Adobe x portfolio layouts

Acrobat X uses Flex 4, whereas Acrobat 9 used Flex 3 - so the NAV files cannot ever be compatible.

Over time there will be Acrobat X layouts, themes etc. available to download from our Portfolios Exchange, but as the SDK has only just been released, developers will take a while to get their heads round the new code - I expect it'll be a couple of months before you see any non-Adobe content being shared, especially for free.

I suppose that I'm disappointed in the lack of available layouts that come with adobe.

I was so excited to get the new version with all the new features only to find layouts so limited.

Agreed - I can't believe the cartoonish choices for layouts and the fact that switching between each layout does't carry headers through, requiring a redo. Looks like third grade, relative to the Acrobat 9 revolving portfolio, which also had an opening page (that isnt in the Acrobat X version). I feel like I just wasted $800!!

Would have thought the same portfolio layout options would have carried to X and then been further enhanced with new, better features. Just awful.

Jerry

You hit the nail on the head. I found the other Adobe x features fantasic yet the Portfolio just awful. I would have thought by now that you would be able to set a default heading and text and even a default layout. In adobe Pro 8 I could right click 15 files have a Package ( old version of Portfolio ) and finish in a 3 clicks. Now its a right pain. Potentially it can look better but Im trying to run a paperless office.

The existing Portfolios are a joke. In Version 8 I could click down the side of the list then click on the right and edit each doc. Now you have to select then open then wait.... meanwhile 15 clicks later the file is open ready to annotate.

Form over function seems to have been the choice for X although until the Form ( ie better layouts are released ) I would say that both are a major fail in my books.

I was so excited to get Adobe X ( major geek factor was coming out in me ) then After 1 day of trying to get it to work and way to much time contacting Adobe and then placing forum questions gave up on it and went back to Version 8.

...... cartoonish choices for layouts.... - yes that about describes them. Maybe Adobe doesnt know what people are using Porfolios for !?? When I look at various training videos on line - Adobe TV and Lynda.com it seems they are missing the point that or an entire market segment.

I keep thinking they are going in the right direction then abobe x happened..

Well thats the end of my rant. To sum it up I wasted $ 800 on Adobe x and 3 days of my life trying to get it to work

One more comment though. Feel like I got the major brush off by Adobe by asking when or how layouts would developed. I dont care if they are free or not. I need layouts to run my business. To release a product that is so poorly supported is a very poor form for adobe. A company I have thought of as producing a better product.

Unfortunately, Adobe doesn't seem to be interested in releasing additional navigators directly - rather they release the PDF portfolio SDK and leave individual developers to create whatever they want. With the SDK release for Acrobat 9 we expected to see a lot more commercial response, such as companies selling pre-built NAVs, but it hasn't happened. The vast majority of people creating "custom" designs are doing it on a contract basis for specific clients, so cannot share their work with anyone else.

To assist with this, the method of creating custom content for Acrobat X portfolios has been changed. While to create a new layout (.NAV file) still requires significant skills in Flex and always will, "skinning" an existing layout with a Theme file (.SWF) is extremely simple and needs no code - merely a copy of Flash Pro. and an artistic eye. Themes cannot change the functionality of the layout, so "Click-through" still animates in the same way, but visually you can change the cards, icons and backgrounds any way you wish - which is the level of customization that most customers have been asking for to apply corporate branding.

We'll have an in-depth tutorial on creating Theme files posted shortly, and will cover the more involved process of working with .NAV files early next year.

After spending considerable time developing a custom portfolio layout and using it successfully for the last year we were in complete turmoil after the AcrobatX upgrade. We use portfolios in a high volume production printing atmosphere for proofs and were completely unaware of the consequences of the Acrobat9 to X portfolio changes. Back to the drawing board, I guess. What a fine Christmas present from Adobe. I should have got paid to accept this product not pay for it.

The last we heard that Adobe was going to upload more PDF Portfolio tempaltes was in November 2010. Now that Acrobat X has destroyed my Portfolio from Acrobat 9, I would like to know if anyone has heard of a 3rd party vendor that is producing Acrobat X Portfolio templates. I am really disappointed with Adobe on this one.

I am new to this forum because of exactly this topic. I don't like any of the 5 simple NAV files included in the program. I purchased the program for this functionality and that alone. Now I am stuck with a version of software that doesn't do what it advertised to do, well, it does it but in a very limited way. To get support for any Adobe products I have to search forums rather than have an actual help file. And imagine my suprise when I go into the "Portfolio Exchange after joining this site to find 1, yes, 1 single NAV file and it is for Version 9 and doesn't work in Acrobat X.

Adobe planned on developers to pick up on this product like they have with plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom or even plug-ins for WordPress websites. I wonder if they even care that they have gotten no response at all. Nothing.

I guess I will go back to Lightroom to create my Photography E-portfolio. Then I can use the programs included SendNow function so it won't be a total loss.

Others may be disappointed. I am downright pissed off.

Oh and just another note to UVSAR, in response to your comment,

"We'll have an in-depth tutorial on creating Theme files posted shortly, and will cover the more involved process of working with .NAV files early next year."

The Theme Files in-depth tutorial isn't a solution, its not even a patch. And having another tutorial that will cover the "more involved process of working with .NAV Files" isn't either. Like collinsmoore states above, it is about running our businesses. If we have to buy what we need fine but don't throw the onus back to the user to develop the product. Either contract some programmers to do the programming or, well there is no "or". Freelancers don't want to touch it so its on Adobe to fix the [insert sharp expletive] product or start returning money to people.

You didn't warn this guy and then tell him, "wait until early next year"? What the [expletives again] is that? It ain't support!

I know that as a very small business I don't have the time to learn programing languages, If I did I would be a programmer. And there are no programmers that want to program for this software. Tutorials are useless. You are going to end up killing this product. To be honest, I think that should have been done years ago.

I do appreciate that the shipped Layouts in Acrobat X Pro may not be to everyone's liking, but the Portfolio SDK is still in prerelease so the Flex community haven't reacted yet in the public sphere. People *are* making custom content, but they're doing it for a job not a hobby.

PDF Portfolios are a lot easier to customize in Acrobat X with Themes - tomorrow's Tech Talk will show precisely that, using no code *whatsoever*. Draw your design in Illustrator, convert it to a SWF file in Flash, apply it to a Portfolio and you're done. I'm giving out templates in the session that have all the stock elements pre-made so you only need to change the bits you want.

Creating new Layouts does require programming, but the API is a lot simpler to use in Acrobat X so for Flex programmers it's now a really straightforward project, compared to the sort of stuff they usually make. Adobe doesn't expect the average Acrobat user to learn Flex, but Flex programmers are very easy to find. At a technical level the move to Flex 4.1 means programmers can use the same Spark namespace components in Layouts that they're used to using for websites and AIR apps, and a completely-functional Layout might only have 50 lines of code in it.


It's true that there's no huge repository of public-access Layouts and Themes yet - Themes are being worked on right now, but Layouts tend to happen only when the SDK leaves prerelease, as developers are waiting for the final version of the code in case anything changes. However it must be said that the vast majority of people who customize PDF Portfolios do so for a client under contract, or in-house as an employee. They don't just give them away to the world, partly because they'd like to be paid for their time, and partly because the customization tends to involve "put our company logo on this..", which is not something anyone else will want to use (or be allowed to).


With Acrobat 9, Adobe chose to ship additional Layouts in a dot release, and they may well decide to do the same with Acrobat X - but I can't guarantee anything as Adobe haven't even announced the date for the next release, never mind what's in it. Right now I'm working to help users create their own content as this is what feedback suggests they want most, but if there's an identified demand for more pre-made stuff in the release builds then I'm sure the product team will take that into consideration. What you'll never have is a set of stock designs which satisfy every user all of the time.

Why is it so hard to find someone who can write an Adode Navigator? I'm a business owner and a user of adobe pro since V 8, I'm not a fool ( although prob lots of people think so ) I have been Googling around trying to find anyone who can write a Nav for me. Can't find anyone who advertises that they do. From that point it maybe easy for people "in the industry " to find someone but sure as hell not for me. I've placed adds , searched forums, contacted related industries and nothing. How would the general public ever get this done, and why should they. Don't you think that more guidance should be provided by adobe. I have my bought and paid for licensed copies of adobe x sitting othe shelf waiting to be deployed across the firm. I love Adobe Acobat pro I think it can do amazing stuff but these Layouts and Navigators are killing me.

I have to say the whole idea of publishing an upgrade of an application such as this, without the support functionality of it predecessor is irresponsible. I am a retired soldier, and I work for US Central Command. We have used the list layout /template with the large preview to deliver guidance, package products for distribution, consolidate training information, etc.., etc... Now, we have to recreate the wheel. We are not prepared to reconstruct new layouts, not do we have the expertise. I am very disappointed, and this needs to be fixed. I am a average user, not a programmer, or an enthusiast. This is work for us; we don't have time for anything else. And we certainly can't have outside agencies come in to work on government networks without a contract. You have made our administrative mission more complicated than it has to be. With a little forethought you could have saved everyone a lot of pain. You could take page out of Microsoft's book because they have moved heaven and earth to make sure we get what we need. This is completely unacceptable.

I agree.
With Acrobat X I'd lost all templates, custom NAV, etc. made for Acrobat 9. Some were made for me, and some were made for my customers…!

Fortunately, as a Mac user I can keep both Acrobat 9 and X on my hard drive. But this is just a painful workaround, not a reliable workflow…
This is not serious!

:-(

I agree strongly with the criticism of Acrobat X portfolio as cartoonish - and add gimicky and advertising oriented. The abrupt change between v9 and v10 is irresponsible. I feel blindsided by Adobe, and cannot use X portfolio as a business tool. I hope portfolio is radically changed or replaced in a point update. Until then, I need a workaround. I upgraded Acrobat Pro Extended to Acrobat X on a computer running Microsoft Office 2007. The Acrobat X add-in for Outlook 2007 delivers acceptable portfolios of emails. I could use that format now for all portfolios produced with the main Acrobat program. Can the portfolio code fron the Outlook add-in be imported into the main program and selected as the default format? If so I can just ignore the standard portfolio layouts until Adobe fixes the problem it created..

No, sorry. The PDFMaker plugin for Outlook has an embedded copy of a navigator which it uses for email archives, but extracting it from the DLL and applying the layout to other files is not permitted nor is it particularly practicable, given the way that navigator has been written.

This is beyond pathetic. I have a significant amount of portfolio information that I send to other businesses--and attorneys--and the portfolio looks like a grade school scrapbook. This thread started six months ago. Nothing has been done. Adobe is absent from the discussion. Off designing the next cool set of products, I guess.

I don't need a "stock design to satisfy every user." I need a business portfolio template that is high on utility, functionality, and organization--not this cartoony, designy, artsy ... junk.

Search the forums and the net for solutions to this problem and all you get is banter from designers about customizing your own layouts. I have work to do, and Adobe threw a hand grenade into all of my Acrobat 9 portfolio files. Fun! Cool! Hip! Angry!

Hi, I found this the other day
http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/wp-content/themes/Adobe_PDFDevJunkie/download/BillboardTemplate.pdf

I hope you find it usefull

I too am frustrated by the lack of layouts. The developers at Adobe need to realize not everyone is a developer, and its not easy for some of us to invest the time and money into creating our layouts. That is why we depend on some standard layouts that come with the program.

I am a real estate agent. I am getting ready to advertise a new development, and I want to use a pdf portfolio to market development pics, docs, and info all in a single digital packet. But I am starting to think this whole pdf portfolio idea is not taking off. I do not feel that it is being adopted by many. I can only find info on portfolios mainly on this site only, with very few limited examples on the web. I do not feel the portfolios are getting the attention everyone thought, that why we are not seeing developers working on layouts (hence no portfolio exchange). I hope I am wrong about all this, because I think its a great idea.

IT would also be nice, if we could export portfolios in html5 instead of flash.

Agree with all the above criticism of v10 Portfolios. There is obviously little understanding of the user base by the developers.
The nearest thing I can find for a useable Portfolio Layout is the Tiled layout used to display Packages in v10. Where can I download this from?


Thanks.

ps. Portfolio also makes a complete dogs dinner of my forms dataset file: takes forever to open and display, and looks a mess. I get a helpful suggestion that an alternate layout may be better.... it isn't. An alternate program might be.

"Grid with file preview". That is the layout I want. From the discussion here I take it that Acrobat X has done away with it? I notice that Acrobat X can open and display older portfolios in this format - it may be possible to delete all the content and re-insert new content to preserve the old format. A clunky workaround to be sure.

I'm going to trial in 3 weeks and was just delivered a laptop to use with Acrobat X installed. All my "packages" were created in Acrobat 8. My attorneys love "Grid with file preview." They can read the documents, go page to page, and document to document quickly looking for what they need.

Is there a quick way to get that layout in Acrobat X? All my new portfolios in Acrobat X look like spinning cards, 52 card pickup and you can't read the documents without clicking lots of buttons to enlarge the view ... once I do a search, it seems to let me view the entire page and click document to document. Maybe I'll tell them to do that. I'm freaking out ...

Sorry as far as I can find out you have a reason to freak out. I have spent over a year on this. I have ended up uninstalling adobe x. Gone back to v8. Adobe has let us down.