Along with its powerful PDF editing, markup and collaboration capabilities, Bluebeam Revu has remained a solution for professionals due to the program’s customizability. Revu allows you to customize the interface, tools, and panels that display with ease, ensuring that you are able to work as efficiently as possible without having to change the way that you work. Along with basic interface customization, Revu also offers a variety of more advanced customization options through the Preferences menu. For those looking to use Bluebeam Revu to their exact specifications in terms of appearance, defaults, and accessibility, here are seven ways to customize Bluebeam Revu using the Preferences menu.

The following examples were taken using the 64x Bluebeam Revu 2019 eXtreme edition, but all functions can be performed in all versions of Bluebeam Revu.

To access the Preferences menu, select Preferences from the Revu dropdown menu.

1. Change the Theme to Light Mode

By default, Bluebeam Revu will display in Dark mode, which features a black interface that can help to reduce eye strain and prevent sleeplessness from blue light exposure. However, if you have a preference for a lighter interface, you can always switch the Theme to Light mode, which features a classic white and gray color layout. You can switch the Theme using the dropdown menu in the Options tab of the General section.

2. Switch the Navigation Defaults

Intermediate Revu users most likely already know about the navigation defaults for different sized documents in Revu: when navigating through a large document, the default is Single Page Mode, which zooms in and out of the page, whereas smaller documents will use the Continuous Mode default, which scrolls up and down through the pages. You can switch between these navigation types manually in the Navigation Bar, but you can also switch these defaults in Preferences. If you only need to use one type of navigation, setting these defaults can save you time that would be spent manually adjusting them.

You can switch the navigation default using Single Page Mode and Continuous Mode dropdowns in the Navigation tab of the General section.

I changed the Single Page Mode default to Scroll and the Continuous Mode to Zoom. Now, when I scroll my center scroll wheel on a small document, the default navigation will be to zoom in, and on a large document, the default will be to scroll down through the pages.

3. Show Grid

If you are creating drawings or templates in Revu, or just need to be extremely precise when placing your markups, you may want to turn on a Grid to help guide you. You can turn on a grid by checking Show Grid in the Grid & Snap tab of the General section. This will place a dotted grid on all of the PDFs you open within Revu, ensuring that your markups stay straight and aligned exactly as you need them to, every time.

4. Autosize Text Box and Callouts

When working with Text Box and Callout markups, you can choose to autosize the text boxes to fit the text entered by using the Properties panel or the Properties toolbar. However, if you always want your text boxes to be autosized, you can save some time by choosing to autosize text boxes and callouts in Preferences. You can turn this on by checking Autosize Text Box and Callout Markups in the Markup tab of the Tools section.  Now, you can place text markups with ease and save time that would be spent manually autosizing them.

5. Show Author and Date in Pop-Ups

If you have many people collaborating and marking up the same document, it can often be useful to know the author of the markup and the date the markup was placed. This information can be tracked through the Markups List, but if you want this data to be visible directly on the drawing, you can turn on the option to Show Author and Date in Pop-Ups. This feature will give each markup a popup that can be activated when double clicked, displaying the author of the markup and the date and time it was placed. Additionally, the popup also features a note section where you can type any critical related info, allowing you to keep your team fully informed as work progresses. You can turn on this feature by checking the Show Author and Date in Pop-Ups check box in the Markup tab of the Tools section.

6. Attempt to Check Out Files on Open in Studio Projects

For those familiar with Bluebeam Revu’s document management system, Studio Projects, you’ll already know that simply clicking on a document doesn’t allow you to edit it. Studio Projects uses a check in-check out process, allowing you to only add markups to a PDF after it’s been checked out first; if you just click on a document, it will open initially in a read-only mode. Instead, you will need to right click on the document and select Check Out first. This process tends to not be very intuitive for beginner users, but thankfully there is an option within Preferences that allows the open and Check Out process to be done concurrently just by double clicking on a PDF in Studio Projects. This will eliminate the Read-Only confusion and save you time that would be spent manually checking out documents. You can turn this feature on by checking Attempt to Check Out Files on Open in the Options tab of the Studio section.

7. Reset Revu

If you ever need to reset Bluebeam Revu to its factory settings, you can do this from the Preferences menu, as well. Resetting Bluebeam Revu will delete any custom profiles or tool sets created, so it is important to save and export any settings you want to keep before performing this action. The benefits to resetting Revu, other than just giving you a clean version of the program to work with, is that it tends to be an easy cure-all for any problems you may encounter within Revu, including any glitches and corruptions that may occur. If you do need to reset your Bluebeam Revu application, you can do it from the Options tab of the Admin section.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please use the comment section on the bottom of this page, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get more Bluebeam tips & tricks directly in your inbox!

Lauren Hecker is a Bluebeam Certified Instructor and teaches Onsite Bluebeam Certified Courses, virtual Bluebeam Basics and Advanced courses, and custom onsite or virtual courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!