Are you bothered by the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC not showing bookmarks issue? If so, read this post now! MiniTool PDF Editor collects 3 available methods to resolve the “PDF bookmark not visible” problem.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is an all-in-one PDF editing tool. With this software, you can create, edit, view, e-sign, share, print, and make other changes to PDFs. It works with Windows, macOS, and Android devices. In a word, Adobe Acrobat Reader is a multifunctional PDF editing utility with good compatibility.

However, it can prompt various errors like other programs. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC not showing bookmarks is one of the errors you may encounter. If you are bothered by this issue, pay attention to this guide now. It collects some troubleshooting methods. You can try them one by one until the bookmark not visible issue is fixed.

Frequently encountered errors on Adobe Acrobat:

Method 1: Unhidden in Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC does not show bookmarks if PDF bookmarks are hidden. So, when you receive the bookmark not visible issue, check if your PDF bookmarks are hidden. If they’re hidden, unhide them by yourself.

Tips:
There’s no direct way to check if PDF bookmarks are hidden in Adobe Acrobat, but you can make use of a script or third-party plug-ins. Alternatively, you can check for inactive bookmarks by right-clicking on a bookmark and choosing Properties. If the Page field is empty, it means that the bookmark is inactive.

To unhide a bookmark in an Adobe PDF, select View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Bookmarks in the top menu bar. After that, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat again to see if bookmarks are visible.

Method 2: Modify Navigation Tab

If Acrobat bookmarks are not visible or greyed out, change the navigation tab in Adobe Acrobat Reader manually. It has been proven useful by some users. You can have a try! Here are the steps for doing that.

Step 1: With the file open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, navigate to File > Properties.

Step 2: Click on the Initial View tab and choose Bookmark Panel and Page from the Navigate tab drop-down menu. Then click OK to save changes.

choose Bookmark Panel and Page

Step 3: Save the file. Then Adobe Acrobat Reader should open the PDF with a bookmarks panel showing every time on every machine.

Tips:
If necessary, close the PDF file and the program and re-open them.
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Method 3: Save PDF as Word and then Save as New PDF

When a PDF file is signed, you will encounter the “Adobe Acrobat Reader DC not showing bookmarks” issue. Besides, you can’t add new bookmarks to the PDF. How to bypass the signature and display the bookmark?

Well, an available way is to save the PDF as Word and then save the file as a new PDF. Here’s the complete guide for you.

Step 1: Open the PDF in Acrobat and choose Convert from the global bar.

Step 2: Select DOC from the drop-down menu next to Microsoft Word.

Step 3: Choose Convert to DOC, configure a location to save the file, and then select Save.

Alternatively, you can convert a PDF to Word by using the Export PDF tool. Here are the instructions.

  • Open the PDF in Acrobat and click the Export PDF tool in the right pane.
  • Pick Microsoft Word as the export format.
  • Click Export.
  • Type a file name for the converted file, choose DOC or DOCX file format, and click Save.

Now, convert the converted Word file to PDF by using the Word to PDF converter of Adobe Acrobat. Here’s an online converter from Adobe Acrobat. Search and open it on your browser, and then upload the Word file to the converter.

Directly drag and drop the Word file to the converter or click Select a file and upload the target file. Then the Word to PDF converter will automatically convert the uploaded file.

upload the file to the converter

After the file is converted successfully, click the Download button to download the converted PDF.

download the PDF file

As a comprehensive PDF editing tool, MiniTool PDF Editor can also convert PDF to Word and then convert Word to PDF. Additionally, it enables you to convert Excel, image, PPT, HTML, Markdown, XPS, CAD, PDF/A, and TXT to PDF and vice versa. It also boasts advanced features like OCR, encrypt, sign, annotate, merge, and split PDFs.

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The End

What to do if Acrobat bookmarks are not visible or greyed out? This post reveals the answers. You can apply the fixes in the guide to troubleshoot Adobe Acrobat Reader DC not showing bookmarks issue.

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