Archive for October, 2010

Adobe MAX 2010: More From Day 2 and Day 3

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Ali Hanyaloglu | Comments (0)

Another year, another MAX, another few days of meeting and talking to customers, partners and co-workers about all the fantastic things they do with Adobe technology, and indeed, the challenges they face in what they do. One of my favorite things about my work is sitting down with a customer and brainstorming with them on how Adobe technology might be able to help them get their work done, including showing the new services at Adobe SendNow. Or in the case of one individual, impress her boss!

Another customer I spoke to already had a PDF-based “workflow” in place for collecting edits on documents and artwork from colleagues. The only issue – those colleagues were using Acrobat to edit the actual text in the PDF files! Although Acrobat is capable of doing that, sometimes you need to use the right tool for the right job, and in this case editing the actual text wasn’t the best option, as it becomes difficult to identify who had changed what, and if there was a major text edit, doing so may change the design too.

Instead, I suggested she try two things. One was to use the commenting tools in Acrobat (and Adobe Reader when enabled for commenting) and collect the comments from others by using Shared Reviews with Acrobat.com: IT resources were limited and unable to help with setting up servers and access controls – Acrobat.com to the rescue there!

Secondly, if all they wanted was to allow people to edit the text of the document, I suggested using Adobe Buzzword to allow others to collaboratively author and comment on the copy. Then when it was ready, they could easily place the final copy in to their Adobe InDesign CS5 layouts, convert the document to a high-quality PDF file, and send out for Shared Review as described above.

The response to those suggestions to use Acrobat.com with Acrobat? That they were sure to make many people in her company very happy. Sweet!

It’s been a great week at MAX for the Acrobat Solutions team and Adobe. For those of you that were there, THANK YOU! You will be able to watch the recordings of the sessions and keynotes on Adobe TV.

Adobe MAX 2010: Day 1

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Ali Hanyaloglu | Comments (4)

Day one of Adobe MAX 2010 was awesome, and now we look forward to day two. In fact, I’m writing this from L.A’s Nokia Theater patiently waiting for the second keynote session to start.

The announcements during yesterday’s keynote from Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch were exciting and inspiring. Adobe’s technologies are truly driving a revolution in the way we interact with content and information in all its forms.

That same technology lies behind the online services at Acrobat.com, including the new Adobe SendNow and CreatePDF services. As we have been showing the technology to attendees here, one comment we heard often is how easy the services are to use. That rich-yet-simple experience you see with our online services wouldn’t be possible without Adobe’s Flash platform.

If you are at MAX this week, please do stop by the Adobe Community Pavilion or the Acrobat X Text Drive Lab and we’ll be happy to give you a preview of the new services.

OK, they’re about to get started on stage here…better close my laptop now.

Buongiorno and Buenos Días

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (8)

As you have undoubtedly learned by now, we have two new online services coming up in November: Adobe CreatePDF and Adobe SendNow. Do we have other news to share with you about these online services on Acrobat.com? Sì! Certo!

We will also be making the Acrobat.com services—old and new alike—available in two additional languages: Italian and Spanish. So whether you need to send and track a copy of that oak barrel sales presentation to your winery clients in Tuscany, or you are working on a project with a number of people to install air-conditioning units for those beach-side condominiums on the Costa del Sol, you can do so, without being concerned if the recipients and collaborators will be able to use the services effectively. And clearly, you lead a far more glamorous life than we do.

Bienvenido al futuro de compartir documentos—en su propio idioma.

Introducing the next generation of document exchange services

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Ali Hanyaloglu | Comments (0)

Thrilled. Excited. Elated. Overjoyed. Enthusiastic. All words we could use to describe how everyone on the Acrobat Solutions team feels about the announcement today of two new online services: Adobe SendNow for exchanging and tracking documents online, and Adobe CreatePDF, our new online PDF creation and combining service, along with the powerful desktop duo of Adobe Acrobat X and Adobe Reader X.

As our world becomes more connected, the need to be able to exchange documents quickly – and retrieve and view those files reliably no matter where we are – is critical to what we do. But even though we have access to great technology like Adobe SendNow and Adobe CreatePDF, what we hear from you is that the technology should be simple to use without fuss. Let’s face it: I, you and all those we work and live with are busier than ever (for example, I’m writing this at 11pm while my family sleeps). You want – no, need – to focus on the task at hand and get your work done. These releases from Adobe will help you achieve that, and they will all be available for you soon.

Stay tuned for more information, sneak peeks, availability and updates here. In the meantime, jump over to the official release announcement on the Acrobat family blog to find out more.

Welcome to the next generation.

A quick first look at Adobe SendNow

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (6)

Meet one of Acrobat.com’s new services: Adobe SendNow. The new file sharing service will be available beginning in early November—which means you still have two weeks to wait until you can take it for a spin. To tide you over until then, here’s a quick overview of some of the features you can expect to see:

Send large files, simply and securely

Here is the new one-stop destination for sending and receiving large files among colleagues and coworkers. This concept should be familiar by now—allowing for multiple people to access a single document from any number of locations—but SendNow’s delivery is all new. Using just the one service, you can:

  • Send large files from your computer to one or many recipients.
  • View files that you’ve sent off in the past, and see when and to whom they were sent.
  • Keep an eye out for files that have been sent to you.

From a central dashboard, you can now manage your sent documents and download others, all with just a few simple clicks. If the documents contain sensitive information, you can require your recipients to sign in before viewing the file, and can set a particular time frame in which the file can be downloaded. You’ll also have a record of all of your file transactions—sent and received—so you won’t lose track of who’s seen which file and when.

File tracking

That’s right, people; now you can check on the status of your sent files and see which recipients have downloaded them (and which slackers – uh, we mean recipients – haven’t).

File forwarding

Have you already shared the file, and realized that you forgot to add someone to the list? No problem. Locate the file in the “Sent Files” section and simply forward it with a single click.

Beyond that…well, you’ll just have to wait and see! For now, take the next two weeks to get fired up; soon you’ll reach new heights of shared achievement with SendNow.

A quick first look at Adobe CreatePDF

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Ali Hanyaloglu | Comments (3)

It’s a busy day for us in the Acrobat family, and we are proud to announce an all new service for easy, online PDF creation from any desktop computer called Adobe CreatePDF. Although we have had an online PDF creation service available before, this one has been redesigned to simplify the process of turning your files into a high-quality PDF document, while allowing you to do more than before.

How is that so, you ask? Well, we can only give you a little sneak peek, but here’s how…

Adobe CreatePDF will let you do more than just convert your Office documents, images and other supported files into an Adobe PDF from your web browser. You will also be able to combine documents into a single PDF file, and if you are using Microsoft Windows, you will be able to install a special printer driver that will allow you to create a PDF file online from any application that can print. Now that’s clever.

And within Adobe Reader X, a new Share pane provides a connection to the online Adobe CreatePDF service, making it easy to create a document that you know others will be able to view consistently.

Want to know more? You’ll have to sit tight for a little longer until we launch the service very soon. In the meantime, take a look at the information on the Acrobat family blog, follow us on Twitter and become part of the community at AcrobatUsers.com.

We wanted to be a part of it: New Yorker, New Yorker

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (4)

On Monday, a brilliant little gem of work-togetherness was documented on Adobe’s Digital Publishing blog: The New Yorker launches iPad edition using Adobe tools

For those of you who didn’t click on that link and kept right on reading (you know who you are), here’s the brief summary:

To create the new only-for-tablet version of the magazine, the design team from The New Yorker worked with Adobe’s Digital Magazine Solution and InDesign to create templates for the app’s HTML pages. This is a marked break from the typically rasterized content that appears in other digital publications (for example, the new digital version of Wired magazine, also completed with Adobe’s Digital Magazine Solution); since the features of The New Yorker are so text-heavy, and since they’re updated weekly, HTML was the perfectly flexible solution to allow for digital publication of the app’s super wordy articles instantly and often.

Continue reading…