented
Generally - changing the UI so often is a mess.
Very often you have to deal dn "translate" help and guides from one of the old ones to the new one, dealing with new terms, new menus, new positions.
Being an IT pro for about 40 years now, I definitly call Adobe the worst of the big professional software vendors with regards to GUI, documentation and stability. -
lockfulton@rogers.com commented
My wish for a “new updated interface” is NOT to have one. Stop trying to change the interface. The value of a tool is in the PREDICTABILITY of use and outcome.
Perhaps you no longer think of Acrobat as a tool, but rather as a service… Ok, if I tell a waiter I want a scotch and soda, and they bring me a craft beer, I don’t care if it’s new… I’m sending it back. And I’m not paying for it. Do that twice and I’m out the door and down the street.
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John Eurell commented
I am in complete agreement with the "New Acrobat Wish List" above.
It is concise and to the point.
It's implementation will be extremely beneficial to Adobe users and as a result it will also be beneficial to Adobe. -
Robert Hanson commented
Please revert everything back to the old system and THEN consider vetted upgrades to specific items that IMPROVE functionality based on user testing and feedback such as are being suggested here. The last thing we need is"putting lipstick on a pig".
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Denny Esford commented
Please retain the older version for small firm lawyers and other small users like me that organize, redact and Bates stamped pdfs for document production and nothing else other than the free viewer.
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Mags commented
My issue is with the speed rendering HR PDFs @ 100% for exhibitions - it is so slow & more often than not freezes!
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griffin@klemalaw.com commented
The interface MUST be speed and efficiency based, not on its appearance. Empower the user, please, with UI customization and minimized wasted screen (white) space.
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Ruth E Keene commented
Where did the option to add navigation icons go???? If I have a 30 page document, I'd like the option to get to the bottom of the document with one click, as I've done prior to this last update, or having to scroll the entire document. I'm still trying to figure out the purpose of this update.
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Adam Turner commented
Just get the previous version working then stop updating it. LEAVE IT ALONE