January 2007

Connect with the global Acrobat community

In less than a year since the AcrobatUsers.com website went live, the membership ranks have grown to more than 8,000, representing 80 countries. During that time period, those members living within a reasonable distance of one of the 18 (to date) local user-group chapters have had an opportunity to attend quarterly meetings led by experts in the community and/or from Adobe Systems.

If lack of access to a local chapter kept you from being able to attend a user-group meeting last year, 2007 promises greater opportunities. In fact, with all current chapters now being enabled with Acrobat Connect Professional — the new web conferencing functionality that can be launched from within Acrobat 8 and Reader 8 — you’ll be able to virtually attend any and all meetings as they happen.

The Boston chapter was the first to test drive the use of a Connect meeting room to allow attendees to log in to view and ask questions during an early December presentation on new forms functionality by Ali Hanyaloglu of Adobe Systems. The handful of online-only attendees who took part indicated they found the experience effortless and rewarding, and said they definitely plan to take advantage of the opportunity again.

You’re invited to do the same! Look for the Connect URL in chapter meeting announcements that tells you a particular meeting is available online via Acrobat Connect. Join at the scheduled time by accessing the link. You may not win the door prize, but you’ll avoid the traffic and parking hassles –- and will see, hear and learn what on-site attendees do from the comfort of your office or home.

Best Regards
~ Kurt, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com

Acrobat 8 tips and tutorials

Acrobat 8: Create new PDF from blank page
If you knew the undocumented keystroke command, it's been possible with Acrobat 7 to create a new blank PDF page or document. With Acrobat 8, the option to create a blank PDF page and type text onto the page is now built into the Create PDF menu choices.

Using form-field recognition in Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Carl Young explains and demonstrates how the form-field-recognition capabilities in Acrobat 8 Professional can save considerable production time in converting a static form to an electronically fillable one.

Preflight tools in Adobe Acrobat 8: Not just for print and prepress
Carl Young believes the enhanced preflight tools in Acrobat 8 Professional have considerable value and application outside of the commercial printing world — for example, offering a range of profiles (and tools for creating customized versions) that simplify troubleshooting, inspection and repair of PDF files.

Using Mac.com iDisk as a Shared Review comment repository
The ability to set up and manage a collaborative document review process isn't new in Acrobat 8, but it's much improved — simpler to configure, more versatile and less prone to glitches. For example, if you have a Mac.com account, you can use it as a shared comments repository.

User-friendly technical document: Not an oxymoron
Donna Baker shows how to create an interactive PDF document that behaves much like a traditional black binder, with easy-to-use navigation, helpful indexing of key content and other user-friendly attributes.