Having been an avid and regular user of Adobe's Acrobat software for more than a dozen years, there are some tools on which I have grown very reliant.
Want to go to the next page? Click the right hand arrow on the toolbar and you're there.
Want to go to the previous page? Click its neighbor, the left arrow button.
Want to go to the last page of the document in a flash? Just click the right-most of the 4 page navigation buttons–the right arrow with the vertical line. WHOAH… if you're using Acrobat 9, you'll ask yourself, "Where did it go?" If you've used Acrobat in the past, you're not going crazy. That button had been there since the mid 1990s, but now it's GONE.
Looking closely, you'll see that Adobe has thrown you a bit of a triple-whammy here. Not only are you missing a last page button, but you will find that you are missing a first page button as well. Now comes the slam dunk… the next page button has changed its iconology completely and now is a DOWNWARD arrow. The previous page button is an UPWARD arrow.
No need to panic. When Adobe released Acrobat 8, they seemed to have favored a minimalist approach to toolbars. They did not remove any tools from Acrobat, but they sure did hide a bunch of them. The same philosophy seems to have been carried over to the new release, Acrobat 9 Professional.
Starting with the release of Acrobat 8, to see the full array of tools available on any toolbar, it was necessary to right-click a toolbar. This revealed a complete list of commands available on that toolbar. Commands with a checkmark were currently visible.
Those without a check were hidden, but one mouse click toggled the tool from hidden to visible. If you seem to be missing a toolbar entirely (such as the super-useful Advanced Editing toolbar), you only need to right-click in a blank spot of the tool bar area. A full list of available toolbars is shown–checkmarks indicate visible, no check means hidden. Click on a hidden one to add a checkmark & enable visibility.
Rather than going through each toolbar's right-click menu individually (a rather time-consuming and tedious chore), Adobe has given you a way of showing, hiding and customizing ALL of the Acrobat toolbars at the same time.
Choose Tools > Customize > Toolbars to open this terrific set of options. Any toolbar with a checkmark will be visible, and any tool with a checkmark will be visible on that toolbar.
If you miss a tool that you think Adobe removed from one Acrobat version to the next, simply right-click. Chances are that the tool you are looking for is available, waiting for you to make it visible.
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Click here.
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.
Can you publish comments (for a shared review) using Acrobat 9?
Can you publish comments (for a shared review) using Acrobat 9?
Can you publish comments (for a shared review) using Acrobat 9?
But what about the Properties toolbar? That is not listed in the Customize toolbars dialog box. I used this toolbar all the time in Acrobat 7 standard. It allows me to change the color of a comment balloon, apply bold to text, and so much more. I upgraded to Acrobat 9 Pro. I had this toolbar for awhile but now no matter what is selected I am told “No current selection” where the toolbar should be and I do not have access to the Properties tools. Please help! this is driving me mad. Thanks. pam
But what about the Properties toolbar? That is not listed in the Customize toolbars dialog box. I used this toolbar all the time in Acrobat 7 standard. It allows me to change the color of a comment balloon, apply bold to text, and so much more. I upgraded to Acrobat 9 Pro. I had this toolbar for awhile but now no matter what is selected I am told “No current selection” where the toolbar should be and I do not have access to the Properties tools. Please help! this is driving me mad. Thanks. pam
But what about the Properties toolbar? That is not listed in the Customize toolbars dialog box. I used this toolbar all the time in Acrobat 7 standard. It allows me to change the color of a comment balloon, apply bold to text, and so much more. I upgraded to Acrobat 9 Pro. I had this toolbar for awhile but now no matter what is selected I am told “No current selection” where the toolbar should be and I do not have access to the Properties tools. Please help! this is driving me mad. Thanks. pam
It’s not listed in the Tools menu, but it is still there. Ctrl-E will toggle it off & on. It is historically flaky! It used to lock up for several versions, and the only fix was to exit Acrobat & restart the program. I wish it were programmed to be more inclusive – giving properties of ANYTHING that’s selected. Each version of Acrobat is a whole new chapter of good & bad things with this great little toolbar, unfortunately.
David
It’s not listed in the Tools menu, but it is still there. Ctrl-E will toggle it off & on. It is historically flaky! It used to lock up for several versions, and the only fix was to exit Acrobat & restart the program. I wish it were programmed to be more inclusive – giving properties of ANYTHING that’s selected. Each version of Acrobat is a whole new chapter of good & bad things with this great little toolbar, unfortunately.
David
It’s not listed in the Tools menu, but it is still there. Ctrl-E will toggle it off & on. It is historically flaky! It used to lock up for several versions, and the only fix was to exit Acrobat & restart the program. I wish it were programmed to be more inclusive – giving properties of ANYTHING that’s selected. Each version of Acrobat is a whole new chapter of good & bad things with this great little toolbar, unfortunately.
David
Where is the tool icon that shows the web address for the Acrobat document you’re viewing? In MS apps you can have a tool that shows the URL of the document you’re working on and Acrobat 8 had it also. I’ve tried to find it in my 9 Pro and have failed. I use this tool to creat hyperlinks and am puzzled with Acrobat 9?
Mark
Where is the tool icon that shows the web address for the Acrobat document you’re viewing? In MS apps you can have a tool that shows the URL of the document you’re working on and Acrobat 8 had it also. I’ve tried to find it in my 9 Pro and have failed. I use this tool to creat hyperlinks and am puzzled with Acrobat 9?
Mark
Where is the tool icon that shows the web address for the Acrobat document you’re viewing? In MS apps you can have a tool that shows the URL of the document you’re working on and Acrobat 8 had it also. I’ve tried to find it in my 9 Pro and have failed. I use this tool to creat hyperlinks and am puzzled with Acrobat 9?
Mark