How can I permanently hide the navigation panel?

There is no preference option that enables you to hide the Nav Panel Buttons.

You can set up the Initial View on a document by document basis to Hide Window Controls (that in effect hide the Nav Panel Buttons). This may not be practical if you want all files you open to be displayed without the Nav Panel Buttons.

If you want to hide the Nav Panel Buttons all the time, you'll need to open a context menu on the Nav Panel and select hide Navigation Panel Buttons. It's a pain I know.

If you want to see a new preference option for permanently hiding Nav Panel Buttons, select Help > Online Support > Knowledge Base and submit a feature request to Adobe to add this feature in the next release of Acrobat.ted

I also want to hide the Navigation Pane on the initial open of a document. Although I select 'Hide window controls' in 'File/Document Properties/Initial View/User Interface Options', the Navigation Pane still appears when I open the file. (Acrobat 8 Professional)

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Roy

Have you tried this?
File > Properties... > Select Initial View tab
In the Layout and Magnification pane, use the drop down menu for "Navigation tab:" to select "Page Only".
In the User Interface Options select "Hide windows controls".

Be well...

That worked.

Thanks!
Roy