Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional

Adobe Acrobat doesn't have the same CS2 moniker as the other applications in the Suite, mainly because it plays a large role as an enterprise-level business application as well as a graphics tool.

Where Acrobat Came From

In an effort to be able to view a documentas it was carefully designedon just about any computer in the world, John Warnock and the folks at Adobe came up with the Portable Document Format (PDF). Acrobat would be the name of the product that could display these PDF files, which would look right, fonts and all, on any computer. Adobe created a version of Acrobat called Acrobat Reader, which it gave away free of charge. The full version of Acrobat was still needed to create PDF files (a process called distilling), so the company made money selling the full version of Acrobatand people who created these documents were assured that anyone could view those documents with the free reader. Nice concept, eh?

What Acrobat Does

Chances are, you've seen a PDF file before. Of course, the initial benefit of working with PDF files is that you're safe knowing that what you are creating on your screen will look right on someone else's computer. There are many other benefits, such as the capability to password-protect your PDF file so that only the people who are supposed to see it are able to. Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional basically enables you to take control of your PDF files.

Let's start from the beginning. Acrobat enables you to create PDF files in several ways:

• You can print your file from any application to an Acrobat Printer, which was installed when you installed Acrobat.

• You can use the Distiller part of Acrobat (it's a separate application that comes with Acrobat) to create PDF files from any PostScript file.

• You can open just about any kind of file in Acrobat Pro and export it as a PDF. You could open existing PDF files as well if you wanted to save the PDF with different settings than it already had.

Of course, you can also export or save PDF files directly from any of the other applications in the Adobe Suite.

When you have a PDF file, Acrobat can do many things with it. What's interesting to note is that many people aren't aware of even half the things Adobe Acrobat can do. Most people use it like the free Adobe Reader, to view and print PDF files.

But let's explore how we use PDF files today and see how you can use tools such as Acrobat Pro to make your life easier (I'm sure you've heard that one before…). You create a PDF to send to a client or a co-worker for approval. Inevitably, there will be corrections, comments, changes, and such, so the one reviewing the document prints the file, makes some comments, and faxes it or hand-delivers it back to you. Or the person might send you an email describing the desired changes. This process might repeat itself several times before the job is ready to go. But who are we kidding here? If your job is anything like mine, at least 5maybe even 10people need to review that document. The next thing you know, you have emails and faxes out the wazoo, and you can't even keep track of who said what.

Acrobat has a set of commenting and reviewing tools that enable users to make comments directly in the PDF file (see Figure 2.17). For example, you can highlight or strikethrough text, add sticky notes, draw arrows, and add scribbles, as well as add dynamic "stamps" such as Approved or Rejected, with time and date stamps that note exactly when the file was approved or rejected. The client simply indicates changes in the PDF and sends the file back to you. What's better is that Acrobat lets you merge the comments of several files into a single file. So if your document is being reviewed by 10 people, you can look at a single PDF file that has comments from everyone. Each comment is identified by who created it and when it was created (see Figure 2.18). You can even print a summary of all the comments in a specific PDFgreat for billing purposes.

Figure 2.17. Acrobat's Annotation toolbar.

Figure 2.18. Comments are identified by who made them and when.

By the Way

Comments are stored in a separate "layer" on a PDF file, called Annotations. This not only keeps the original data intact, but it also enables you to save the comments into a separate file (called an FDF file). This is extremely useful when dealing with large PDF files. For example, say you send a 10MB PDF file of a catalog to a client for comments. The client can make comments and then send back just the FDF file (see Figure 2.19), saving the time it would take to keep sending that 10MB file back and forth over email.

Figure 2.19. The icon of an Acrobat PDF file and that of an FDF file.

Commenting and reviewing are just a sample of the many features you'll find in Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional. Here's a partial list of the tools and features you'll soon find yourself using in Acrobat Pro:

• Acrobat has a fantastic feature that enables you to kick off a review process via email that automatically tracks comments and makes it easier for people who prefer to do things via email.

• With a full-featured Print dialog box, Acrobat can print any PDF file (with correct authorization), including creating color separations for prepress.

• Acrobat Pro has a Preflight tool that helps ensure that your PDF file is ready for print and that highlights the problematic areas based on preset criteria.

• For electronic forms and to indicate approvals, Acrobat has the capability to add digital signatures to a file.

• You can export PDF files to conform with any of several PDF standards, such as PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3.

• Acrobat contains touch-up editing tools that enable you to modify text and perform certain edits to PDF files.

• For creating eForms, Acrobat has the capability to create form fields, buttons, and more.

• Acrobat has the capability to link or even embed interactive content into your PDF files, such as QuickTime movies and Flash (SWF) files.

• A Search tool enables you to quickly find the text you're looking for throughout an entire PDF file.

• Acrobat can encrypt files with passwords that enable you to control whether the document can be printed or changed. You can even use a process called Certification that enables you to specify even higher levels of security.

Now that you have a better understanding of what Acrobat Professional can do, let's discuss when you should use it.

When to Use Acrobat

Acrobat is perfect for various tasks, including the following:

• Acrobat is used for viewing PDF files (of course).

• Acrobat is the best tool for creating or resaving PDF files for various purposes, such as for PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-3 compliance, or for web-optimized viewing.

• With the capability to select and edit text as well as art elements, Acrobat is a great tool for making small edits or for "touching up" PDF files.

• As mentioned earlier, Acrobat is just the tool you need for commenting and reviewing, getting approvals, and more. The emailbased review process makes it easier than ever to get people involved in the process as well.

• How can you be sure that your PDF files are ready to print? You can create your own Preflight profiles and check each PDF, as well as use Acrobat's onscreen Separation Preview feature to ensure that your color separations are correct. Of course, you can (and should) use Acrobat to print all your PDF files.

• As eForms become more popular, you can use Acrobat to fill out PDF-based forms. Not only is Acrobat a great way to work with internal forms in your company (job tickets, for example), but you also can use Acrobat to fill out forms online, such as with tax and insurance forms.

• Use Acrobat to digitally sign documents or authorize PDFs by certifying them. In the United States, laws have been passed to allow such signatures to be legally binding, enabling people to digitally sign mortgage documents, contracts, tax forms, and more.

• Protect your files by assigning passwords to limit how your PDF files can be used. Different levels of security allow for either printing the file only as a low-resolution proof, or not allowing printing or copying at all.

Chances are, you're probably a bit surprised at (if not overwhelmed by) just how much Acrobat Pro can do. Don't worry, we go into a lot more detail about each of these features in Chapter 10, "Using Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional." Although Acrobat can perform certain edits to PDF files, if you have more complex editing to do, you'll want to make those changes in the application the file was originally created in, if at all possible. As a last resort, you can always open a PDF in Adobe Illustrator CS2 (one page at a time).