Adobe Reader: how to disable toolbar buttons and menu items

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")
_____________________________________
reference: (181028701)
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5 Responses to Adobe Reader: how to disable toolbar buttons and menu items

  1. Daya Shankar says:
    January 15, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    Hi,

    I want to show my pdf file online, and i don’t want any visitor to download or print that pdf.

    Is their any way to block save and print of PDF which will help me achieve this task.

    Thanks in Advance.

  2. Vipin says:
    April 5, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    Hi,

    This is very useful for me as i have to disable save, copy, print options.

    but i also want to disable the “Share files using sendnow online..” option. and your script above for listing the toolbarbuttons and menuitems does not show name for this option.

    please help me.. it is very urgent and important.

    Thanks and regards,
    vipin dhiman
    vipindhmn87@gmail.com

    • dmcmahon says:
      April 5, 2012 at 3:38 pm

      Hi Vipin,

      I cannot guarantee a timely response through blog comments. In future please contact the support team, or use the forums http://forums.adobe.com for urgent requests.

      If you wish to disable the Acrobat.com features then you can do this using Customization Wizard to create an MST transform file to transform the standard Adobe Reader/Acrobat installation. Using Customization Wizard, you go to “Online and Acrobat.com features” > Acrobat.com features > Disable all Acrobat.com access…
      If you open the Help pages in Customization Wizard you will get further details about the registry keys that are used to apply these changes. In this case it would be HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\10.0\Workflows\bEnableShareFile.

      You can also refer to the AIM tool under the Preference Reference category to look up the registry keys available to customize your installations. The bEnableShareFile regkey is also described there.

      Further info available for enterprise deployments here: http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/enterprise-administration-acrobat-products.html

      best regards,
      David

  3. Marlon Bondura says:
    November 15, 2012 at 4:35 pm

    Always good to find something new and interesting to learn from. Great website you’ve got here.

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