“Whether on old desktops or new thin clients, everyone can use the same rules on Acrobat,” says Tokuichi Tobari, chief director of IT implementation in Matsudo’s Planning and Coordination Department. “By standardizing on Adobe Acrobat as our PDF software, we can make sure that everyone is using the same type and version of software, making it extremely effective to have a consistent security policy within the organization.”

Acrobat is also accelerating the city’s move to a paperless environment, which raises efficiencies while reducing costs. Acrobat is used to reliably deliver documents, including applications and authorization forms, as PDF files on the Internet. Any individual with Adobe Reader can view the documents at any time on personal devices.

Finally, Acrobat reduces total cost of ownership. The city of Matsudo signed an enterprise license agreement for Adobe Acrobat, which reduces the cost of individual licenses and enables efficient software deployment and updates.

Learn more about the city of Matsudo and the benefits it yields from Adobe Acrobat.

The fact is, most of us in this tech-crazy, content consuming world have many, many different ways to store, save, and savor our information, and we can do it from just about anywhere with a decent wireless or WiFi signal. The mobile platforms we use daily (phone, tablet, laptop) might allow us to get more work done than ever before, because we can do our work in a cab, on a train, or standing in line waiting for our next gadget to be released. But what if we could do our work without subscribing to, say, 21 different applications? What if there was a simple system that we could use to get actual, bona fide work done without taking a voice memo to transcribe later on, or writing an email reminder to ourselves on a tiny keyboard?

Enter Adobe’s Document Services.

We’ve been working maniacally back here at the mothership to support a mobile mode of working that constitutes getting real work done: real contracts getting signed, real forms being filled and sent, real comments made on digital documents – no matter where you are. With Adobe’s Document Services, such as Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and the Acrobat.com cloud storage system, you can hit the road with nothing but your favorite tablet and be sure that you won’t miss a deal for having left your laptop at home. Here’s just one example: Adobe EchoSign’s mobile app lets you upload documents and send them off to be signed; you can even use the Adobe Reader application to fill out a form and apply your signature to a PDF document before you send it off for another signature with the EchoSign app. Even better, your account activity is tracked even when you’re on a mobile device so no information about the transaction is lost; when you sign into your account from another computer, you’ll see all of your activity has been securely transcribed for your records.

Okay, great, you’re saying; signatures on mobile devices sound awesome. But what if you’ve got a 150-page PDF document that you’re reading or reviewing in Adobe Reader on your laptop, and you’ve suddenly got to leave the house before you’re done reading? No problem: save the document to your Acrobat.com account, and access it from your phone while you’re on the bus to wherever you’re going; when you open the document from Acrobat.com, your place has been saved and you can pick up right where you left off while in transit.

We know how fast things move these days, and we know how fast you’re moving, too; Adobe’s Document Services and mobile applications help you stay on top of things even when you’re only at your desk for 30 minutes a day. Download the free Adobe Reader app for iOS and Android devices, and see how much more efficient you become next time you’re sitting in a waiting room or in a coffee shop. We think you may even be able to delete some of those extra apps.

- Rebecca Staley

Here’s where you come in. From now until December 6, you can submit a nomination for Adobe EchoSign in the “Best Mobile App” category each day. All it takes is a single click, and you can do it once per day.

Hosted by GigaOm, VentureBeat and TechCrunch, the 2012 Crunchies Awards recognize the top apps, companies, innovations and innovators of the year. There’s only a few weeks left to vote, so help support your favorite mobile app for changing the game for contract deals in the cloud by voting for EchoSign today.

If you haven’t tried the EchoSign App for iOS, you can check it out here and start streamlining your business processes today!

That’s how we know that you’ll love this: Sign up for the new FormsCentral referral program. Tell your friends about FormsCentral. When your friends sign up for a new Plus account, you’ll earn a $20 gift card to either Starbucks or Amazon.com – one for each new sign-up. In fact, your newly subscribed friend can have a gift card too!

Does this sound good to you? Of course it does. You don’t even have to have a FormsCentral account to refer your friends; you just need to convince them that THEY should have FormsCentral accounts. Get started by joining our Referral Program here.

You’ll get your very own URL to share with your family and friends and coworkers, and every time someone uses that URL to sign up for a Plus account at FormsCentral, you (and that person!) will earn a $20 gift certificate.

Everyone wins, and everyone gets FormsCentral accounts. What a wonderful world.

- Rebecca Staley

The recently released Adobe-commissioned IDC white paper analyzed the current productivity challenges that IT and information workers face in today’s age of digital documents. The study also identifies opportunities for increasing information worker productivity.

With new and improved PDF editing, cloud services integration and enhanced tablet capabilities, Acrobat XI addresses today’s complex document challenges and the problems that compromise the productivity of information workers and IT departments.

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/hanyaloglu-cmswire-tweetjam/feed/ 0 http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/part-2-acrobat-xi-tips-and-tricks/ http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/part-2-acrobat-xi-tips-and-tricks/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:31:09 +0000 Acrobat http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/?p=3116 The second video in our series of Acrobat XI tips and tricks is all about eSignatures. With the recent integration of Adobe’s web contracting solution, EchoSign, into Acrobat XI, you can easily sign a PDF yourself electronically or getting a file e-signed by others.

Today’s video is all about converting PDF files. Acrobat XI makes it even easier to convert a PDF file into a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document that you can quickly edit and reuse. Don’t be scared, check it out!

Adobe Acrobat XI has the capabilities to let you handle the most complex document challenges and help your IT department close the gap on the productivity inefficiencies that result from working with an ever-increasing number of documents. But more than that, Acrobat XI gives you easy access to our powerful cloud services for web contracting and online forms that will make doing business from anywhere a breeze.

Acrobat XI has the features you asked for and then some.  Features like making it easier than ever to edit PDF files and export to Microsoft PowerPoint; touch-friendly capabilities on tablets, and ensuring interoperability with Windows 7 and 8. Acrobat XI also lets you update text directly in PDF, automatically wrap paragraph text, search and replace words in a PDF file, and crop, adjust, or replace images, with the newly designed Edit Text and Images tool.

Customers tell us these features save hours of work.

“Using Acrobat XI, our marketing team can easily edit and fine‐tune text, images, and rich‐media content directly within a PDF presentation whenever and wherever they are, saving valuable time and costs of reworking materials,” said Jim Confalone, founder of ProPoint Graphics.

Better integration with our cloud services, Adobe EchoSign and FormsCentral, has also topped customer request lists, and with Acrobat XI, we made that possible. Using Adobe EchoSign, sales teams can now cut contract cycles and the time to close a deal from weeks to just hours. Think of what that means to your bottom line.  Bill Lunsford, graphics manager, BBDO Atlanta likes how it makes his day easier. “The new EchoSign features within Adobe Acrobat XI will streamline everyday tasks. These days, no one is going to stand at a fax machine to wait for approvals. Being able to electronically sign a PDF on cost estimates for a project will accelerate go‐to‐market schedules,” he said.

With Adobe FormsCentral, you get robust forms creation, data collection, and results analysis that customers are raving about. “The enhancements to FormsCentral within Acrobat XI make creating and distributing well-designed, interactive forms to exchanging information with clients and partners much easier,” said Bart van Wanroij, president of Microsoft software developer, Epona. “We especially love the new graphic representation of the form results summary in Acrobat XI. With FormsCentral capabilities in Acrobat XI, the road to collecting, analyzing, and ultimately reporting on data just became a lot shorter for Epona!”

We also made both Acrobat XI and the new Adobe Reader® XI touch enabled for use on tablet devices.  Now PDF files containing dynamic media content, as well as files in shared review and electronic signature workflows, can be managed from virtually anywhere. With the Reader XI for mobile app, iOS, Android™, and Windows 8 users can collaborate in ways not possible before — adding comments during review cycles, fully interacting with PDF and web forms, and participating in electronic signature workflows. Additionally, IT can now deliver Reader XI or Acrobat XI as a centrally-managed, touch-friendly, virtual application with improved support for Citrix.

Mike Mann, release and deployment analyst, at McGladrey, thinks the new touch-enabled Reader makes McGladrey staff more efficient. “Our employees use tablets to get work done on the go. With the new editing features supported in Adobe Reader for mobile devices, our employees will be able to review PDF files and make notes at any time, increasing productivity and encouraging adoption of mobile technology,” he said.

IT professionals are praising Acrobat XI for its tighter SharePoint and Office integration. “The integration of Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft SharePoint is greatly improving how the Juvenile Justice Partners manage, share, and publish juvenile case information,” said Susan Green, assistant CIO, at the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.

Acrobat XI also streamlines deployment and maintenance, which Rob Brawn, director for the Center of Project Excellence, CH2M Hill, thinks is a huge time saver. “It is a full time job to manage software updates and keep users current on software versions. Acrobat XI security enhancements minimize out‐of‐cycle patches, saving time for IT and the users,” he said. Acrobat XI also provides industry-leading security features and supports application virtualization via Citrix XenApp software to provide a low cost of ownership and sound return on investment.

If greater productivity, efficiency and better ROI top your list of goals for your organization, give Acrobat XI a look with a free 30-day trial for Windows or Mac. If you already know the benefits Acrobat brings to a business, and you’re ready “to go to 11,” upgrading is easy and starts at just $199 for Acrobat XI Pro. So what are you waiting for?

Mark Grilli, senior director of product marketing, Acrobat Solutions

Important P.S. for LiveCycle Designer Users!

You’ve probably already heard that LiveCycle Designer will no longer be shipping with Acrobat XI. But don’t panic. For those of you who have been using LiveCycle Designer with Acrobat 8*, Acrobat 9 or Acrobat X and want to upgrade to the latest and greatest, we’re offering a free version of LiveCycle once you upgrade to Acrobat XI, just so you can keep on using the programs you’re used to working with. Just get in touch with us and let us know that you’ve upgraded to Acrobat XI. Our customer service representatives will be happy to provide you with the latest version of LiveCycle Designer so you can continue to get your work done as usual with Acrobat XI.