Understanding the Adobe Reader Workplace


To get the most out of Adobe Reader, start by familiarizing yourself with some common terms in the Reader environment. The Reader environment itself is referred to as the workplace. Figure 2.2 shows you all the toolbars in view in PDF documents that are opened in Adobe Reader and that have no special features added. Figure 2.3 shows a PDF document in Adobe Reader with usage rights enabled for Reader users to comment on and mark up the document. If you don't see many tools and tabs available to you when you view a document in Reader, your PDF was probably not enabled with usage rights. All the tools pictured in Figure 2.3 are available only with PDFs that are saved with these usage rights enabled.

Figure 2.2. The Adobe Reader workplace shows all toolbars when you're viewing a PDF with no special features enabled.


Figure 2.3. The Adobe Reader workplace shows all toolbars when you're viewing a PDF with usage rights enabled.


The Adobe Reader workplace includes the following tools, panes, and tabs:

  • Title bar. The Title bar, located at the top of the Adobe Reader window, lists the Reader application icon and the program name. Adjacent to the Adobe Reader name is the filename contained within brackets. In some cases the name that appears within the Title bar is different than the filename. PDF authors can choose to use a filename or a document title to appear in the Title bar. (See Chapter 4, "Viewing PDF Documents" for more information related to initial views where document titles are explained).

  • Menu bar. Everyone working on a computer today is familiar with menu bars. Click the menu name, and a drop-down menu opens. Click on a menu item to execute an action.

  • Toolbar Well. Individual toolbars reside in the Toolbar Well. When you open a toolbar, it appears as a floating toolbar in the Reader window. You can place a toolbar within the Toolbar Well by dragging and dropping. Toolbars are said to be docked when they reside within the Toolbar Well.

  • Document Message Bar. The Document Message Bar reports information about PDFs saved with special features, forms fill-in options, document security, review status, and other options related to your ability to edit and view files. The document in Figure 2.3 was enabled with Adobe Reader usage rights, and the message in the Document Message Bar reports that you can add comments and markups to the open document.

  • Navigation tabs. Click on any tab that appears in a document, and the tab expands in the Navigation pane. In Figure 2.3, the Comments tab is opened horizontally. All navigation tabs except the Comments and Attachments tabs open vertically in the Navigation pane. For more on using Navigation tabs, see Chapter 5 "Navigating PDF Documents."

  • Status Bar. Use the Status Bar for page navigation and viewing options by clicking on the tools along the bottom of the Reader window. For more information on navigating documents, see Chapter 5.

  • Document pane. The Document pane is where you view PDF pages.

  • How To window. The How To window is where to find online help information and to search PDF files.

  • Message box. In the top-right corner of the Toolbar Well is a message box that looks like a mini-banner. The banner icon changes periodically, displaying information related to additional Adobe products, such as ones for creating PDFs online, using Adobe Photoshop Album, and working with commenting and reviews. When you click the message box, your default Web browser launches, opening a page on Adobe's Web site where you can find more information about the topic in the message.

Why is the document message box visible?

The document message box in the Toolbar Well is visible to help you get more information about PDF documents and certain solutions provided by Adobe Systems. It's particularly useful when you're just beginning to use Adobe Readerit helps you find additional solutions for working with PDF documents.

Once you become familiar with Adobe Reader, the message box may become annoying and disturb your view of pages in the Document pane. If you want to eliminate the message box, open the Preferences dialog by pressing Ctrl/Command+K. Click Startup in the left pane, and remove the checkmark in the Show Messages and automatically update check box. Click OK in the Preferences dialog, and the message box disappears. Alternatively, you can open a context menu on the Message Bar and select Hide Message Bar.


Using Toolbars

When you first launch Adobe Reader, several toolbars are hidden. You open and close toolbars using a menu command, or by opening a context menu in the Toolbar Well by right-clicking the mouse button (when using a two-button mouse in Windows and on the Macintosh) or by pressing Ctrl+click (when using a one-button mouse on the Mac).

When you open a context menu in the Toolbar Well, the menu commands for viewing and managing toolbars appear (Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4. Open a context menu in the Toolbar Well to display menu commands that show and hide toolbars.


Toolbars with a checkmark adjacent to the toolbar name are visible; toolbars without a checkmark are hidden. To display a toolbar, select it from the menu. To hide a toolbar, remove the checkmark next to that toolbar.

Why don't additional tools appear in a context menu?

When a PDF document has had usage rights enabled in Acrobat Professional and you open the document in Adobe Reader, two additional toolbars appear in the context menu. The Commenting and Drawing Markups toolbars are accessible only when a PDF document has usage rights enabled.


Other commands in the context menu include:

  • Reset Toolbars. Select this menu command to return the toolbars to the default position. By default, the Basic, File, Help, Rotate View, Tasks, and Zoom toolbars appear docked in the Toolbar Well.

  • Dock All Toolbars. This menu command is visible in the context menu only when you open a toolbar and it appears floating in the Reader window. When you first open toolbars, they appear as floating toolbars. Select this menu command to dock the toolbars in the Toolbar Well.

  • Hide Toolbars. Select this command or press the F8 function key on your keyboard, and all toolbars are hidden from view. To bring the toolbars back into view, press F8 again or select View > Toolbars > Show Toolbars.

  • Lock Toolbars. When you Lock Toolbars, the vertical separator bar on the left side of each toolbar disappears. The separator bar is used to drag a toolbar out of the Toolbar Well, move it around the Reader window, and dock a floating toolbar in the Toolbar Well. Since the vertical separator bar disappears from locked toolbars, there's no way to move them in or out of the Toolbar Well. To unlock them, open a context menu and select Lock Toolbars again.

  • Show Button Labels. On the Show Button Labels submenu, you have three options: Default Labels, All Labels, or No Labels. When you first start using Adobe Reader, select All Labels, and the toolbar icon and toolbar name appear within the toolbars. Use the No Labels option once you're familiar with the tools and no longer need the toolbar names. The Default Labels option shows some toolbars by icon and name, and other toolbars by icon only. The more you choose to display the less room you have in the Toolbar Well. Therefore, showing No Labels enables you to fit more toolbars on fewer rows than when showing All Labels. Note that when you move a toolbar into a space too small to display the button labels, Adobe Reader collapses the toolbar and hides the labels to allow the toolbar to fit within a given row.

Toolbars contain individual tools represented by icons and labels, and pull-down menus represented by down arrows. In several cases you can select a menu command to show a mini-toolbar containing all tools within a particular group. For example, note that the Zoom In tool represented by a magnifying glass is contained in the Basic toolbar. When you open the pull-down menu next to the Zoom In tool by clicking on the down arrow, the last menu command is Show Zoom Toolbar. Selecting this menu command opens a separate toolbar containing only the Zoom tools.

To help you understand the toolbars and the tools contained within each toolbar group, review the following list and mark this page for reference.

  • Basic toolbar. The Basic toolbar contains the Hand tool used to move a PDF page around the Document pane. This tool is the default tool and should be selected when you perform tasks such as filling in form fields. The Select tool is used to select both text and graphics. The Snapshot tool is used to copy a selection created with the tool to the system clipboard, where you can paste data as an image in other programs. Click on the separator bar and drag away from the Toolbar Well to undock the toolbar.

  • Edit toolbar. The Edit toolbar contains tools to check spelling in form fields and comment notes, and commands for rotating pages and copying data.

  • File toolbar. The file tools handle document management such as opening and saving files, printing files, adding file attachments (when PDFs are enabled with usage rights), emailing PDFs, and searching PDF content.

  • Find toolbar. Use the Find toolbar to search the text in an open document. Type your search text in the text field box and press the Enter/Return key. Press Ctrl/Command+F to open this toolbar.

  • Help toolbar. Click the Help tool to open the How To window, where you'll find help information on selected topics. From the pull-down menu, you can choose other help options.

  • Navigation toolbar. Contains tools for page and document navigation. For more information on navigating documents, see Chapter 5.

  • Object Data toolbar. Contains a single tool to view object metadata. This tool can display data added in programs that support object-level data such as Microsoft Visio and Autodesk AutoCAD. For more information on using the Object Data tool, see Chapter 4, "Viewing PDF Documents."

  • Rotate View toolbar. Contains tools for rotating pages. The tool is particularly helpful when viewing eBooks on laptop computers.

  • Tasks toolbar. Contains tools for managing eBooks and for working with Picture Tasks such as exporting, printing, and sharing images. The Picture Tasks tool is not accessible from menu commands and does not appear in the Tasks toolbar until you open a file where Picture Tasks are supported. By default, the tool is hidden from the Tasks toolbar. For more information on working with eBooks, see Chapter 20, "Working with Digital Editions." For more information on using Picture Tasks, see Chapter 9, "Working with Picture Tasks."

  • Zoom toolbar. The Zoom toolbar contains tools for zooming in and out of document pages. For more information on using the Zoom tools, see Chapter 4.

  • Properties Bar. When working in comment and review sessions, use the Properties Bar to change comment properties. In addition, the Properties Bar is used to format text when filling out PDF forms.

Commenting Toolbars

When usage rights for Adobe Reader are enabled on PDF documents, two additional toolbars appear listed in a context menu opened from the Toolbar Well:

  • Commenting toolbar. The Commenting toolbar contains a variety of comment tools. A number of different tools and menu commands are available from pull-down menus within all groups except the Note tool. For more information on using the comment and drawing markups tools, see Chapter 11, "Using the Comment Tools."

  • Drawing Markups toolbar. Drawing markups are commonly used with engineering and scientific drawings. You can use these tools with any kind of PDF document. All the marks have associated pop-up note windows.

If you need a file enabled with Adobe Reader usage rights, download the file hawaiiNewsletter.pdf from the Peachpit Web site at www.peachpit.com/adobereader7.


Expanding Toolbars

Whenever you see a down arrow, click the arrow to open a pull-down menu. From the menu selections, choose among different tools within a group or choose a menu command. Most pull-down menus also provide you with the option of showing the particular toolbar group. Figure 2.5 shows the Drawing Markup Arrow tool, which has a pull-down menu where you can choose other drawing tools, and a menu item at the bottom to Show Drawing Toolbar. When you select Show Drawing Toolbar, the tools accessible from this menu open in a separate, expanded toolbar.

Figure 2.5. Click any down-pointing arrow next to a tool, and menu options offer you access to different tools and an option for opening a separate toolbar.


Using Navigation Tabs

The Navigation pane is a placeholder window for navigation tabs. Some navigation tabs are docked in the Navigation pane and others are accessible from menu commands. To view all the navigation tabs available in Adobe Reader select View > Navigation Tabs. When tabs are docked in the Navigation pane, click on a tab to open it. Figure 2.6 shows the open Bookmarks tab in the Navigation pane. To collapse the bookmarks and close the Navigation pane, click the tab. Likewise you can open and close all other tabs by clicking them.

Figure 2.6. Click a tab to open it in the Navigation pane.


Use the hawaiiNewsletter.pdf file to view articles, attach files, and view bookmarks.


The Navigation tabs available to you in Adobe Reader include:

  • Signatures. The Signatures tab lists all digital signatures contained in the document. You can validate signatures using menu commands in the tab. For more information on using and validating digital signatures, see Chapter 17, "Using Digital Signatures and Security."

  • Pages. The Pages tab shows you thumbnail views of the pages in a PDF document. You can change thumbnail sizes and print selected pages using menu commands in the Pages tab. For more information on using the Pages pane, see Chapter 4.

  • Attachments. All file attachments are listed in the Attachments tab. You can search, open, and save attachments via menu commands in the tab. This tab opens horizontally at the bottom of the Reader window. For more information, see Chapter 13, "Working with File Attachments."

  • Comments. This tab lists all comments contained in the document. A number of tools appear at the top of the Comments tab for managing and editing comments. The tab opens horizontally like the Attachments tab. For more information on working with the Comments pane, see Chapter 14 "Managing Comments."

  • Articles. Documents containing Article threads list the article properties in this tab. For more information on viewing articles and article properties, see Chapter 4.

  • Bookmarks. You can expand, collapse, wrap, hide, and navigate bookmarks, as well as change text sizes, all from menu commands in the Bookmarks tab. No changes to bookmark views can be made in Adobe Reader. For more information on using bookmarks, see Chapter 4.

  • Layers. PDF documents with Adobe PDF Layers can have layers visible or hidden. Use the Layers tab to show/hide different layers. Although you can access the Layer Properties dialog, you can't change layer properties in Adobe Reader. For more information on viewing layers, see Chapter 4.

Using Context Menus

Context menus are commonly available in all Adobe software programs, and Adobe Reader is no exception. You learned earlier in this chapter how you can access context menus in the Toolbar Well by right-clicking the mouse button (Windows) or pressing Ctrl+click (Macintosh). Each time you change a tool in the Toolbar Well and open a context menu on a document page, the menu options change.

You can also open context menus in all of the navigation tabs. In some cases, when you select an item in a particular navigation tab and then open a context menu, you get different menu options than when you don't first select an item. Figure 2.7, for example, shows a context menu that was opened in the Pages tab without first selecting a page thumbnail. In Figure 2.8, a page thumbnail was selected before a context menu opened.

Figure 2.7. An open context menu in the Pages tab without a thumbnail selected.


Figure 2.8. An open context menu in the Pages tab with a thumbnail selected.


Using Options Menus

All navigation tabs contain an Options menu. Click the down arrow, and menu choices similar to those shown in Figure 2.9 appear.

Figure 2.9. The Options menu in the Bookmarks tab.


The Options menu in many cases offers you the same choices as the context menus. In other cases, like the example shown for the Bookmarks tab, the Options menu offers additional menu selections.



    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed. Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    Adobe Reader 7 Revealed: Working Effectively with Acrobat PDF Files
    ISBN: 0321305310
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 168
    Authors: Ted Padova

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