Adobe Acrobat in the Courtroom: Full Screen Mode

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By Tisha Davis and Joe Wanzala

Adobe Acrobat is generally used or thought of only as a document review tool, but it’s “Full Screen” mode means it can double as a presentation tool. This is especially handy because trial exhibits commonly already exist as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Furthermore, cost considerations, practical expediency, or technical limitations can make it a good choice for certain situations.

About Full Screen Mode

Adobe Acrobat’s “Full Screen” mode allows you to display a document without the full PDF user interface:

Full screen mode includes a subset of Adobe Acrobat’s full array of tools. We have included a separate guide of key shortcuts selected from this subset, which you can find here.  To enable these shortcuts, go to Preferences (Ctrl + K) and select “Use single-key accelerators to access tools”:

Some document annotation tools, such as lines, arrows, ellipses, etc., have been excluded as their options are limited and difficult to access. We recommend using the annotation tools in ZoomIt when you are in full-screen mode. ZoomIt has a broader range of annotation options that are easy to access via key shortcuts. For additional information on Zoomit and its capabilities, please refer to the following blog post: https://nlsblog.org/2025/03/17/a-guide-to-using-zoomit/

While in full screen mode, you have several annotation options available highlight documents using the V* hotkey which offers you a range of annotation options:

For multipage documents, the ‘Control H’ hot key puts you in read mode. When in this mode you can navigate to specific pages by hovering your mouse over the bottom margin of the document – this reveals a dialog box where you can type in the page of the document you want to navigate to:

Accessing Full Screen Mode and Settings

If you want to open a subset of documents in full screen mode, you can modify their settings in Adobe. After opening your document, go to “Document Properties” in Acrobat (Ctrl+ D) and select “Open in Full Screen Mode” from the ‘Initial View’ tab:

If you want to open all your documents in “full screen” mode, open Acrobat and go to “Preferences”.  Under “Categories,” select “Full Screen.” Under “Full Screen Setup,” uncheck “Current document only” and “Alert when document requests full screen,” then hit OK. Once you have changed this default setting, all PDF documents will open in “Full Screen” mode:

Another option under this set of Preferences worth considering is “Which monitor to use.”  The default setting is “this monitor”, the current screen displaying the Acrobat client. You can change that to other options, e.g., whatever monitor is the biggest, brightest, widest, or tallest.

Sample Workflows

There isn’t a right or wrong workflow for utilizing full-screen mode.

One workflow option involves setting up your Trial Exhibits in a folder on your primary monitor. Once you’ve modified the full-screen settings for Adobe, your PDF documents will launch on the secondary screen. This will simulate the “projection” or “present” feature in standard presentation software.

Acrobat Full Screen Mode allows you to create a workflow which simulates some of the key functionalities of enterprise level tools such as Trial Director. For example, you can utilize a workflow where you first place all your exhibits in a folder on your desktop. This allows you to preview each document before you launch it:

You can then set up your preferences so that all your PDFs open in full screen mode on the secondary screen:

Alternatively, you first can launch the document and then use the ‘Control F’ hotkey to put the document in Full Screen Mode.[1]

You could also change the initial view for a document if, for example, you only want to present a specific page. You can also set the desired magnification level and layout:

Another option is to use full-screen mode to present a PDF version of a demonstrative created in presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint, Canva, etc.). While certain circumstances might necessitate pursuing this option, it is not recommended, as you will lack access to the presentation software’s tools and the effectiveness of a solid presentation demonstrative.  Open Acrobat and go to “Preferences”.  Under “Categories,” select “Full Screen.” There are several options to consider here:

Full Screen Appearance –

  • Background Color: The background color is black by default. Leaving this as-is allows you to mimic the look of other presentation software (e.g., TrialDirector).
  • Mouse Cursor: The default option is “Hidden After Delay”.  There is an option to select where your mouse cursor is “Always Hidden.”  This removes the distraction of your mouse cursor during the presentation, but it also could limit you if you need to use any annotation tools on the presented document.

Full Screen Transitions

  • You can enable or disable page transitions (e.g., auto-advance, slideshow, etc.).  You can also change whether the navigation arrows control the direction of the transition:

Finally, a cheat sheet with some additional commands and shortcuts is available here as a resource: Acrobat Full Screen Mode Commands and Shortcuts

[1] Your desktop settings should be in ‘Extend this screen’ mode for this to work.