Adobe Reader: how to disable toolbar buttons and menu items

Posted on November 11, 2009 by dmcmahon | Comments (5)

Issue

 If you want to disable some toolbar buttons like the collaboration, sign or commenting buttons you must do this using application-level Javascript.

Solution

 Place the following Javascript code inside a .js file in %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\JavaScripts to disable the toolbar buttons:

// [File - Create Adobe PDF Using Acrobat.com], plus toolbar button
app.hideMenuItem("WebServices:CreatePDF");
app.hideToolbarButton("Weblink:CreatePDF");

// [File - Collaborate], plus toolbar button
app.hideMenuItem("Annots:FileCollaboration");
app.hideToolbarButton("Annots:CollabToolButton");

app.hideToolbarButton("CommentTask");
app.hideToolbarButton("SigTaskButton");

Additional Information

To discover the names of the toolbar buttons and menu items you should save the following Javascript in a .js file in %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\JavaScripts.  The Javascript console window will pop up when you start Reader and will list the buttons and menu items.

_____________________________________

//ListItems.js
//Open Javascript Console
console.show();
//List Toolbar Buttons in the Console
var toolbarItems = app.listToolbarButtons()
for( var i in toolbarItems)
console.println(toolbarItems + "\n")
//List Menu Items in the Console
var menuItems = app.listMenuItems()
for( var i in menuItems)
console.println(menuItems + "\n")
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