Articles
Survey says: More work, increased sharing and collaboration, common challenges
By Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Publishers offer quality content through the 'Ads for Adobe PDF' service
The "Ads for Adobe PDF" service continues in limited beta, but already includes a wide range of publishers who are helping Adobe fine-tune the technology and procedures.
By Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
1 Votes
Acrobat 8 named ‘Product of the Year’ by Law Technology News readers
Readers of Law Technology News recently honored Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional as the legal industry's Product of the Year.
By Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
2 comments
Recapping 2007: 'Best of' AcrobatUsers.com statistics
Membership in the Acrobat User Community tripled last year. Here's a brief review of some of the 2007 site highlights, a sort of 'Best of' retrospective from the articles, tutorials, blogs and discussion areas.
By Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Top 10 Little-known Tips for Lawyers Who Use Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro
Roy Greenberg, who has a transactional real estate practice in New York, writes that he is continuously surprised "by the inability of both lawyers and clients to use the most basic functions of Acrobat and the free reader." Accordingly, he offers his ten best tips for using Acrobat 8 Professional.
by Roy Greenberg/TechnoLawyer.com
Adobe seeks Ads for Adobe PDF beta participants
Adobe Systems is seeking beta participants for a new publishing service--in partnership with Yahoo!--that allows the inclusion of contextually relevant ads to PDF-based content.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Acrobat guru shares 101 favorite tips, tasks as free eBook
Adobe Acrobat guru Ted Padova has compiled in eBook format 101 of his favorite tips and frequently used tasks in Acrobat, JavaScript and LiveCycle Designer, and is offering the 55-page document as a free download.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Acrobat PDF Central Conference features live webcast
The Acrobat PDF Central Conference will feature a pair of live webcasts that will be available to Acrobat user-group chapters via Acrobat Connect Professional on October 23.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Recertification exam is latest tool for evaluating Acrobat 8 expertise
Adobe Systems now offers a shorter proficiency exam that can be taken online by qualified Acrobat users to earn the 'certified expert' designation for Acrobat 8. Unless you've passed the Acrobat 7 ACE exam, you need to take the full-blown exam in a monitored test environment. Check out some sample questions and answers provided by Jim Mendes, Adobe's certification manager.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
A sampling of certified Acrobat 8 experts
A small cross-section of Acrobat 8-certified experts share their reasons for taking the examination, explain the perceived benefits and share suggestions for others who are preparing to take the product proficiency test.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Tips from the Acrobat Dirty Tricksters
Download a compilation of more than 30 Acrobat tips that were featured in a recent online seminar hosted by Rick Borstein and Tim Huff of Adobe Systems.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
1 Votes
FedEx-Kinko’s button in Acrobat 8.1, Reader 8.1 triggers backlash
Executives from Adobe Systems recently met with a number of printing industry representatives, who offered several recommendations for resolving a dispute over the company's partnership with FedEx Kinko's. They want Adobe to remove the button in Acrobat 8.1 and Reader 8.1 that allows users to send printing jobs directly to FedEx Kinko's.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Dynamic Media book practices what it preaches
Bob Connolly's book "Dynamic Media: Music, Video, Animation, and the Web in Adobe PDF" is the premier resource on the reasons, tools and processes for creating interactive PDF documents of all kinds — including books, cartoons, digital music, brochures, catalogs, advertisements and more.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Top reasons to upgrade to Acrobat 8.1, Adobe Reader 8.1
Adobe Systems has posted free patches to update the Windows and Macintosh versions of Acrobat 8.0 (Professional and Standard) and posted new versions of Adobe Reader. Ted Padova, author of the Acrobat 8 PDF Bible, explains the improvements in each and why users should upgrade to version 8.1.
by Ted Padova
Online-only PDF Conference connects with attendees
Normally it wouldn't be good news if you planned an industry conference and nobody came. But that was the plan for the first online-only incarnation of the PDF Conference, hosted by Carl Young.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
MyMac.com interviews Ted Padova
In this 16-minute excerpt from a 75-minute podcast from MyMac.com, Ted Padova discusses his recently published "Acrobat 8 & PDF Bible" and other related topics.
Creative Suite 3: Adobe's largest rollout
With Creative Suite 3, Adobe Systems is rolling out the largest product release in the company's 25-year history, including 13 new applications and 19 different product configurations.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
PDF Bookmarks: Surveying the options
Most PDF files do not include bookmarks. This is a pity, because they are so easy to add, and because the real-world usability of longer PDF files suffers significantly by their absence. And there's no shortage of tools for creating and managing bookmarks, as this product survey article explains.
by Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
AcrobatUsers.com celebrates first anniversary
One year ago -- February 14, 2006 -- we launched AcrobatUsers.com. Thanks to the help of members like you, we've grown to a global community with more than 10,000 members, representing 36 different industries in 80-plus countries.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Customer profile: Ernest Svenson, PDF for Lawyers
A well-known advocate for the effective use of new technologies in the legal profession, New Orleans-based attorney Ernest Svenson finds Adobe Acrobat and PDF to be highly valued tools in a document-intensive field.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
PDF in Government
Duff Johnson looks at how several federal government agencies use Acrobat and PDF to solve old problems and, in some cases, to create new opportunities.
by Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Connecting with Acrobat user groups & users
Local Acrobat user-group chapters are being empowered with Adobe Acrobat Connect, providing the opportunity for members to log in to a live meeting room for the respective quarterly meetings. Connect attendees can not only view expert presentations, but can interact with the host and other online attendees — and can attend *any* chapter's meeting, breaking down the geographic barriers.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
User-friendly technical document: Not an oxymoron
Most of us use some variation of the big, black three-ring binder on a regular basis, whether in the form of manuals, catalogs or other formal documentation. The problem with paper manuals is upkeep. Replacing pages, deleting existing content and retaining a usable table of contents aren’t simple tasks. Pages are torn, misfiled or lost, and supporting multiple copies compounds the potential for error or omission. Maintaining frequent updates, such as those required in regulated industries, is unending.
By Donna L. Baker, ACE, Baker Communications
Five New Ways to Enhance Your Organization's Workflow
Find out how you can save time and reduce costs—without expensive infrastructure investments. In this exclusive members-only article, Carl Young looks at five new ways Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional can help you spend less time and money managing your business workflows and more time on what’s really important: making a profit.
by Carl Young
Adobe interview: Heather Winkle, User Experience Manager
Heather Winkle manages the User Experience group at Adobe Systems that recently developed and implemented a streamlined user interface for Adobe Acrobat 8.0. She talked recently with AcrobatUsers.com about the group's primary design goals, the makeover process and the challenges of integrating Macromedia Breeze functionality into Acrobat (rebranded as Acrobat Connect).
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Adobe Acrobat menu structure changes
This illustrated chart summarizes the changes in the menu structure from Adobe Acrobat 7.0.8 to Acrobat 8.
by Knowledge Worker User Experience Group, Adobe Systems
PDF usability: Debate and reality
Duff Johnson examines and refutes the claims of several misinformed critics who claim that PDF files suffer an inherent lack of usability and therefore should not be used for online reading. The fault, he says, more often belongs to the document creator, not the file format itself.
By Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Creating Barcoded Forms with Acrobat 8
Lee Sutton, Senior Solutions Architect for LiveCycle Barcode Forms, explains how to use Acrobat 8 to add a 2D barcode to a PDF form to capture user-entered data, eliminating the need to manually enter it from completed forms. The article includes a sample ARESed PDF417 barcode that illustrates what can be done.
by Lee Sutton
Adobe interview: Bob Wulff, Sr. VP for Acrobat Engineering
Bob Wulff, Senior VP for Acrobat Engineering, talked recently with AcrobatUsers.com about his long-time role—he's been involved from Acrobat's "gleam-in-John-Warnock's eye" days—and specifically about the development of the soon-to-ship Acrobat 8.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Redacting PDF files with Acrobat 8
Ted Padova — with an assist from Leonard Rosenthol — explores the use of Acrobat 8's new redaction tools, providing a way to permanently remove sensitive content in PDF files and also to locate and delete various types of hidden data.
by Ted Padova
The Cool New PDF Creation Features in Acrobat 8
In his fourth article on the new features in Acrobat 8, Ted Padova talks about two of his favorite new PDF creation features in Acrobat 8 for combining files: The Combine Files command and the Create PDF Package command. While the two commands are both PDF creation features, they are used for different purposes.
by Ted Padova
Adobe interview: Randy Swineford, Group Product Manager, Acrobat
Randy Swineford, part of the Acrobat Product Management group, talked recently with AcrobatUsers.com about his role and about some of Acrobat 8's most significant changes and additions.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Extended Forms Features
In his last article, Ted Padova talked about enabling PDF documents for Adobe Reader users for form data saving and digital signatures. In this article, he discusses four new features that also rank high on his top ten list of Acrobat 8 features: Running form field recognition, flattening form fields, distributing and compiling forms, and aggregating data.
by Ted Padova
More Enabling Features for Adobe Reader
My number one ranking new feature added to Acrobat is definitely the new permissions you can grant for Adobe Reader users. In Acrobat 7 we saw the first introduction of a command that permitted us to enable a PDF document with certain usage rights to expand the functionality of Adobe Reader. When a file was enabled using Acrobat Professional an Adobe Reader user could participate in Commenting and Review sessions. Reader users could add comment notes and markups, and they could save their edits.
by Ted Padova
Adobe interview: Kevin Lynch, VP/Product Marketing, Knowledge Worker Business Unit (KWBU)
Kevin Lynch, formerly of Macromedia, talks about his Adobe group's responsibility for Acrobat and the newly rebranded Acrobat Connect (formerly Breeze), which adds optional Web conferencing capabilities based on the ubiquitous Flash Player.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
My favorite new features in Acrobat 8
In the first in a series of articles, author and well-known Acrobat and PDF guru Ted Padova shares his list of favorite new features in Acrobat 8.
by Ted Padova
First Look: Adobe Acrobat 8
Kurt Foss offers a first look at some of the new and enhanced features in the just-announced Adobe Acrobat 8. In addition to a streamlined user interface, the new version adds some long-requested functionality and new features of interest to both select vertical market segments and the broad user community.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Nuts and bolts of PDF forms
In the third article in a series, Carl Young outlines a process for using AcroForms to create a fillable PDF form.
by Carl Young
Understanding Acrobat’s Optimizer
Duff Johnson says the Optimizer in Acrobat 7 is a fantastic tool for improving the functionality of PDF files, and he offers guidelines on how to use it most effectively.
by Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Acrobat Bookmarks: Why & how
Duff Johnson says bookmarks are among the least-used features in Acrobat, yet they remain a vital navigational tool for lengthy, PDF-based documents.
By Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Adobe interview: Ali Hanyaloglu
AcrobatUsers.com editor Kurt Foss talks with Ali Hanyaloglu, Technical Evangelist for Acrobat in Education at Adobe Systems, about his role as the company's go-to guy for Acrobat in the educational market in North America.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Drowning in e-mail?
Donna Baker explains how a small business can handle e-mail-based communication more efficiently using Acrobat to convert, store and navigate a collection of messages and attachments.
by Donna L. Baker, ACE
Maximizing PDF usability
Duff Johnson offers some simple guidelines for optimizing new and existing PDF documents with usability in mind.
by Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Adobe Designer or Acrobat Forms?
The first choice you make when creating a PDF form is whether to create the form in Adobe Acrobat Professional or 3D, or to step outside of Acrobat and use Adobe LiveCycle Designer (Windows only).
by Carl Young
Getting started with Acrobat forms
Adobe has made form creation very easy with Acrobat. The speed with which you can create a very powerful form tempts many beginning users to overlook some fundamental issues.
by Carl Young
Overview of Acrobat and Adobe PDF
In this introduction to Acrobat and Adobe PDF, Ted Padova introduces PDF and talks about how PDF has become the de facto standard for many different industries, including creative professionals, architects, engineers, legal professionals, general office workers, IT, HR, marketing, and more. The article includes a brief overview of the Adobe Acrobat product family.
by Ted Padova
Digital Signatures in PDF & Acrobat
They've been part of Acrobat for several versions, but remain - for a number of reasons - underused and underappreciated by most users. With the obvious benefits and considerable applications of a method for electronically signing documents, the digital signature capabilities in Acrobat show considerable promise for greater adoption once certain obstacles can be overcome.
by Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Adobe interview: Diana Helander
The company's representative to PDF-based standards working groups talks about her work on the Worldwide Standards group, the process and impact of international standards development and the benefits for Acrobat users.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Redacting PDF files: A survey of tools
The ability to conceal text or images using correction fluid is an essential feature of paper, the original portable document format. The process of information removal is formally known as redaction.
Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Enable commenting for Adobe Reader 7.0 users
For email-based reviews, Acrobat 7.0 Professional and Acrobat 3D can enable tools for commenting (Commenting and Drawing Markups) and analysis (Measuring) in the free Adobe Reader that would otherwise be unavailable.
Adobe interview: Rick Brown, Group Product Manager for Acrobat
Guides product management team, represents voice of the customer in product development
Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
John Landwehr: Raising Acrobat security awareness
John Landwehr, Director of Security Solutions and Strategy at Adobe Systems, knows - and welcomes - a challenge. In fact, he prefers to see what he believes to be a general lack of awareness about the varied Acrobat security features and solutions as a significant opportunity to educate customers.
Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Adobe PDF Print Engine enables 'no-excuses printing'
Adobe Systems recently announced new printing software technology - dubbed Adobe PDF Print Engine - that facilitates more efficient print workflows and increased automation. It's based on industry standard Portable Document Format (PDF) and Job Definition Format (JDF).
Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Understanding 2D Barcodes in Adobe Acrobat & Reader
Maybe you've heard about 2D barcodes in PDF forms. Maybe you've seen a PDF form with a 2D barcode and thought 'how did they do that?' This article outlines the how to add a 2D barcode to a PDF form and how to extract the data from the 2D barcode.
Lori DeFurio, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Designing with PDF: Then and now
In 1994, Chris Converse produced a "Designing for Acrobat" guide to introduce other designers to the potential for and challenges in creating interactive PDF files. He's updated it for 2006, sharing his insights and methods.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
FormRouter's Reader Extensions service: Extra features for fair price
Through a unique Adobe partnership, FormRouter offers a service to allow small- and mid-sized businesses to fulfill an age-old user request: locally saving form-entered data with the free Reader.
Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
FormRouter's step-by-step guide explains Adobe's LiveCycle Reader Extensions technology
Describes "special rights" that can be enabled with Adobe PDF forms using fee-based service from FormRouter.
Acrobat JavaScript tip from Phoenix user-group chapter meeting
Carl Young, co-chapter leader of the Acrobat User Group in Phoenix, AZ, offers for download a snippet of JavaScript code for adding a New menu item in Acrobat 7. His presentation, also posted, from the chapter's recent meeting includes details on how to utilize the JavaScript.
Introduction and Welcome to AcrobatUsers.com
The paint is still wet, and there's a lot of open space. Please feel free to wander in and look around - after all, this is intended to be your home as much as ours. But first, a few introductions are in order.
by Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Q&A with Ricky Liversidge: Adobe engages the Acrobat community
Ricky Liversidge, director of product marketing for Acrobat and Breeze at Adobe Systems, says the company's motives in launching the Acrobat User Community initiative are to help connect users worldwide and to encourage a frank, ongoing dialogue between the company and its customers. Adobe wants to hear "both the good and the bad," he says in our interview.
Make your PDFs work well with Google (and other search engines)
Whether the PDF files you create and post online are easy to find depends in part on the steps you take to properly prepare the file for indexing.
Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Acrobat 3D adds new dimension
With Acrobat 3D, and a corresponding update of the free Adobe Reader, Adobe addressed specific challenges in select industries, but the changes may also fuel a broader use of interactive documents.
Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com
Adobe Reader 7.0.7 features enhanced 3D PDF tools
Adobe Systems has posted an update to its free Adobe Reader software for both Macintosh and Windows.
What are "PDF tags" and why should I care?
For some PDF document creators, adding structure tags to make PDF files more accessible is required by Section 508 guidelines. But there are other good reasons to know how and why to utilize tagging.
Duff Johnson, CEO, Document Solutions, Inc.
Picture perfect with PDF
For some businesses, seeing is believing. Using Adobe Acrobat, a designer shows her customers exactly what she has to offer - by preserving the right colors and right amount of detail.
Donna L. Baker
