Fix Horizontal Touchpad Scrolling Not Working in Acrobat Reader DC
Question details
The user is unable to use two-finger horizontal scrolling in Acrobat Reader DC on Windows, even though vertical scrolling and other applications work perfectly.
- Product
- Acrobat Reader DC
- Device & OS
- Windows
- Scenario
- Navigating wide or zoomed-in PDF documents using a laptop touchpad.
- Observed behavior
- Two-finger horizontal gestures fail to pan the document left or right, making it difficult to read documents that extend beyond the screen width.
Verify that your laptop touchpad is clean and that your Windows operating system has no pending driver updates for your pointing devices.
Disable Hand Tool for Mouse Wheel Zoom in Acrobat
Modifying the general preferences in Acrobat Reader can often unblock touchpad gestures and restore normal scrolling functions.
Acrobat Reader has specific input settings that can sometimes conflict with precision touchpad drivers. Disabling the mouse wheel zoom preference allows standard Windows scrolling inputs to pass through correctly.
Launch Acrobat Reader DC, click on 'Edit' in the top menu bar, and select 'Preferences' from the dropdown menu.
In the Preferences window, select 'General' from the Categories list on the left-hand side.
Locate the 'Basic Tools' section and uncheck the box next to 'Make Hand tool use mouse-wheel zooming'.
Click 'OK' to save the changes, then completely close and restart Acrobat Reader DC to apply the new settings.
Turn Off Tablet Mode in Windows
Windows Tablet Mode can optimize inputs for touchscreens but may interfere with standard touchpad gestures in desktop applications.
Update Touchpad Drivers and Reinstall Acrobat
Outdated touchpad drivers or corrupted 32-bit application files may cause scrolling gestures to fail exclusively in Acrobat.
View and Navigate PDFs Seamlessly with WPS Office
Avoid scrolling bugs and input conflicts by using WPS Office. Its built-in PDF reader offers a smooth, highly responsive viewing experience with flawless support for Windows touchpad gestures.
- 1. Download WPS Office: Download and install WPS Office Free from the official WPS website.
- 2. Open PDF Tool: Launch WPS Office and select the 'PDF' module from the main dashboard.
- 3. Load Document: Click 'Open' to browse your computer and load your PDF document into the viewer.
- 4. Scroll Smoothly: Use your laptop touchpad to smoothly scroll horizontally and vertically through your PDF pages without interruption.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does horizontal scrolling work in my web browser but not in Acrobat Reader?
Acrobat Reader handles scrolling inputs differently than web browsers. Specific settings in Acrobat, like the 'Hand tool use mouse-wheel zooming' preference, can misinterpret or block the signals sent by your laptop's precision touchpad drivers.
Does Windows Tablet Mode affect how touchpads behave?
Yes, Windows Tablet Mode optimizes the interface for touchscreens. This shift in input handling can sometimes override or disable advanced touchpad gestures, such as two-finger horizontal scrolling, in non-UWP applications like Acrobat Reader DC.
Can running a 32-bit PDF reader cause touchpad issues on a 64-bit Windows system?
Running older 32-bit applications on a modern 64-bit Windows system can occasionally lead to driver communication issues. Reinstalling the application using the latest 64-bit offline installer or running the Windows Compatibility Troubleshooter often resolves these input bugs.
