How This Book Is Organized

Acrobat 6 and PDF Solutions takes you easily from the basics that you need to know about PDF files to the most advanced and detailed improvements and adjustments you can make to your documents. Along the way you ll learn the quickest and most common settings in Acrobat, as well as how to navigate and perform tasks quickly.

Part I : Creating Proper PDF Files These chapters focus on the often ignored parts , processes, and techniques involved with creating a pre-PDF document, as well as the PDF itself. The emphasis is on controlling the content and quality of both the original, native, page-layout document and the final PDF file.

• Chapter 1 : Acrobat Parts and Workflow In this chapter I sort out the various and expanding components of Acrobat technology. I distinguish between Distiller, Acrobat Standard and Pro, and Adobe Reader and Elements. Also covered are key peripheral components and concepts such as native vs. PDF files, file manipulation vs. editing, PostScript printer drivers and files, and PostScript and PDF workflows.

• Chapter 2 : Creating Pre-PDF Documents The focus here is on document construction and preflighting concepts and techniques. This information will provide you with the insights and tools you need to construct, prepare, and test high-quality native page-layout documents, which will in turn allow you to create high-quality PDF documents. Topics include fonts, graphics, master pages, style sheets, and preflighting tools.

• Chapter 3 : Creating Quality PostScript Files Many well- constructed documents have been sidetracked on their way to becoming a PDF file at the PostScript file-creation step. Here you will learn how to control what goes into the PostScript file destined to become a PDF. Topics include working with PostScript printer drivers, colors and color separations, font management, page setups, and other job-specific settings. Streamlining this process with print styles is also covered.

• Chapter 4 : Creating the PDF You Want PDF documents can, and often should, be customized for specific uses. In this chapter you learn the details of optimizing your PDF creation process to create PDF documents tailored to suit your needs. Various creation processes are discussed, with a focus on setting up and using Distiller; you ll see which PDF creation processes and settings are appropriate to use in various circumstances.

Part II : Fundamentals of Acrobat Here I focus on the core PDF management and manipulation tools common to both Acrobat Standard and Professional versions. The many powerful capabilities for which Acrobat is becoming better known, such as presentations, forms, collaborative publishing, interactive multimedia, as well as Web and e-mail tools, are featured.

• Chapter 5 : Controlling Acrobat and Access to Your PDFs Learn how to set up and use Acrobat s powerful document access and security features. See how to control what your PDF will look like; who can see and do what with your PDFs; and how to track PDF access and use, including the use of digital signatures.

• Chapter 6 : Using Acrobat and Navigating PDFs The focus here is learning how to set up, use, and navigate around and through a PDF document, including cool new navigational stuff such as split screens and digital loupes so that you can spend most of your time on the fun stuff. You will also learn how to improve access to your PDFs for visually and motor-skill-challenged users.

• Chapter 7 : PDF Document Management Learn how to take ultimate advantage of the page-based nature of PDF documents with page manipulation such as cropping, rotating, extracting and even creating combination size and orientation PDFs. In addition, you will learn about comparing documents, adding repetitive page elements (such as watermarks), PDF layering, and utilizing Acrobat s flexible and powerful search functions.

• Chapter 8 : Building Presentations and Forms PDF documents can be used as an effective medium for information transfer. Here you will learn how to build or convert PDF documents for use as presentations in a few short steps. Also see how to build and utilize Acrobat s powerful forms tools to help you acquire and distribute data.

• Chapter 9 : Collaborative Publishing and Interactivity Interactivity is one of the hallmarks of Acrobat technology. Here you will learn to use Acrobat s vast array of collaborative publishing tools, including bookmarks, articles, and commenting, to work effectively in a group . You will also have the opportunity to get the hang of linking interactive sounds and movies to your PDFs to add other media dimensions.

• Chapter 10 : Acrobat E-mail, eBook, and Web Features Acrobat was designed with the Web in mind, so it has a whole raft of web and e-mail functions, some of which are linked to common applications such as Microsoft Office. Here you can find out how to collaborate via e-mail, e-mail from within Acrobat, and even convert whole websites into PDF documents. Acrobat has become an eBook reader, so you will learn how to access, manage, and even share and purchase eBooks via Acrobat.

Part III : Advanced Acrobat We focus on some of the more advanced topics and capabilities, many of which appear only in Acrobat Pro version. With Acrobat version 6, Acrobat Pro supports a complete prepress tool set, including support for PDF/x, preflighting PDFs, and more output features such as color separation and bleed previews and printing. And finally you will learn how to automate many of Acrobat s tools, functions, and features to enhance your productivity.

• Chapter 11 : Preflighting PDFs Preflighting a PDF allows you to check the viability of a PDF for specific uses. Here you will learn how to use Acrobat 6 s extensive prepress preflight capabilities including its PDF/x specific tools. You can also preflight for the accessibility of the PDF for visually and motion-impaired users.

• Chapter 12 : Editing PDFs In this chapter you will learn how to simplify a PDF by removing unused or unwanted document components. In addition, you will see how to access and edit any component of a PDF document including text, graphics, and document structure. You will even learn how to add text and alternative text to your PDF documents.

• Chapter 13 : Outputting PDFs and Their Contents Here we cover the complete range of Acrobat 6 output capabilities including previewing color proofs (including separations), changing the format of an entire PDF document, printing setup and options, importing and exporting text and graphic components including table contents. A special section covers the interactivity between Acrobat and Photoshop.

• Chapter 14 : Automating Acrobat Tasks Once you learn the Acrobat capabilities and techniques you need to meet your needs, you will likely want to learn how to perform tasks, particularly repetitive ones, quicker. With Acrobat s batch functions and actions you will see how many tasks can be performed quickly and dependably.