How to Change the Default View for PDFs in Adobe Acrobat

Jim Tanous Read more December 1, 2016

I read a lot of PDFs in Adobe Acrobat, and my preferred reading view is the “two page view,” with two pages side-by-side. But what’s frustrating is that Acrobat’s default view type is a single scrolling page. No matter how many times I change my view to the “two page” mode, Acrobat always reverts back to its default “single page view” the next time I launch the app or open a new PDF.

Thankfully, there’s an easy way to fix this frustration: you can change your default view in Acrobat’s settings. In both Windows and macOS, launch Acrobat and head to Edit > Preferences in the app’s toolbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac). From the Preferences window, select Page Display from the list of categories on the left side.

Next, on the right side of the window, find the section at the top labeled Default Layout and Zoom. Here you can change the default view type from the Page Layout and Zoom drop-down menus. For my personal example, I’ll set Page Layout to “Two-Up” and Zoom to “Automatic.” This will give me the view type I prefer (two pages side-by-side fit to the size of the window) every time I open a new PDF in Acrobat.

Once you’ve set your default view, click OK to save your changes and close the Preferences window. Now, your PDFs will look the way you want them to when you open them, and you can always manually change the view on the rare occasion that the document you’re viewing requires it.