Actually, it’s a trick question. No such service could be easier or more effective than SendNow—except, perhaps, another manifestation of SendNow. The service that’s always been just a matter of a few clicks of the mouse is now even closer at hand with the release of our new Desktop App. In this new app, you’ll find all the pieces of SendNow that you’ve gotten accustomed to in the web-based version: easy file-sending capability, file tracking, and branding with your logo.

However, we’ve added a few extra tidbits to make the application even more convenient. First, the app saves you the trouble of opening a browser window; you can keep it running while you do your work—and it will always be ready for you when you want to send off your files.

Our second enhancement—available only in the desktop app—is the ability to drag and drop the files you want to send; this means a more intuitive interface and even fewer clicks for you. Instead of clicking around to find the file you want to send (“Where did I store that? Was it in ‘My Documents’? ….No; maybe on my desktop? No…”), just grab the file while you’re looking at it and drag it over to the SendNow application. Nothing could be simpler.

Finally, what’s better than the easiest and most effective file sharing desktop application? The easiest, most effective and totally free file sharing desktop application. If you’ve got a SendNow account, you can simply download and install the application—free of charge. How’s that for convenient?

To get started, head over to https://www.acrobat.com/sendnow/en/desktop-download.html and get downloading!

Rebecca Staley, Acrobat.com marketing specialist, Acrobat Solutions

Hungry for more? Download the free report and a cost savings calculator from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/productivity-whitepaper.html

Facebook poll on the Adobe Acrobat page:

So, it seems that 52% of you are sending graphic files or web design assets, and about a third are sending large PDF files. Other popular files include high resolution photos, application updates, business plans and family memories (personal files to family and friends).

Don’t worry, though; we’ve got a really simple suggestion that we think will make your lives a little easier. If you’re using file transfer services or FTP sites to send graphics or other assets (or if you have any large files to send, really), you’ll want to try Adobe SendNow. Not only can you send up to 100 MB for free, but you can send a broad range of files from CAD files to audio or video files to Microsoft Word documents. For a full list of files check out the Adobe SendNow FAQ.

William Lau, senior product marketing manager, Acrobat Solutions

Still hungry for more? Don’t miss next week’s Tech Talk on Acrobat X and Protected View – learn how the sandbox works and how it can protect you from internet attacks, June 28, 10 a.m. PST. Learn more here.

McGladrey, the brand under which RSM McGladrey and McGladrey & Pullen operate, ranks as the fifth largest professional services firm in the U.S. McGladrey’s 7,000 professionals in nearly 80 cities collaborate with clients daily to meet their tax, auditing and business consulting needs. Recently I learned about how McGladrey is using a new Adobe program to save hundreds of thousands of dollars through their desktop manager, Matt Corcoran.

Matt centrally manages the thousands of desktop and laptop systems and myriad software applications for all the firm’s locations. He helps ensure that McGladrey’s accounting professionals have the tools they need to meet compliance requirements, increase revenues, and surpass clients’ expectations.

McGladrey uses several software applications to prepare tax returns or audits for example, but they standardized on PDF to support paperless workflows and to automate processes. Using PDF increases efficiency and productivity, provides secure collaboration with clients and streamlines document management and processes, such as e-filing with the IRS.

A key part of Matt’s job is to provide a fully licensed, up-to-date solution for supporting PDF documents and workflows. But that had become a challenging, costly and time-consuming process.

Over the years, the proliferation of PDF applications increased the firm’s IT complexity and costs substantially. Matt thinks that he and his team spent 100 hours or more annually on manual software license management related to PDF. IT staffs in all 90 offices also devoted an inordinate amount of time tracking software licensing locally using individual spreadsheets.

Keeping track of licenses wasn’t the only problem. Maintaining security added to the challenge. Having to install updates for multiple versions of Acrobat software to keep everyone on par with the software’s latest security features and enhancements complicated deployment to end users, consumed time, and inevitably increased service desk calls.

Then Matt learned about the Adobe Acrobat Enterprise Program (AEP). AEP is a cost-effective way to purchase and deploy Acrobat software for every desktop.

“Our firm is very conservative cost-wise, so I based our estimated savings on growth of Acrobat licenses alone. I calculated that we would save $600,000 over four years by standardizing on Acrobat, and that did not even begin to factor in all the IT time and effort we would save,” Matt says.

AEP significantly streamlined licensing and deployment for McGladrey. Today, Matt says he spends only about two hours a year tracking and updating Acrobat software licenses. That’s a huge decrease from before. Now he just contacts HR for the current number of employees, and then enters that number into the company’s e-procurement system. After that, he can simply add the latest version of Acrobat into the firm’s standard software image for deployment across McGladrey’s offices. AEP also helped shore up any deficits identified in Acrobat license counts for more cost savings.

The Adobe AEP relieved McGladrey of a taxing burden by taking the guesswork out of licensing, saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, and making it easier to manage desktops. Take a look at AEP to see how it could help your organization, here.

To read the full McGladrey customer story, read on here.

Mark Grilli, director of product marketing, Acrobat Solutions

Turning 18 is a significant milestone. Just for fun, we’ve compiled a timeline from 1993 to today of some of the important cultural and technology milestones we encountered while Acrobat and PDF were growing up and changing how we communicate. There’s also an official Adobe PDF timeline here.

Forrester will conduct one hour phone interviews on Adobe’s behalf with our valued customers, who have started using Acrobat X. The results from these interviews will be aggregated and presented as a composite case study for Acrobat in a final report. Your name and your company’s name will not be published as a part of the report.

Participation criteria:

• Your company is based in either US, Canada, Germany, UK, France or Japan
• Your company has more than 1,000 employees
• Your company has deployed a minimum of 20 seats of Acrobat X since January 2011 or earlier
• You can speak to the IT ROI and end-user ROI that has been gained from Acrobat X
• You are willing to be interviewed by Forrester Research over the phone for approximately 1 hour (2 hours if translation is necessary)
• Other criteria decided by Adobe

There are three primary goals of this interview:

• To understand your environment prior to deploying Acrobat X and your reasons for switching to Acrobat X
• To understand your post-deployment experience with Acrobat X
• To ascertain the overall costs and benefits of upgrading, deploying, operating, and managing Acrobat X

In appreciation for your time, we will send a copy of the finished study in PDF via email and $200 AMEX Gift Card once the interview completes.

Interested? Please contact Akiko Yamamoto, if you would like to participate in this study.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Joel Geraci, Acrobat technical evangelist, Acrobat Solutions

On June 15, Adobe Acrobat and PDF celebrate their 18th birthdays. Turning 18 is pretty significant. There are lots of things you can do at 18 that you couldn’t before. Like all the great new features and capabilities Acrobat has acquired over the years. But that’s for another blog.

Today, we want to celebrate. It would be nice to take Acrobat and PDF out for an evening on the town, for instance, but that’s not likely, of course. Instead, we’ve come up with a few ways you can celebrate this important milestone on your own, or with colleagues and friends, perhaps. All in good fun, naturally.

1. Play PDF Scavenger Hunt – Pick a document, the bigger and more interesting the better. Convert it to a PDF if it’s not already. Then create a list of words and race to find them first using the search tool.

2. Host a Shared Wisdom Meeting – If you’re more inclined to celebrate quietly, we suggest a Shared Wisdom Meeting. This one is great for an interactive lunch setting. Here you and your friends share your best Acrobat tips and tricks gleaned over the past 18 years. Use audio and video, collect your wisdom in a PDF Portfolio and share with colleagues.

3. Rent an Inflatable Jumper – This may be a stretch, but if you’ve never bounced around in one of these inflatable “rooms” it’s worth it to try your best Acrobat-ics.

4. Movie Night – Did you know you can incorporate video, 3D, maps, full-color graphics, photos, and more into PDF files? Yes, that means you can enjoy a movie or your favorite YouTube videos in the comfort of your own PDF!

5. Hawaiian luau – Maybe there’s no official Acrobat or PDF connection, but why not design your invites in PDF?

6. Host a Costume Party – Be anyone you want to be! PDF files are viewable and printable on virtually any platform. Create PDF “masks” with redaction capabilities. Give your PDF Portfolios “costumes” by adding your own logos and image with customization capabilities.

7. Take a Weekend Road Trip – Take lots of photos and keep a journal, then create a PDF Portfolio of your road trip memories.

8. Office Challenge – If you’re the competitive sort, try the shared document reviews marathon (track participation, comments…); or an interactive PDF Forms Relay for tracking and managing responses.

9. Toga Party – These are always fun. Bring a bottle or two of Acrobat wine along to impress your friends. If you need tips watch National Lampoon’s “Animal House.”

10. PDF-a-Palooza – Host a digital marketing party by grabbing your cool artwork and ads and editing your favorite customer photos in Adobe Photoshop. Present your best work to senior management in PDF!

There you go: 10 ways to celebrate Acrobat and PDF with Acrobat and PDF. What will you do to celebrate? We’d love to hear from you! Share your favorite PDF feature or celebration idea with us on our Facebook wall.

Stephanie Baartz-Bowman, principal product marketing manager, Acrobat

Looking for a deeper dive on the technical details of the new Protected View added in the Acrobat 10.1 for Windows release?  Joel Geraci, Acrobat Technical Evangelist, posted an inside look, here that details how Protected View is another defense-in-depth feature that is tightly integrated with the existing Enhanced Security feature. Protected View in Acrobat leverages the successful sandbox implementation already in place for Adobe Reader while providing a user experience that should be familiar to Microsoft Office 2010 users. For additional reading on the Adobe Reader perspective, see this blog post from Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader.

For further reading from a security perspective, check out this post from Kyle Randolph, ASSET Technical Lead and Senior Security Researcher at Adobe, who discusses the update in detail and shares some great screen shots, here.

Check out the sessions you won’t want to miss in this detailed blog post from Acrobat Technical Evangelist, Joel Geraci, here.

These labs fill up fast so be sure to register for MAX and sign up early, here.