How do I disable Foxit 11's new "Format tab"?

[Lisa_lee]

CrashC44 ,We apologize for the trouble. Regarding the difficulties you encountered when using the format panel, I have submitted the suggestion "Design format panel as a floating panel to be able to dock it to the top, and resize the window to a smaller one" as a new feature request to our product management team's consideration with suggestion ID#PHANTOM-17009. I will keep you informed for any progress about it or you may submit a ticket on the this page to give us the report ID#PHANTOM-17009 to track its processing status in the future.


For the situation that "soon as I attempt to make a second (or third, or fourth, or...), it pops right back open again.", this should not happen if you are using our most current version11.2.2. As our colleague Lyndi has mentioned below:
Actually, there are three types of Format tab, Annotation, Measure and Edit. While using the tools in same type, like Annotation, when you close/hide its format panel, you will not get the format panel until you bring it up. For example, when you use the Highlight tool which belongs to annotation and you hide its format panel, then you use the other annotation tool like Typewriter, the format panel will not appear automatically.

So if you could get the format panel for the same type of tool appearing again after you already turn it off in our latest version of Foxit application, please help make a video to show it.
If you are still using an older version, please help to update to the latest version 11.2.2 by downloading it from our official download center:
https://www.foxit.com/downloads/

[CrashC44]

Like so many others, created an account on this forum for the sole purpose of registering a complaint concerning the abuse of document space in the current version of Foxit Reader. Why, in all of creation, would anyone think an enormous gigantic panel should be forcefully opened covering a third of the document simply because I choose to type, draw, or highlight portions of the document?

What was so wrong with leaving it as it was? Or, at least give us the functionality to move it to the top. Each type of comment I choose, I get different options in the panel. But the panel is so big that ALL of the options would fit into it.

Sure, I can hide it. But soon as I attempt to make a second (or third, or fourth, or...), it pops right back open again.

Annoying, that's what it is.

[lyndi_wu]

PDFUser6796

Thank you for your suggestion. Actually there are three types of Format tab, Annotation, Measure and Edit. While using the tools in same type, like Annotation, when you close/hide its format panel, you will not get the format panel until you bring it up. For example, when you use Highlight tool which belongs to annotation and you hide its format panel, then you use the other annotation tool like Typewriter, the format panel will not appear automatically.
If you can get the format panel for Typewriter appearing in the same case, please help make a video to show it. Thanks.

In addition, would you like to keep format panel permanently hidden for all features?

[PDFUser6796]

TooGood ,Actually,our product management team have already redesigned the working mechanism of the right panel format tab since version 11.1 of Foxit PDF Editor and Foxit PDF Reader.Please help to give the latest version 11.21 a try by downloading it from our official download center？
Since version 11.1,the format tab won't appear again automatically when you reuse the same kind of tools again once you have already closed the format tab previously until you choose to manually reopen it again. To reopen the format tab again, please refer to this article.
Please let us know if you still have any new suggestions or improvements for the format panel. Look forward to your reply.

So it seems that this works as far as hiding it - but the bar does not stay permanently hidden. As soon as I click on a different comment, highlight, etc. the bar pops right back out, requiring me to close it again. Is there not a way to permanently hide it by default, and then let us expand it when necessary?

Just wanted to echo the other hundred or so users who hate this feature. It really creates an absurd amount of extra work and I am looking at other PDF reader options as well.

Thanks!

[kesawi]

TooGood ,Actually,our product management team have already redesigned the working mechanism of the right panel format tab since version 11.1 of Foxit PDF Editor and Foxit PDF Reader.Please help to give the latest version 11.21 a try by downloading it from our official download center？
Since version 11.1,the format tab won't appear again automatically when you reuse the same kind of tools again once you have already closed the format tab previously until you choose to manually reopen it again. To reopen the format tab again, please refer to this article.
Please let us know if you still have any new suggestions or improvements for the format panel. Look forward to your reply.

Just upgragded from 10.1.4 to 11.2.1 as I was holding off until the comment sidebar was rectified. The ability to hide it is definitely an improvement. Would still like to see the options to put it back in the ribbon to maximise visible document screen width if it needs to be used frequently.

[Lisa_lee]

TooGood ,Actually,our product management team have already redesigned the working mechanism of the right panel format tab since version 11.1 of Foxit PDF Editor and Foxit PDF Reader.Please help to give the latest version 11.21 a try by downloading it from our official download center？
Since version 11.1,the format tab won't appear again automatically when you reuse the same kind of tools again once you have already closed the format tab previously until you choose to manually reopen it again. To reopen the format tab again, please refer to this article.
Please let us know if you still have any new suggestions or improvements for the format panel. Look forward to your reply.

[TooGood]

After reading other comments, I have noticed that this is a very old issue and it has yet to be resolved. I cannot use this PDF editor any more. I will look for alternatives.

[TooGood]

I made an account just to agree. The format panel is incredibly inconvenient. Whenever I switch back and forth between different PDFs (something that happens very frequently) the Format panel pops up. It is honestly one of the reasons I'm considering switching back to Adobe. It is near impossible to work with. I try to make a comment on a line and the panel pops up. I try to look at a different PDF and the panel pops up. Just make the format panel another option under the Home tab and that's it. Problem solved. Stop with this automatic opening.

[dsadas]

The latest version of Foxit Reader is 11.1, the reason why we released Foxit PDF Editor 11.2 was that it embedded Foxit Sign module, while Foxit Sign is paid module that not available in free version, so Foxit Reader is not updated.

So to conclude, Foxit Reader is not being updated soon, and the problem mentioned in post #201 persists. This is one effective way to permanently drive users away to other PDF readers, which has probably already happened to a considerable extent since the format panel issue in summer 2021 and the slow updates that followed.

[lyndi_wu]

Format Sidebar Shall Go
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Actually you can click on the arrow as the attached screenshot to hide the Format Panel, but it works in the version 11.1 or later version, please check which version you have.
You can download the latest version11 and version10 from our website.

[Format Sidebar Shall Go]

The format sidebar man, it is so annoying. foxit why you have to be the way you are. please just add a button to hide it or to move it somewhere else. what is this obsession with rigidity. I am not able to go back to the previous version also. Link is not working. Give me the link to version 10. Please do something the the sidebar.

[richell_huang]

The latest version of Foxit Reader is 11.1, the reason why we released Foxit PDF Editor 11.2 was that it embedded Foxit Sign module, while Foxit Sign is paid module that not available in free version, so Foxit Reader is not updated.

[dsadas]

lyndi_wu

The Foxit Editor I can find as Version 11.2 from here: https://www.foxit.com/pdf-editor/version-history.html

But for the Foxit Reader, which I actually use, I can only find the old version 11.1 here: https://www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/version-history.html

Am I missing something?

[lyndi_wu]

FigueiredoTG
the problem mentioned by dsadas <https://forums.foxitsoftware.com/forum/portable-document-format-pdf-tools/foxit-phantompdf/183007-how-do-i-disable-foxit-11-s-new-format-tab?p=185386#post185386> has been submitted QCPHANTOM-28644, it has been fixed in version11.2, but it only has English version, if you are using English version, you can download it from our website.

[FigueiredoTG]

FigueiredoTG This is a known issue in version 11.1, the internal report ID for this issue is #QCPHANTOM-28644. We will fix this issue in our next minor update version.

Thanks... the problem mentioned by dsadas <https://forums.foxitsoftware.com/forum/portable-document-format-pdf-tools/foxit-phantompdf/183007-how-do-i-disable-foxit-11-s-new-format-tab?p=185386#post185386> should also be resolved... it interferes a lot with the organization of the comments.