This article gives instructions on installing Adobe Acrobat Pro on:

• Personal devices owned by staff and Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs)
• University-owned computers.

Undergraduate (UGs) and Postgraduate (PGTs) students cannot install locally Adobe Acrobat Pro on their computers using a University license. All UGs and PGTs will need to either use Adobe Acrobat from:

• Common Learning Spaces (CLS) machines, onsite
  or
• The Southampton Virtual Environment (SVE) Portal.

Adobe Acrobat Pro continues to be available to all users on SVE and common learning spaces (CLS).

If you need a PDF reader, you can:

• open your PDF with your browser (by right-clicking your file and choosing the function "Open with")
  or
• use the free software Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Installing Adobe Acrobat Pro

Installing Adobe Acrobat Pro on your personal device

1. Open the Adobe website and then click the 'Sign In' button on the top right

 
2. Sign in with the short version of your university email (for example: abc12u12@soton.ac.uk, not A.Customer@soton.ac.uk) and password

3. You will then be redirected from Adobe to the University"s external authentication portal. This may involve a second redirection:

4. Once logged in, go to the menu icon and click on 'Acrobat'

5. To use Acrobat on your desktop, click on 'Get your apps'

6. You will see a screen requesting to allow the page to open "Creative Cloud Desktop App". Select "Allow"

7.  Acrobat will automatically install Acrobat Pro on your computer.

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Installing Adobe Acrobat Pro on a university-owned computer

Windows users

To download the software off campus, you will need to connect to a Virtual Private Network VPN (GlobalProtect). To set up a VPN on your laptop, read the article How to set up the Virtual Private Network (VPN) via GlobalProtect.

1. Go to your Desktop and select the icon called "Software Center". You can find it is also available in the Start menu.

2. A new window will appear. Once the Software Center has fired up, enter "Adobe Acrobat" or "Adobe Acrobat Pro" into the search field.

Choose between personal and Company or School account

If you have both a personal account (Adobe ID) and a Company / School account (Enterprise ID or Federated ID) associated with the same email address, you will choose the account you want to use. Even if the two accounts share the same email address, they are distinct accounts. No data is shared or transferred automatically.

What to do:

1. Enter the short version of your university email address (for example: abc12u12@soton.ac.uk, not A.Surname@soton.ac.uk) and click "Continue".

2. You can now select a profile to sign in. Please select the option "Company or School account"

3. Sign in as usual

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Common issues and troubleshooting

All Adobe's applications are not appearing

Overview of the problem

If you are not seeing that you have the Adobe applications you expect available, you might have logged in with the wrong account.

This happens because your Adobe Acrobat is linked to the short form of your email account (for example abc123@soton.ac.uk), not the long form (for example A.Surname@soton.ac.uk). If you log in with the long email account, you are using the wrong account.

How to resolve this issue

1. Select the circular icon at the top-right corner of and check the account you are logged on with. 
   
   
2. If you are using the wrong account:
   1. Logout 
   2. Log in with the correct account.
      
      
3. If this logon offers you a choice of profile during this logon, select the option "School or company"

You cannot use Acrobat on more than 2 computers

You are only allowed to be logged onto your Adobe account on two computers simultaneously.

On logging onto the third, you will receive a message detailing the computers you are already logged onto and the option to log out remotely from Adobe on one of these computers.

This limit is set by Adobe and the university is not able to change or increase it.

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Related content

How to set up Adobe Acrobat Pro to be your default PDF viewer using Microsoft Edge

Managing Adobe profiles

How to download software

How do I set up VPN on my device

Microsoft 365 License Comparisons (A5 & A1)