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How to create a PDF Portfolio using Acrobat X

Learn how to create a PDF Portfolio in Acrobat X Pro or Suite that brings together files, multimedia, and email in one document.

By Annamarie Lukes – November 22, 2010

 



In this tutorial, learn how to create a polished PDF Portfolio in Acrobat X Pro or Acrobat X Suite that brings together assorted files, multimedia, and email in a single document.

View transcript

How to create a PDF Portfolio using Acrobat X

Annamarie LukesNovember 22, 2010

If you have a variety of information you want to share, you can clutter an email with numerous attachments or you can simplify life for your recipients by creating a PDF portfolio.

In this tutorial you will learn how easy it is to create an Adobe PDF portfolio in Acrobat X.

The first place where Acrobat X lets you make a PDF Portfolio is directly from the Welcome screen when you first start up the application.

Under Getting Started, go to Create PDF Portfolio.The second place where you can begin a PDF Portfolio is by going to the Create button and selecting PDF Portfolio.The third place to start a PDF Portfolio is under the File menu>Create and then PDF Portfolio.

Now let's actually create a PDF Portfolio

  • Go to Create > PDF Portfolio and choose a layout for your portfolio.
  • Leave the layout at the default, which is Click-Through, and then add files.
  • Select the files you want to upload and click Finish.
  • Now Acrobat has taken those four files and placed them into a new portfolio.

It is really easy to add or delete files to a portfolio

  • Just right click any card in the portfolio or control-click if you're on a Mac and bring up the context menu where you can see you can add files or folders or you can delete.
  • You can also delete a file from a portfolio simply by selecting the trash icon on the card and confirming that you want to delete.
  • Another way to add content to your portfolio is to go to the Layout panel, the Add Content menu and select Add Files or Add Folder.

Let's jump over to the details panel for a few seconds because I want to point out how portfolios let you combine not just PDFs but a variety of Adobe file formats along with office and AutoCAD formats.

So you don't have to convert your Word or Photoshop documents into PDFs before you can bring them into a Portfolio; you can just add the native files.

Keep in mind that if the people with whom you are sharing your portfolio have the underlying applications like Illustrator or PowerPoint on their systems, they will be able to open up and work with the files that you include in your portfolio.

If they don't, all they will see is a preview of that file.Now let's go back to creating a PDF portfolio.

I have to select the Edit button to go back to Edit mode and now I want to show you that in addition to using all the Add Content commands, I can also just drag and drop a file.

So I'll grab a file here and just drop it in.

And notice I can drop it in wherever I want to in order in this portfolio so I will just drop it in here.

You can also use drag and drop to update the contents of your portfolio.

If one of your component files has changed, as long as it has the same name you can select the revised file, drag it into the portfolio and Acrobat will ask you if you would like to replace the file.

When you say OK, it puts in the new file and gets rid of the outdated file.

The details view also gives you access to your files for adding, deleting, resorting and updating them.

New in Acrobat X is the ability to append scanned information to an existing document within a portfolio without having to leave the portfolio to create a new document.

An interesting capability in Acrobat X is the ability to Add Web Content.

When I select that from the Add Content menu, a dialog box comes up, asks for a file name and a description which I will leave blank, a URL and then I select OK.

A new card is added to my portfolio that will take me to the website that I just entered.

Let's take a look at how that works.

First I have to go back into Preview mode.

Then I double click on the card and it takes me directly to the site that I just entered.

If you have a lot of content in your portfolio, you can make it easier for your end users to navigate by organizing it into folders.

In the Add Content menu, select Create Folder, enter a folder name and click OK.

A new folder has been added to my portfolio and I can simply drag files into it to organize them.Now you know how easy it is to create a PDF portfolio.



Products covered:

Acrobat X

Related topics:

Combine Files

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11 comments

Comments for this tutorial are now closed.

Lori Kassuba

6, 2016-02-12 12, 2016

Hi Tom Bovee,

You’ll need the Pro. version to edit the Portfolio.

Thanks,
Lori

Tom Bovee

9, 2016-02-08 08, 2016

I have Adobe Acrobat XI Standard at home and Acrobat XI Pro at work. If I create a Portfolio at work, can I edit the file, i.e., add remove images at home?

Lori Kassuba

9, 2015-12-22 22, 2015

Hi Patricia Riggs,

Only the Pro. versions have the Portfolios features.

Thanks,
Lori

Patricia Riggs

8, 2015-12-18 18, 2015

I Have Acrobat XI
It does not have an option for an Adobe Portfolio why?

Lori Kassuba

6, 2015-05-28 28, 2015

Hi Pat,

The bookmarks won’t appear in the preview of the pages, but they do appear when you select Open File in the Portfolio. To make sure they appear, you’ll need to select File > Properties > Initial View and set the Navigation dropdown to Bookmarks Panel and Page in the individual PDF file.

Thanks,
Lori

Pat

6, 2015-05-20 20, 2015

My bookmarks from my PDF are not appearing in Adobe Acrobat Pro Portfolio.

Lori Kassuba

8, 2015-02-11 11, 2015

Hi Ingo Michalski,

I’m not sure this answers your question but in the Combine Files dialog, you can add a PDF Portfolio and create a single PDF out of all the files (including non-PDF).

Thanks,
Lori

Ingo Michalski

10, 2015-02-04 04, 2015

How can i extract a Portfolio from a 14-Page-Document (f.e.)? If i add the pdf-katalog, i can only choose on site from the 14. I printed out every 14 pages (with pdf printer) - but, is there any faster way for this?

Lori Kassuba

4, 2014-09-12 12, 2014

Hi Alan Knox,

You can edit what is in the Files view of the Portfolio but you need to be in Edit mode for the Portfolio in order to do this.

Thanks,
Lori

Alan Knox

6, 2014-09-11 11, 2014

Why is this so difficult I ended up printing each of the documents to PDF and then combining them.  Why can’t you just have an option to remove the field information, who uses it anyway.

Lori Kassuba

4, 2013-11-27 27, 2013

Hi Steph,

The rendering issue is probably due to the fact that PDF Portfolios use Flash to display the content. Alternatively you could use the Combine feature to create one large PDF or that paperclip to attach non-PDF files.

Thanks,
Lori

Steph

6, 2013-11-26 26, 2013

We use Xtender as our document management application, which enables us to approve electronically.  I noticed that a PDF portfolio does not work properly with Xtender.  The document can only be viewed as subpages but does not allow any of Xtender tools such as approving, text, markups, etc to be used.  I need to figure out how to combine files without creating a portfolio so we can use the file in Xtender.  Any ideas?

Lori Kassuba

5, 2013-10-23 23, 2013

Hi vishal and Murtaza,

The create PDF Portfolio feature is only available when using Acrobat Pro.

Thanks,
Lori

Murtaza

10, 2013-10-21 21, 2013

I’m facing the same issue, I recently upgraded to Adobe Acrobat XI - Standard version and I can’t see any “Create PDF Portfolio” option. This was never a problem in the old version. Please let me know what I need to do.
Thanks

vishal

5, 2013-10-01 01, 2013

i hv download adobe acrobat reader xi..bt i m nt able to see “Create PDF Portfolio” option in file menu…i download the full version(115MB)..any solution for this?

Patty Friesen

1, 2012-06-21 21, 2012

Hi Mazuelle,

If you click the “View transcript” button, you’ll see steps for creating a PDF Portfolio.

Hope this helps.

Patty

mazuelle george

8, 2012-06-14 14, 2012

proçédures pour gerer ces operations ,,,,?????
Remerciements.

Comments for this tutorial are now closed.