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What happened to the search box in toolbar in PDF Reader X

Guest
Dec 04, 2010 Dec 04, 2010

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Hi,

Can anyone help on how to get the search box to show in the toolbar as had in previous versions of reader? There dosn't seem to be option to activate it in preferances. Seems idiotic to remove it, used it lot ot search documents, etc.

If it's been removed does anyone have link for verison 9.4?

Thanks in advace for any help

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LEGEND ,
Dec 04, 2010 Dec 04, 2010

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You can add the Find and Search buttons to the toolbar, which when clicked will display theFind/Search text box.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 05, 2010 Dec 05, 2010

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What an ugly, clumsy step backwards.  A real PITA.  Dumb, dumb, dumb (IMHO, of course).

If reader X weren't so FAST, I think I'd go back to Reader 9 ...

This new find/search paradigm is NOT progress, Adobe !!!

Can we get a preferences selected option to use the old (pre-X) style, or if one actually likes

the new method, the new X-way?  Please?

Cheers,

/kim

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Explorer ,
Jan 29, 2011 Jan 29, 2011

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"What an ugly, clumsy step backwards.  A real PITA.  Dumb, dumb, dumb (IMHO, of course).

If reader X weren't so FAST, I think I'd go back to Reader 9 ..."

I couldn't agree with you more. It's so frustrating to have all the extra empty space in the toolbar yet you cannot put one of the most commonly used features in it. Not only that, the Search box is ridiculously small, it will hold only one or two words. Could they have made the up/down arrows any smaller? And what's the point of having it slide sideways, it so tiny that it doesn't matter where it is along the top of the screen!! And when you open another document the Search box disappears for the new document, so if you have a lot of different documents to search you have to open the Search box for each and every one of them. Argh!! Don't get me started on the fading/hidden toolbar annoyance and the permanent splashscreen. Hopefully Adobe has canned the apprentice programmers that came up with these dumb ideas.

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New Here ,
Mar 10, 2011 Mar 10, 2011

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I also agree.  When you have novice computer users using a product and then you go and make such a "drastic" change from their perspective, we will have to retrain EVERYONE on how to use the tool.

I navigate a PDF with the mouse, especially a wheel mouse, so it was not a problem to click in the search box.  The new floating search box is in my way since it is "over" the document, even though it is unuseably small.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the vision impaired folks or the handicapped so that they can use this.

The product is Adobe Reader.  We use it to READ, not forms, not fancy, just read.  But search is an important part of reading.  PLEASE but the search box back or give us control over where it resides.

And, others are saying that it is faster.  I'm finding the opposite - it is slower to open, slower to find my way around, and confusing since the look and feel has changed.

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Guest
Mar 24, 2011 Mar 24, 2011

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The workaround described here only enables the search button.

As I understand, there is no way to still have the search box (or search field) in the toolbar.

As others wrote, at least for me it is a fundamental feature to be able to search for something with Acrobat (Reader).

Being able just to write the word to search, was so easy.

So, WHY, did you remove this feature?

For this reason, I switched back to Version 9 (wich is not easy if

you have Acrobat Std X installed; you first have to uninstall Acrobat Std X, install Reader 9,

and then reinstall Acrobat Std X again).

Sorry Adobe, but this is an IMPORTANT step backwards, which is absolutely not acceptable.

Please, never remove a core feature (I really couldn't believe it, at first, and thought I am too stupid to find the right way to enable it).

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New Here ,
Apr 04, 2011 Apr 04, 2011

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I totally agree with everyone.  Adobe Reader X is a step backward.  I am patiently trying to give it a fair shot, but am pretty much ready to uninstall it.  I can't believe people are actually answering with workarounds that take MORE clicks to access something that used to be just THERE when you needed it.  Rediculous step backwards, Adobe!

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 21, 2011 Jul 21, 2011

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This is ugly.. The drop down search text box keeps geting in the way of text on page, so I need to keep moving it around, so it's never where I expect it to be the next time I hit control-F, so I have to hunt for it eash time!

Also, the forward/reverse buttons are far too small, making it painful to get the mouse positioned over them each time I need to find the next search item.

Adobe: Please, let us move quick search back to the toolbar, with larger forward/reverse buttons (always displayed)

Edit:

Problem solved.

1. Uninstalled Reader X

2. http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/  Installed 9.4, updated to 9.4.5,

3. Turned off automatic updates.

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New Here ,
Aug 05, 2011 Aug 05, 2011

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One thing to note before going to version 9.4.5 -- it has its own search problem (documented in another Adobe Reader forum) where the search text is often not highlighted.  This was introduced when Adobe went from 9.4.4 to 9.4.5.  It's been driving me crazy (and lots of others), and as it seems that it will yet be some time before this documented bug is fixed, I upgraded to Reader X to get search text to hightlight.  It does now indeed hightlight, and I'm only somewhat less bothered by the reduced ease of use of the search box location and the tiny find previous and find next arrows.

Adobe -- Please give us the option to put the search box back on the toolbar with bigger previous and next arrows!

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LEGEND ,
Dec 06, 2010 Dec 06, 2010

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The quick search box in Adobe Reader X and Acrobat X opens and takes focus with the hotkey Ctrl-F (CMD-F) as it does in web browsers (and as it used to in version 9) - which as you're going to type into the box anyway is a quicker way to access it than clicking in the toolbar with your mouse.

There's no option to customise the toolbars in the Acrobat X Family UI other than by manually adding icons to the Quick Tools area. The search field is not an icon so cannot be added by default.

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Guest
Dec 06, 2010 Dec 06, 2010

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Thanks for the replies, it would of been nice to have option to use either.

The search box can be moved along the toolbar once control-F is pressed as you said but still have to use the mouse to use it, don't really see the advantage of having a box can move along the bottom of toolbar and not up and down the page. Software developers seem to keep dropping functanallity in upgrades/new versions of software and  try and say is advantage, prime example being latest verions of MSN' window live or whatever it's called.

Cheers anyway,

B

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New Here ,
Feb 13, 2011 Feb 13, 2011

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You can permanently enable the search button using the following steps:

1. Right click in the abundantly empty area of the toolbar

2. In the pull-down menu, move your mouse down to "Edit  >"

3. In the subsequent pull-down menu, move your mouse down to "Show All Edit Tools" and left click

4. Voila, all your search buttons will now appear in this and subsequent documents

If you are so inclined, you can use this method to enable all sorts of buttons, if you like lots of buttons and can remember what all the buttons do.

To turn off all the new buttons, right click again the in toolbar and select "Reset Toolbars"

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Guest
May 17, 2016 May 17, 2016

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Yay!!! Thank you!!

Finally, someone tells me how to get the binoculars back on the tool bar.  I don't want to have to repeatedly search.  I need the window that shows all occurrences of the word or phrase.

Thank you!

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New Here ,
Nov 14, 2023 Nov 14, 2023

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LATEST

Thank U. I did it...

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 27, 2011 Apr 27, 2011

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What a pain.  I have had Reader X installed for ten minutes, now I find I have to uninstall it, locate the old version, and re-install that, because the old search box was my primary tool for reading PDF manuals.

UPDATE:  Since I'd installed X so recently, WIndows 7's System Restore function worked perfectly in removing Reader X and restoring Reader 9.  It still took 10 minutes.   But why eliminate such a basic tool from easy access in the toolbar?

Message was edited by: laserfaire

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Participant ,
Jun 17, 2011 Jun 17, 2011

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This is so stupid I can't believe it. It's like Adobe is in a race to the bottom wit Bear Stearns and Leahman. You're losing, Adobe.

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Guest
Jul 20, 2011 Jul 20, 2011

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Just to let Adobe know that I agree with everybody here: pretty retarded to remove the find box from the toolbar.

And the new functionality is buggy too: I accidentally dragged the previous/next buttons on the find box, and they became invisible. Function was still there, even tooltips, but no icon. Worse, after that all other button icons in the toolbar became invisible as well. Same thing. I had to restart Acrobat to restore this.

Acrobat X Pro on Windows XP Pro SP3

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New Here ,
Apr 02, 2013 Apr 02, 2013

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Did Adobe listen? No. Still no text box for the search option in the toolbar for Reader XI. We have 300 employees 10 of which probably know about using Ctrl+f and we have manuals and procedures all published in pdf format. We probably won't update as a company until this has been added back to the toolbar. Easier to stick with 9 rather than train that many employees and have them become accustom. Everytime a newer version slips onto a computer the user asks where their search bar went. UI fail.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 02, 2013 Apr 02, 2013

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This is why I am happily using 9.5.3 after uninstalling Reader X a few years back.  It's not much of an inconvenience when vendors add features I have no use for, but when they delete features I depend on, it's a real pain.  I stopped upgrading my favorite image album software at version 3.02 back in 1997 when the vendor started shedding convenient features.  Last I checked, that particular program is up to version 13 or so, but my 1997 version runs fine under Windows 7.  If my work needs haven't changed, I'm not willing to change the way I work just because the software developers want me to do things in a different way.

I'm no Luddite; I switched from Scripsit to WordStar to DisplayWrite to various versions of Word, then stopped at Word 2000 because it does exactly what I want.

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LEGEND ,
Apr 02, 2013 Apr 02, 2013

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Control + F for finding in nearly universal in Windows and Windows apps as is Command + F in the Mac OS for Mac apps.  As you get close to the time at which Adobe abandons Reader 9 due to age and security becomes a problem, isn't it easier to teach your employees the basics of how to use a computer.

Control O, Control C, Control V Control P, and even Control F should be part of every users Windows vocabulary.

BTW, I don't like the new setup any more than you do. But life goes on. Knowing the basics makes users higher functioning.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/only-one-in-10-know-what-ctrlf-does--here-are-short...

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New Here ,
Apr 02, 2013 Apr 02, 2013

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That's rediculous!  Control keys are for power users, not the general user population.  Knowing CTRL-O, C, V, P, and F does not equate to a higher functioning user.

Try taking your logic to Google and telling them to hide the search field and only activate it with CTRL-F.  Yeah...right!  Software and web sites should be efficient and minimize the number of clicks or steps to do a task...especially a task that is done most frequently!  There is a whole bunch of empty space on the tool bar, in Adobe Reader XI, that could easily have a permanent search field available WITHOUT having to press ANY additional keys!  THAT MAKES SENSE, IMHO!

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LEGEND ,
Apr 02, 2013 Apr 02, 2013

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swilson317 wrote:

Software and web sites should be efficient and minimize the number of clicks or steps to do a task...

Exactly!  If a user has to use the mouse to click in a Search field is hightly inefficient; using keyboard shortcuts is much easier and quicker than moving the mouse pointer around the screen.

Softwares like Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Firefox, ... all do not have a predefined Search field, but one that is activated by Ctrl+F.  I cannot imagine any computer user that doesn't use Ctrl+F dozens of times a day (as well as Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V, Ctrl+P, Ctrl+Z).

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New Here ,
Apr 04, 2013 Apr 04, 2013

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Here's a link to an article that explains how to add the search icon to the toolbar.

http://www.wyonewspapers.org/acrobat.html

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