Dock Tool Bars (i.e. Properties Tool Bar, Typewriter, etc)?

Correct. Toolbars are either fixed to the window frame, or floating. You cannot undock or dock any of them.

This is horrible, and a backward step for progress. If Adobe wants to go with toolbar concept...then it should be carried all the way through, even with property and typewriter toolbars.

Errr!!!!

The floating nature of the Properties widget has been commented on by others. The logic behind the decision relates to how that particular object behaves - unlike a normal toolbar, the contents (and so the size) of the Properties widget change depending on what is selected - because of the way the toolbar and Tools Panes operate in Acrobat X, docking something that changes size is not supportable.

It was also decided, based on the target audience for Acrobat, that only the Quick Tools area of the main toolbar will be editable, and then only by drag and drop / right-click on an item in the Tools Pane. There's no script access to the toolbar, nor can you rearrange the UI panels in the way Creative Suite applications allow.

Yes...but one would think docking would in fact be incorporated in the tool bars as it used to be, or, properly integrated into the toolspace to the right, a part of comments and tasks, so it was continuously available without floating around the screen. It wouln't take much to open up some docking area below the quick tools. Maybe the only improvement will be that the properties bar will not fail to work and require closing and opening of the same file multiple times.

I appreciate you answering....I'm just not happy with the "improvements."

if you are on acrobat x
rt click on the quick tool toolbar
select quick tools
Content > Add or Edit Text Box
problem here is the typewriter bar now floats... BUT at least it is there

I also greatly dislike the new Acrobat X navigation and menus with toolbars, vs prior Acrobat standard features.

As a long-time user of Acrobat Pro versions, I too find the lack of docking ALL toolbars to be very annoying and an operational disadvantage compared to Pro 9 extended version features. I use both the typewriter tool and properties toolbar often in my science review and personal work with pdf files, so I extremely dislike having them float - with no option to dock them as before.

The comment by UVSAR above on the issue with changing size of these two toolbars seems bogus, since they changed in Acrobat Pro 9 extended without trouble; i.e., the number of bars at the top of the Acrobat window might expand and orders or placement of toolbars might change slightly, to accomodate the changing options for the typewriter and properties tools. I do not see why this flexibility cannot be continued in Acrobat X as it was in prior versions, since it worked and was more user-friendly.

Also, since Adobe has added the new panel of tools on the right side of the screen, where typewriter (add or edit text box) resides but properties apparently does NOT, why can't Acrobat simply include drop-down menu options to typewriter and properties - as it does for other tools, such as multimedia and form options, etc.?

Finally, while users can rearrange quicktools by now using the up or down arrows for their order (but now ONLY in the TOP menu row), it does NOT appear that you can reorder displayed tools in the 2nd row - as previously allowed in Acrobat. Furthermore, one cannot use multiple menu rows, and they appear to NOT be able to move and adjust with different window sizes (as was enabled in past versions) so that users could have all of their tools displayed in multiple rows when not maximizing windows - such as when viewing pdf files side-by-side or when cascading windows; instead, Acrobat X now hides all the locked tools that are not able to be displayed across a single row.

What is going on with Adobe Acrobat's programmers that they suddenly cannot maintain the operational flexibility in their software that made it such a useful program in the past?!? There is NO good valid reason that I have seen as to why Acrobat X cannot and should not provide the same flexibility in its tools that have made past versions so successful due to flexible user-productivity.

I agree with smokiibear that Acrobat X took a major step backward for users, when compared to the features we are used to using in Acrobat 9 Pro extended and even in earlier versions 8 and 7. I am disappointed with the new Acrobat X, since it does NOT seem to have added any extra value in functionality, but just seems to be a more locked down version with reduced features compared to 9 Pro extended.

Acrobat X should restore the flexibility of tools for users, else it offers little incentive or advantages over version 9; and I will either go back to version 9 Pro extended or else buy other competitors' pdf products to get the usability I have experienced and expected from past better versions of Acrobat.

I feel exactly as ghenning posted. In addition, I posted another comment that really frustrates me most regarding the sorting of comments by color located here:

http://acrobatusers.com/forum/general-acrobat-topics/sort-comments-color-acrobat-x

This was one of the greatest tools for me for productivity that I used on a dailey basis...and it is completely gone!

Errrrr!

Bad, Bad, Bad !!!

Looks like you need to prove you are working. Mindless modification. Regression.

Lenin used to say: "One step forward, two backward!" The next thing you'll re-invent
will be the Comunism == The dictature of stupid.

Will reinstall the previous version.

Let your thoughts be known -- hopefully with enough people doing so, Adobe will listen.

Adobe feature request/bug report form:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=5

I fully agree with all posters in theit critics. Really one step ahead and three steps back.
Please bring back more flexibility and posibility to configure ones one tools.

frithjofh

This has driven me crazy as well. The only thing that has made it not so frustrating was when I figured out that I could stick the Properties Bar and the Typewriter Bar outside of the Acrobat window (which works for me, having 2 monitors). I don't remember being able to do this with versions 8 or 9. I just hated having them sitting there in my work area, taking up my field of view (I was having flashbacks to v.8 when the Measurement Tool took up a 1/4 of the screen...). Unfortunately, the Measurement toolbar (although smaller than ever) is still floating AND chained to the confines of the Acrobat window. For heaven's sake, Adobe, get it together!
On the other hand, I love love love the new Find feature for document comments, so you can finally sort via labels. It works oh so well!

Acrobat is an enterprise product, and as such is primarily used in workplace environments where more than one user will sit at the same computer, and many of the users are relative novices. Keeping the user interface in a predictable layout is important in these situations, so the level of personalization possible in other Adobe products (such as Creative Suite, where a single highly-skilled person usually dominates the usage), is not a development priority. It's also why Acrobat doesn't fully support large multiple-monitor systems: the target user base for Acrobat very rarely have them, and feedback indicated that support for *small* screens such as netbooks is more important.

In Acrobat 9 you could rearrange your toolbars to the point a novice user would have a hard time relating the product help and video tutorials to what they see on their screen. In Acrobat X, that is not the case. I agree that expert users can be frustrated by this lack of customization, but it's there for a sensible reason and was *very* much debated during the development process. It's not going to change anytime soon.

Thanks for the reply. Certainly your comment makes sense, but the decision is rediculous. How many "Companies" and "home users" do not implement profiles for log in. The point of windows profiles is to let each user customize as they desire, and give each user the same option to do likewise. How many thousands of people, possibly millions of people are represented by the comments made in this post - most people don't have the time or care to log such a complaint.

Nonetheless, happy 4th to everyone!

Many of the users of Acrobat are actually in the educational or research institutes like universities and colleges and for me, the health industry (We use Acrobat to design forms to collect patients information). And believe me, both the universities and research institutes use large multiple-monitor systems. I myself have two 1080p monitors linked to my working laptop in the office. And I do care about the lack of toolbar arrangement in Acrobat X so that I insisted to our IT group not to upgrade from the current version 9.

Acrobat X is really a downgrade, at least for me. Okay, highlighting in Adobe Reader is good, but I don't care since I already have the Pro. If the targeted users are those novices then why did Adobe put it in the Creative Suite 5.5? They should have made a NOVICE Suite which may be more proper for Acrobat X I guess.

Add me to the complaint list. The lack of an ability to undock / float command bars and navigation panes is a major, major flaw that absolutely needs to be addressed ASAP. It's absurd to dumb down everything this way. You're making us power-users suffer for the sake of the amatuers. At lease give an option, like maybe have a choice between "Regular User" options or "Advanced User" options.

Add someone from the architectural community to the list of complainers. Everytime I open Acrobat, I regret agreeing to the X upgrade. The previous version had it's problems - I sometimes could not get the text properties bar to allow me to modify text - but at least it was always there. Having to specifically open this toolbar everytime I need to modify text properties stinks. I was resisting looking at BlueBeam, but it might be time to rethink that.....

How do you add type in your scanned adobe document? You used to have "typewriter" and it was easy to use. I do not like this new Adobe 10. Help, please!!!

How do you add type in your scanned adobe document? You used to have "typewriter" and it was easy to use. I do not like this new Adobe 10. Help, please!!!

Open the Tools Pane > Content panel and choose "Add or Edit Text Box". That's the typewriter tool under a new name, but it has the same icon and same functionality.

The Tools only has "Use Adobe sendnow online or Attach to Email and that is the only option. No other options to do anything else under tools. Can you help me out more?

Add me to the complaint list. Adobe 10 is not user friendly at all. Very difficult to move around in. Bring back the older version PLEASE!

In that case you're looking at ADOBE READER, not Acrobat. Referring to "Adobe 10" doesn't help us as that has no meaning.

Adobe Reader has a sticky note and highlight feature for unsecured PDFs via the Comment pane, and the additional markup tools will appear on the "Extended" pane *IF* the file being viewed has been Reader-extended, but you won't see that panel for any normal PDF files.

Drove me nuts too... until I figured out how to lock the Typewriter icon to the Quick Tools on top:

On the right, Click "Tools", then open "Content", then right-click "Add or Edit Text Box", and select "Add to Quick Tools"

I just wish to echo ghenning's comments. I completely agree that this is a step backward for Acrobat. Also, just for the record, I am not a design professional or some other expert Adobe user. I work in local government, where everyone has Adobe on their own computer (no shared workstations) and I just want to set up the tool bars so my most often used tools are docked and out of my way, but easily accessible.

I just wish to echo ghenning's comments. I completely agree that this is a step backward for Acrobat. Also, just for the record, I am not a design professional or some other expert Adobe user. I work in local government, where everyone has Adobe on their own computer (no shared workstations) and I just want to set up the tool bars so my most often used tools are docked and out of my way, but easily accessible.

Add another architectural / engineering complainer to the list, for Acrobat Pro X. We've been seeking efficiency, and we are not finding it in Acrobat products. We primarily use Acrobat to produce professional-looking markups on .pdf drawings & sketches, and are strongly thinking of going back to drafted hand-sketches. Text callouts, text boxes, etc., are horribly awkward to deal with, and we have very limited options on how they look and act. We deal with differently sized documents, and we have to reinvent all comment settings *each time we open a different document*. Simple document modifications, such as scaling (no one changes the sizes of documents, right???) are unavailable. Property bars float around and turn off after each use. No one wants to change the size of your comments and markups, either, right??? For the price and amount of skilled jobless potential employees out there, Adobe gets a D+ (maximum) for our purposes.

If you cannot dock them, is there a way to keep them from automatically opening when starting Acrobat? I would like to be able to turn them off from opening each time I open a document to edit.

I agree this is a step back. Why remove features? Just make the default the way you think it should be, but DON'T remove the options to customize it.