How to Stop Acrobat DC from Opening PDFs in Compare View
Question details
The user wants to prevent Adobe Acrobat DC from automatically opening PDF documents in the side-by-side Compare view.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat DC
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Opening standard PDF files that previously opened normally in older versions like Acrobat 9.
- Observed behavior
- Acrobat DC forces the PDFs into a side-by-side comparison view automatically, and changing the default application view in settings does not resolve the issue.
Ensure your Adobe Acrobat DC is updated to the latest version, and verify whether the specific PDFs were previously saved during an active document comparison session.
Modify the Initial View Properties of the PDF
Sometimes, PDFs are saved with specific document-level initial view settings that override your default application preferences. Changing this per-document can resolve the issue.
If a PDF was saved while a comparison was active, the document properties might be hardcoded to open in that specific layout. Overriding these document properties will force the file to respect your default Acrobat layout.
Open the affected PDF in Acrobat DC. Go to the 'File' menu and select 'Properties', or simply press Ctrl+D on your keyboard.
In the Document Properties window, click on the 'Initial View' tab at the top.
Under the 'Page layout' and 'Magnification' dropdown menus, change the selection to 'Default'.
Click 'OK' to apply the changes. Save the PDF document (Ctrl+S), close it, and reopen it to verify it no longer opens in Compare view.
Reset Acrobat Preferences to Default
Corrupted preference files can cause Acrobat to ignore your default view settings. Restoring them to default can fix unusual display behaviors.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why do some PDFs open in compare view automatically?
This usually happens if the PDF was previously saved while a comparison session or special view was active, which embeds the side-by-side layout into the document's internal 'Initial View' properties.
Does changing the default page layout in Acrobat preferences fix this?
Not always. Document-specific 'Initial View' settings (found in File > Properties) will override the application-wide default page layout preferences you set in the Edit > Preferences menu.
Can I prevent Acrobat from saving my last view settings?
Yes. Go to Edit > Preferences > Documents, and uncheck the option that says 'Restore last view settings when reopening documents'. This forces Acrobat to use standard defaults instead of remembering the last layout used.
