Since the launch of Acrobat 8, the product management team has talked to many knowledge workers in a variety of industries and companies to learn about how they share and aggregate sets of files and to identify what may be missing in the equation today. We found that people often use email attachments, zip files, PDF files, and PowerPoint presentations to share and present a collection of content. They were looking for ways to make their content stand out in a sea of ordinary files and to keep their audiences engaged. They also wanted to clearly convey information in an organized and discoverable manner. We also heard that people didn’t have a lot of time on their hands so any solution had to be compelling but also easy to implement.

In Acrobat 9, we developed PDF Portfolios to optimize the authoring and consumption experience by allowing users to organize a variety of files and to personalize and compress them into a portable PDF file. A lot of this was made possible with the introduction of native Flash support in Acrobat 9 and Reader 9.

Click on image to see it bigger.

So how would you use PDF Portfolios in your day to day job? We heard a wide range of examples of how customers would incorporate PDF Portfolios in their everyday jobs. Here are just a few of them:

• Presentation of sales or company information to customers
• Marketing collateral for a new product campaign
• Organization of files for a final project handoff
• Archive Outlook or Lotus Notes email messages for knowledge transfer or record keeping
• Archive of key files in a legal case or client investment portfolio
• Showcase of individual student work throughout high school

The knowledge workers we talked to were intrigued with the easy options available to customize the visual experience for their recipients but also appreciated the practicality that a PDF Portfolio offers in organizing files in a clear manner. So with a lot of user input and behind the scenes effort, PDF Portfolios debuted in Acrobat 9. And since the product launch, there have been more examples surfacing out here on the web.

When you have a moment, check out a PDF Portfolio and demo that Acrobat Guru Lori DeFurio put together. For those interested in applications for the education sector, Steve Alder has a nice blog entry on that topic. Also with some additional coding, you can take things to another level by creating a unique PDF Portfolio even beyond the customizable layouts available by default. A Japanese media company created this very interesting PDF Portfolio to teach people about effective presentation skills. It includes several videos (so it’s a large file) and highlights just another fascinating but practical use case. In the video, the instructor goes on to say in Japanese how PDF Portfolios can help keep audiences awake during live presentations and make it easy to play videos without tech support. We’ll have more about custom PDF Portfolios at another time but perhaps some of this talk of PDF Portfolios has peaked your interest.

Amy Wang, Acrobat Product Manager

Location, Location, Location

With version 9 of Acrobat or Reader if a PDF file is geospatially aware you can consume the coordinates using the Geospatial Location Tool via the Analysis toolbar (Tools > Analysis).

1. Use the tool to view coordinates in Decimal and DMS format (degree minutes seconds), using signed or named settings. View the coordinates in a pop-up widget in the lower right hand corner of the screen (see screen shot below).
2. Find a location in a map and mark it with a comment by right-clicking. The comment will capture the coordinate location in the text of the comment and the FDF information.
3. Measure places on a map using real-world units, such as miles, kilometers, feet, etc. Zoom your view mode in and the scale is adjusted so that you can continue to measure accurately. No need to manually readjust your scale.

Click on image to see it larger.

The Geospatial Location Tool and Measure Tool are available in Acrobat Standard (Windows), Acrobat Pro (Macintosh and Windows) and Acrobat Pro Extended (Windows).  Adobe Reader contains the Geospatial Location Tool and PDF authors can Reader-Enable a PDF file to turn on the Measuring and Commenting tools.

PDF Map Authoring

In Acrobat Pro Extended for Windows you can actually author PDF Map files. You can do this in a few ways.

1. Open a Tiff or Jpeg 2000 file that contains geospatial information in Acrobat Pro Extended. The resulting PDF file that is saved will retain this information.
2. From a Map image file (scanned or already in PDF/image format) if you know the map projection and some coordinate information you can use Acrobat’s Geospatial Registration tool to add coordinate information to the PDF.
3. Add Shape (SHP) files to a PDF file using the Import Layer functionality. This allows the PDF document author a way to create viewable layers on a map that can be turned on and off in the Layers Panel.

Third-Party applications will soon begin to produce PDF Map files. ESRI’s AcrGiS 9.3 already does this. Read about it in this ESRI press release here.

PDF Geospatial information

The new geospatial information in PDF will be proposed to the ISO Standards group. Leonard Rosenthol owns this work for Adobe Systems. ISO 32000-1 is PDF 1.7 and has already been ratified by the ISO. The geospatial information will be submitted as Adobe Extension Level 3 for PDF 1.7 (or 1.7-ADBE-3 for short). So if you create a PDF with Acrobat Pro Extended 9 and it contains geospatial information it will show up in the Document Info dialog with that designation.

What does this all mean for you?

So we put coordinate information into PDF and allowed you a way to view and consume this information. Why is this important? By allowing PDF to now work with geospatial information Adobe has provided a document platform for GIS customers to use. No special tools and no special extensions to PDF are needed. Suddenly all the Acrobat document features are now available to customers working with geospatial documents.

Many industries interact with geospatial information; Architectural, Engineering, CAD users, Mining, real-estate, government and military industries. These are large industries with many potential customers. Now their traditional document work flows that could only include flat image maps now can include fully functioning PDF Maps.

Traditionally the pain points have been:

1. Geospatial digital files were too large to pass around and combine into one document.
2. Special application viewers were needed, often times only PCs could be used.
3. Info-rich files outputted by a GIS application are eventually flattened and less interactive as they are used.

Now PDF files and PDF Portfolios can contain geospatial information which makes document presentations more valuable. Anyone with Adobe Reader 9 can view the file.

More information:

For more on the Geospatial feature set in Acrobat & Reader, and more about other new features in version 9 please check out the following on Adobe.com.  Under 1: What’s New?, select 1.5: View and interact with Maps.

Please share any comments you may have. I’m happy to have the feedback. I hope that you are enjoying version 9 of Acrobat and/or Adobe Reader.

Cheers,

Jeff Moran, Acrobat Product Manager

Latitude 47 38′ 52.54″ Longitude -122 20′ 54.34″

Interactive Flash chart that redraws when values are changed. (Click on image to see it larger.)	Video playing in a floating window (Click on image to see it larger.)

That’s the question we attempted to answer before developing the new multimedia capabilities in Acrobat 9. Here are 3 ways we came up with of how video can enhance a document or set of documents:

• Generate excitement – If you’re in a sales situation or working to make your best impression, this is a big one. Think sales proposal, product brochure, press release.
• Demonstrate – If you’re trying to convey a complex idea, teach a new concept, or describe a solution to a problem what better way than to show it. Think customer support article, assembly instructions, homework assignment.
• Document – If recording progress is important, video is the simplest and most effective method. Think manufacturing assembly process, construction site progress, insurance claims.

It didn’t take long for the blogosphere to recognize the extra value and start demonstrating it. Leonard Rosenthol, “the PDF Sage”, turned me onto a post by Marc Liron last week reviewing Acrobat 9. What I thought was interesting is that Marc spends very little time explaining how to create rich PDF documents and instead focuses on why it’s important from his perspective as an internet marketing professional. He describes 8 simple, but compelling examples that weren’t possible before. He also put together sample PDF files that illustrate his points. Check them out and let Marc know you appreciate his effort.

Chris French, Acrobat Product Manager

“What’s a Product Manager?” Good question. Our team is the one who listens to your feedback about what you do and don’t like about the product. We then help Acrobat Engineering take that feedback and translate it into a prioritized list of which bugs will be fixed and which features will be implemented in the next release. So if there is something which you don’t like about Acrobat, it is actually our fault and no one else’s. That’s right – the buck stops here.
It’s now been a few weeks since Acrobat 9 shipped, and we’ve been very happy with the feedback so far. A lot of you have told us that Acrobat 9 has changed the way you’ve thought about Acrobat and PDF documents. Whether it’s combining information into polished PDF Portfolios, embedding multimedia content like video into more impactful business presentations, or utilizing Acrobat.Com to better manage your document review and forms workflows, you’ve said that Acrobat 9 has changed your perception about what can be done with PDF. As one of you told us at a recent event, “Acrobat is finally sexy again!” Well, I don’t know if I’d go that far, but we appreciate the sentiment.
Which brings us back to the blog. “Why, again, do we need another technology blog?” Well, we thought that our Acrobat Product Management team may be able to offer our own perspective on Acrobat. There are a lot of great Acrobat blogs out there by some of our colleagues like Rick or Tim or Jonathan which provide a lot of detail about how certain features work and how you can utilize them in your day-to-day job. What we wanted to focus on in this blog was more of the “why”:

• Why did we build one set of features over another set?
• What are we hearing from users like you and how do we think that may affect the product going forward?
• If there are particular issues you’re finding in the software (nah! that never happens!), can we give you some insight into why it’s occurring and how things may improve going forward?
• Does the Acrobat team have any thoughts on “current events” going on in the technology world?

The goal is that various members of the Acrobat Product Management team will post articles which we think will be interesting to you all and will give you some insight into Acrobat. So this isn’t Dave’s blog. This is the Acrobat Product Management blog and you’ll be hearing from a lot of us over time, based on our areas of focus.
That said, we’d like to open up the floor to you and find out what you’d like to hear about from the Acrobat Product Management team. If there are particular topics or issues which you’d like to hear about, please leave us a comment and we’ll do our best to address it in the near future.
“Last question. Will your articles always have a question and answer format where you seem to be talking to yourself? That’s really annoying. Please stop that.” I’ll do my best. But it will take some time. Please be patient.
Cheers,
Dave Stromfeld, Acrobat Product Manager