Shredding The Document

Here's your weekly summary of Acrobat news, Acrobat tips and user comments about Acrobat. Summarizing Twitter (so you don't have to).  Enjoy your weekend.

Dave Stromfeld
On Twitter at @acro_dave

News

• 06-26-09 From the blog "Yes Tech!" - How teachers can use #Acrobat to scan those old worksheets and let students "type" on them using Reader (via @shoemap) http://bit.ly/2lnAyj

Tips

• 06-22-09 RT @acrolaw: Added 4 NEW #Acrobat training movies today. Learn how to use Search and Touchup Text: http://bit.ly/vUHLQ
• 06-23-09 Nice summary of using Adobe Captivate to create an eLearning package using #Acrobat and PDF Portfolios: http://bit.ly/o4lsq
• 06-25-09 RT @geetesh: Adding Transitions in Adobe #Acrobat - http://tinyurl.com/mvuvnt
• 06-26-09 Understanding the difference between "Find" and "Search" in #Acrobat: http://bit.ly/4e3uL Thanks, @AcroLaw!

User Feedback

• 06-24-09 RT @idigtype: Acrobat professional does excellent job at combining PDFs even when pages have varying landscape and portrait orientations.
• 06-25-09 RT @Bill_Daniels: Working on better way to manage large batches of records in major personal injury case using #Acrobat. Works like charm!
  

Posted by David Stromfeld at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All,

I'm going to try something new. I've been using Twitter quite a bit in order to share Acrobat news and tips with users as well as to listen to what users are saying about Acrobat. So I thought it may be interesting if I summarized for you once a week some of what's been shared and talked about.

Since this is my first attempt at this, I'd very much appreciate any comments regarding if you find this summary useful.

News

• 06-15-09: Acrobat.Com announces brand new hosted offerings in the areas of presentations, spreadsheets, and subscriptions. [RT @erikdlarson hello (business) world! acrobat.com subscriptions, end of beta, beginning of spreadsheets, more. http://bit.ly/7MWPu]
• 06-18-09: PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) moves closer to becoming an ISO standard. [RT @acroboy: PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) now granted "Approved Work Item" status, one step closer to ISO standard http://bit.ly/CfVns]
• 06-18-09: Adobe does well at Macworld UK awards. [RT @emmawilkinson: woho! Adobe swept floor at Macworld UK Awards! Up for 5, won 3, + won Grand Prix for Photoshop CS4! http://bit.ly/ixeOW]
• 06-19-09: Use Acrobat's Examine Document to remove metadata. [RT @acrolaw: WV Lawyer Disciplinary Board releases legal ethics opinion on Metadata. Mention of PDF metadata is made. http://snurl.com/kgufb]

Events

• 06-16-09: The Adobe MAX Conference is in early October 2009 in Los Angeles. [RT @acroboy Coming to MAX 2009? Sessions catalog posted, including mine on PDF Files via the Web. http://bit.ly/OIA8B]

Tips

• 06-16-09: Great example of how a customer is using PDF Portfolios. [Excellent video on why Harry Hemus @ Dividi Projects uses PDF Portfolios. Click #Acrobat spotlight on right: http://bit.ly/5zXRn]

Dave Stromfeld
On Twitter at @acro_dave

Posted by David Stromfeld at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Not only have we been busy in the Acrobat world, but our Adobe blogging system also went through some upgrades (which slowed me down a little as I had to reconfigure some settings). But hopefully all the kinks have now been worked out of the system - let me know if you find otherwise.

I thought I'd start by re-posting some interesting Acrobat news from the month of May 2009. Let us know if you find these summaries of Acrobat news useful or interesting.

• May 2009 - Law Technology News- "IT @ YOUNG CONAWAY: Managing Documents" - An attorney at the law firm of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor discusses the firm’s efforts over time to automate document-based processes and their growing use of Acrobat and PDF.
• May 5, 2009 - Software & Information Industry Association - 2009 Codie Awards - As I mentioned back on March 13, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended was a finalist for three categories in the Codie Awards: Best Business Software Solution, Best Multi-Media Solution, and Best Education Technology Solution for Productivity/Creativity. The product won the Best Multi-Media Solution category. Several other Adobe products were honored, as well:
  • Best Document Management Solution - Adobe LiveCycle ES
  • Best Communication Solution - Adobe Acrobat.com
  • Best Corporate Learning Solution - Adobe Captivate 3
  • Best Business Productivity Solution - Adobe Creative Suite 4
• May 10, 2009 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - "Adobe takes Acrobat to new heights" - The Post-Gazette provides a brief overview of Acrobat and PDF, then discussed several features of the latest version, including PDF conversion capabilities, PDF Portfolios and forms support. “With Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, Adobe has taken the PDF format to a whole new level, allowing users to create multifunction documents that are rich in media, provide some level of interactivity when used with Adobe Reader, and provide unique collaboration capabilities."
• May 20, 2009 - MyBroadband.Co.za - "Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended" - Acrobat was given 5 out of 5 stars. The review provides a brief overview of PDF, and then focuses on the forms aspects of the software. “Sure, you know all about PDFs and how they’re (mostly) read-only documents that are tiny, offer brilliant compression and work across multiple platforms, but I can almost guarantee that anyone who takes a few days to look at this latest version of Acrobat Pro Extended will find much more than they bargained for.”
• May 30, 2009 - Desktop Engineering - "Teaching a Talented Acrobat New Tricks" - This publication, which focuses on the design engineering space, produced a very comprehensive review of Acrobat 9, mentioning PDF Portfolios, video and presentations, collaboration and forms, mapping and 3D, and much more. " There’s a lot to like about the new release. In addition, long-time users will notice significant performance improvements...While there are lots of other programs out there for publishing PDF files, nothing comes close to Acrobat 9 Pro Extended."

Posted by David Stromfeld at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The newest patch to Microsoft Office 2007, called Service Pack 2 (SP2), includes several improvements to the Office family of products. Among them, and something Microsoft discussed back in May 2008, is greater support for file formats, including “support for XML Paper Specification (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1.” When Microsoft first released Office 2007, they made available a free plug-in that allowed the user to export and save to PDF and XPS. With the release of SP2, they are including this capability by default, as well as adding ODF support.

Regarding PDF in particular, Microsoft has mentioned SP2 will support the creation of PDF 1.5 files from some Office applications. The specification for PDF 1.5 was first published by Adobe in 2003 and was supported that same year in Acrobat 6. Acrobat 9, the current release of the product line, supports PDF 1.7 files, which was the version ratified as ISO 32000. [Update: To a point Gray Knowlton at Microsoft made on his blog, I should clarify this is not meant to imply the PDF files output from Office 2007 SP2 applications do not support ISO 32000. Also, I should note that Acrobat 9 outputs PDF files based on earlier versions of the PDF specification, as well, including PDF 1.5. Thanks Gray.] Jim King has an informative blog that, in part, talks about the ISO standardization process of PDF.

In general, through its continuing support of the format, Microsoft is providing further validation that PDF is well established in important processes of users around the world. I know Microsoft has mentioned save as PDF is one of their most frequent customer requests. So what does this mean for Adobe Reader and Acrobat? Well for Reader, there will likely be more PDF files in the world for users to consume using the product. And for Acrobat, the more PDFs that are created the more users will be interested in doing additional things with those documents—which is the strength of Acrobat. We’ve posted a lot on this blog about some of those things, like collaborating on documents, removing sensitive information from documents, making your sets of documents interactive (with Flash and video content), or collecting a set of files together into a PDF Portfolio.

Rock on, PDF.

Dave Stromfeld, Acrobat Product Manager

Posted by David Stromfeld at 3:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Periodically, Adobe will do user studies so we can understand how customers are using Adobe and non-Adobe software at work or at home. As part of user research, we're always looking for good candidates with whom to speak. For information about general Adobe research, you can check out our Adobe User Research page. You can also follow Adobe User Research on Twitter at @adobe_research.

For Acrobat, we are currently recruiting for two user research sessions, in the areas of Forms and PDF Portfolios.

• Forms - If you need to create and distribute forms or surveys as part of your job (whether you use Acrobat and PDF or whether you use another method), you can apply to participate in our Forms user research by filling in this questionnaire.
• PDF Portfolios - If you've used Acrobat 9's PDF Portfolio feature, you can apply to participate in our PDF Portfolio user research by filling in this questionnaire.

If you're accepted to participate in either study, you will receive $150 in American Express gift checks.

We really hope you'll consider sharing your experiences with the Acrobat team so we can continue to make our software as useful as possible.

Thanks!

Dave Stromfeld, Product Manager

Posted by David Stromfeld at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)