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March 17, 2009
Acrobat 9.1 is Available
Last week, Adobe released updates to Reader 9 and Acrobat 9.
If you are using Acrobat or Reader 9, I recommend that you upgrade. The 9.1 update includes performance fixes, stability improvements and also addresses security vulnerabilities.
To update, choose Help> Check for Updates or download the patch and apply separately.
The links:
Acrobat Standard and Pro 9.1 Update (Windows)
Acrobat Pro Extended 9.1 Update (Windows)
Acrobat 9 Pro 9.1 Update (Macintosh):
Acrobat 9.1 Release Notes (All platforms)
Read on for my evaluation of the improvements and fixes for he legal market.
The Acrobat 9.1 Update includes a few fixes and improvements that are notable for the legal market.
New Portfolio Layouts
Acrobat 9.1 includes additional portfolio layouts for Pro and Pro Extended users. These layouts were available as a separate download previously, but are included in the update.
Portfolios offer useful document review capabilities. Above is the Grid with File Preview option. It's easy to jump from page to page or document to document.
Bates Numbering in Portfolios
As detailed in my article on Portfolio Bates Numbering, the original release of Acrobat 9 had some unreliable behavior
- Rename to while Bates Numbering in a Portfolio
You can now Bates Number and rename to the Bates Range within a PDF Portfolio. e.g. 000001-000015.pdf. Once you do so, you can then sort the portfolio by the filename (Bates Number). - Bates Numbering an Email Portfolio now properly numbers by Date, rather than file name
- Acrobat auto-previews the first document in a Portfolio while in list view. Previously, you might have to click twice in List View to preview a file.
- Full screen mode now works for PDF portfolios. It may be possible to use Portfolios for courtroom or mediation presentations. I'm still exploring this.
- Acrobat now properly converts and numbers non-PDFs (Word, Excel, etc.) in a non-email Portfolio. Portfolios are still Bates numbered by filename only in this order:
- Files at the root level, alphabetically
- First folder (alphabetically, by name)
- Files in the folder, alphabetically, by file name
- Second folder (alphabetically, by file name)
- Files in the folder, alphabetically, by file name
Sub-folders and other folders follow the same conventions.
NOTE: If you choose to rename to the Bates Range, Acrobat will flatten the folder structure of your Portfolio.
Fixing Existing Portfolios
Some of the enhancements are part of the Portfolio layout itself. The portfolio layout is the Flash-based shell which "runs" the portfolio experience.
If you already have an existing email portfolio, you'll need to update it to get the fixes. To do so:
- Open Outlook or Lotus Notes
- Select a single message (you can delete it later)
- Choose AdobePDF—>Convert Selected Messages—>Append to Existing PDF . . .
- Locate the email portfolio you wish to update and click the Open button
Still missing . . .
While Bates Numbering is better in the 9.1 update, but there are some missing features in Portfolios which would make it easier to use in that context. There still is no easy way to control document ordering in a Portfolio in an ad hoc fashion. You can still use the workaround I detailed in this article, PDF Portfolio Conversion and Reordering.
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