In the interest of simplification, you may wish to hide the tools you don’t use and and provide direct access to the tools you use the most.

I suspect that the majority of Acrobat users never change the default user interface.If you want Acrobat to work better for you, it behooves you to learn how.

For the record, I don’t use the term behoove lightly!

What is that thingy called?

Before jumping into this, let’s take a look at the Acrobat application window.

The following two screen captures represent the official terminology that we use at Adobe for various parts of the Acrobat user interface:

The top toolbar may also be customized and I will refer to it by section below:

What can be customized in Acrobat?

In the rest of this post, I’ll discuss how to customize the Acrobat user interface in the following areas:

Task Pane Acrobat XI allows you to create a custom Task Pane which allows you to include only the tools you need. This is a new feature in Acrobat XI and not available in previous versions of Acrobat X or in Adobe Reader. The custom panel can contain just about any tool available in Acrobat with a few exceptions such as Actions. At right, I’ve created a new Task Pane called Legal which in turn contains a section called My Legal Features.
Quick Tools Quick Tools are tools that you park in the top toolbar for quick access to frequently used functions. Quick Tools are handy because they allow you to get to a tool without having to open a panel. The number of Quick Tools you can show will depend on 1) your screen resolution and 2) whether you have disabled any of the tools to the File Tools (See below) to the left of the Quick Tools area.
Common Tools The Common Tools toolbar offers various tools for navigating, zooming, changing view, etc. My experience has been that users sometimes struggle figuring out how to configure the Common Tools, so I’ve included detailed instructions on how to do so below.

Tool Sets – or – Two out of Three Ain’t Bad

In Acrobat XI, you can create a new Tool Set to capture settings for Task Panes and Quick Tools. Settings files may be exported and imported making them easy to share with colleagues.

This omission of the Common Tools from saved Tool Sets makes sense (kind of) since generally users do not make too many changes to the navigation tools. On the other hand, since configuring the Common Tools isn’t that obvious, it would be great to share them. I’ve shared this feedback with our engineers.

You can create multiple Tool Sets and switch between them. If you occasionally use a specific set of tools, you can create a set that makes this easy. This certainly saves a lot of time hunting down a specific feature.

Creating a Toolset

This process is actually pretty simple . . . simpler than I have made it sound below, so please experiment!

As I mentioned above, a Tool Set captures both Quick Tools and Task Panes. Here’s how to create a new, custom Tool Set:

1. Click the Customize button at the upper right of the window and choose Create New Tool Set. . .
   From this same menu you can manage all of your tool sets.
   
2. The Customize Tool Set window opens.
   Choose a tool and add it to either the Quick Tools Toolbar, a Custom Tools pane, or both.
   For detailed instructions on how to use this window, click here.
   
   Some options in this window:
   - Create more than one panel for your toolset
   - Add dividers between commands to make them easier to find
   - Include instructions with commands
   - Reorder or delete items

You can’t break anything in this window. Acrobat won’t let you change the default tools, so you can always revert to the full set of tools.

Switching between Tool Sets

It’s easy to switch between toolsets. I have a set of tools I use for redaction and another set for everyday use. To switch between tool sets:

1. Click the Customize button in the upper right corner of the window
2. Choose a tool set from the list:
   

Customizing the Common Tools

The Common Toolbar is customized using a menu.

The easiest way to access the menu is to hover over the Common Toolbar, and right-click (Command-Click on the Mac):

Each of the top menus (Rotate View, Page Navigation, Page Display, Select & Zoom, File, Edit) control which icons will appear on the toolbar..

Page Navigation Tools

By default, the Page Navigation toolbar includes a Previous Page and Next Page tool:

Hidden in this section are several other very useful tools which I always enable:

These extra tools such as the First Page, Last Page and Previous and Next View buttons allow you to more quickly move between pages and views.

To enable all of these tools, right-click on the Common Tools bar and follow the illustration below:

Page Display Tools

I rarely change the defaults here, but I will describe Acrobat’s default behavior which, I think, is interesting.

In most cases, Acrobat behaves perfectly. For example, when you are looking at a letter-size page full width, scrolling is continuous as in your word processing program. However, when you are looking at an entire page, Acrobat snaps scrolling from page to page.

Of course, you have options . . . if you want scroll documents in Fit Page mode, you certainly can. Want to try some of these different options?

1. Right-click on the Common Toolbar
2. Choose Page Display
3. Choose Show all Page Display Tools

You can always choose the Reset option for the Page Display toolbar if you don’t like the results.

Select and Zoom Tools

Zoom in, Zoom out . . . these are operations you may do frequently in Acrobat, so it makes sense to put tools up front where you can find them.

To add in the Marquee Zoom tool:

1. Right-click on the Common Toolbar
2. Choose Select and Zoom
3. Enable the Marquee Zoom tool

Edit Menu Tools

The Edit section of the Common Toolbar offers quick access to three tools which are not on by default, but that you may find very helpful.

• Take Snapshot
  The Snapshot Tool captures to the clipboard either:
  – The visible portion of a PDF page
  – Part of a PDF page

  I’ve written about the Snapshot Tool previously in my article Adding a Thumbnail of a PDF Page to a PowerPoint presentation.

• Find (CTRL-F)
  Search for single instances of a word in a PDF

• Advanced Search (CTRL-Shift-F)
  Find and display all of instances of a word in PDF. Very useful for case analysis.

Of these three, I only turn on the Snapshot tool by default since it doesn’t have a keyboard equivalent.

I hear you!

Here’s how to add the Find tool to the Acrobat toolbar:

1. Right-click on the Common Toolbar
2. Choose Edit
3. Enable the Find tool

In the screen shot below, I’ve marked Take Snapshot (A) and Find (B):

Oops! How do I set it all back to the defaults?

Acrobat allows you to quickly and easily reset:

• An Individual toolbar
• All of the Common tools

Right-click on the Common toolbar, then choose any of the toolbar sections.

To resent only the Select and Zoom tools, Select (B).

The File Section: It’s Odd

Oddly, the File section of the Common Toolbar isn’t even on the same toolbar as the rest of the Common tools, but it is controlled the same way.

By default, all of the File Menu tools are on in Acrobat and you probably won’t want to change them. These tools are:

• Open
• Save
• Save Files to Acrobat.com
• Print
• Sign
• Send by Email

One thing to note about the File tools is that they are on the same line as the Quick Tools.

If you turn off some of the File tools, you will have more room for your Quick Tools:

Here’s how to edit the File tools:

1. Right-click on the Common Toolbar
2. Choose File
3. Deselect any tools you do not wish to have

A few miscellaneous nuggets . . .

1. Acrobat XI allows you to add many more tools as Quick Tools than Acrobat X.
   I recommend you go through all of the panels in the Edit Tool Set window to find the items you might need.
2. There is now a Save As button you can add to the toolbar (big user request!)
   
3. You can add an Action to the Quick Tools Bar, but not though the Edit Quick Tools window (above). Just right-click on an Action and choose Add to Quick Tools bar.

Share a Quick Tools Set

Acrobat stores the tool set files as tiny XML files with the .AAUI suffix. They are easy to export and import:

1. Click the Customize button and choose Manage Tool Sets . . .
   
2. Select a toolset and click the Export button:
   

The files are tiny and easy to email. To import a Tool Set file, you can double-click on it or use the Import button in the Manage Tool Set window.

Oh, that Dang Properties Bar!

For regular blog readers, you probably already know that one issue some Acrobat users don’t like is how the Properties Bar is handled. The Properties Bar cannot be docked, so it sort of floats around, forever looking for home.

Believe me, I have given this feedback to our engineers!

For those of you who use the Typewriter tool to make permanent changes to documents, I hope you’ll look at using the new Add Text tool in the Content Editing panel. This allows you to edit any text in the Acrobat document, or simply just type anywhere you want without having to flatten the file later. Try it . . . I stopped using the Typewriter (also known as Add Text tool) since we added this feature.

I hope to cover using the new Content Editing tools in a future post.

Is it possible to make a document searchable but remove the hyperlinks? Even if I remove the hyperlinks from the document, [Adobe] Reader users can still click the links which open URLs in their web browser.

Legal Professionals sometimes want to remove hyperlinks from documents in discovery production. Since a link to a website is valuable, why make it easy to check out the destination? Or, perhaps your source documents have a link to a destination which is out of date. It might be easier to remove these links rather than correct them.

In this article, I’ll discuss how to remove links and a "feature/gotcha" that limits what you are able to do.

For you diehards, I also provide a workaround.

How do links get into PDFs anyway?

Hyperlinks are authored three different ways:

1. Inserted by an authoring application such as Microsoft Word and preserved when using the PDF Maker integration provided by Acrobat
2. Created in Acrobat
3. Automatically created by the viewer (Reader or Acrobat)

Some Links are Automatically Generated

Consider the following four examples I created in a Microsoft Word file and then converted to PDF:

Acrobat and Reader treat these links in different ways:

Automatic Links . . . Gotcha!

A and B above are dynamically generated when the page is opened in Reader or Acrobat. They don’t actually ever exist as link overlays in the PDF. For this reason, it isn’t possible to delete them.

So, there’s your gotcha!

You could re-scan the document, but if you OCR it Acrobat and Reader will still find the links.

Maybe that doesn’t seem fair, but this feature is extremely useful. Most folks outside the legal field don’t want to have to retype links into their web browser. It’s a feature, not a bug.

Removing Links

You can remove embedded links (inserted by authoring applications or by Acrobat). Here’s how to do so in Acrobat X or XI:

Choose Tools > Document Processing > Remove All Links

A Sneaky Workaround

Embedded links always take precedence over dynamically generated links. With this in mind, it is possible to generate embedded links in the document, then simply send the viewer to a null destination. If you have a long document, this could be a lot of work and you will need to be careful not to delete links you want to retain.

Still, for those of you preparing documents for attorneys who won’t take no for an answer . . .here’s how to go about this below.

I suggest working on a copy of the document.

1. Open the PDF you want to work on
2. Choose Tools > Document Processing > Create Links from URLs
   This will create embedded links from the URLs found in the PDF.
3. Choose Tools> Interactive Objects> Select Object
   
4. All of the link rectangles will be visible on the page:
   
5. Select the links you want to change. You can shift-click or CTRL-click to select multiple ones. Or, on a page by page basis, you can type CTRL-A to select all of the links on the page.

   Once selected, the links will be highlighted:
   

6. Without deselecting the links, right-click and choose Properties. The Link Properties Window opens.

   Click the Actions Tab:
   

7. In the Actions tab:
   A) Select the Open a web link action
   B) Click the Delete button
   C) Click OK
   

False Security

Unfortunately, unless you encrypt the document, the process is completely reversible by a knowledgeable Acrobat user, but Reader users will be out of luck.

You better hope the other side doesn’t read my blog . . .

A word processing tech here at my firm marked approximately 75 areas for redaction on a 150 page PDF.  However, while doing the marking, he had the Fill Opacity set to 100%. The attorney would like to have other attorneys review all of the text that has been marked for redaction.  Is there a way to change the Fill Opacity on these marked areas to something else all at the same time? The attorney would like to avoid having to change the redaction properties on all of these marked areas one at a time.

Of course!

In this article, I’ll tell you how to do that and also review an interesting change in Acrobat XI that perhaps you haven’t discovered yet.

Redaction Mark Review

Using the Mark for Redaction tool in Acrobat, you can mark text, images or entire pages for redaction.

By default, Acrobat displays marked items with a red outline:

When you hover over the mark, you can preview the appearance of the applied mark:

Changing the Properties of Redaction Marks in Bulk

Since, Redactions are a type of annotation, the Comments panel may be used to access all of the marks made in a document and change them all at once. Here’s how in Acrobat X or XI.

1. Open the PDF containing the Redaction marks
2. In the upper right of the document window, click the Comments panel:, then  open the Comments List Section:
   
3. The comments list will appear showing you all of the comments in the document.
   
   

   NOTE: in the example above, there are both redaction annotations and a sticky note. Acrobat only allows you to change multiple items if they are all the same type of annotation. If you only have redaction marks in your document, you can skip step 4 and 5 below.

4. Click the Filter menu button in the Comment section:
   
5. Choose Filter by Type and choose the Redact option:
   
6. Select one of the items in the Comments list, then type CTRL-A (Windows) or CMD-A (Mac). This should highlight every item in the Comments list:
   
7. Right-click over the Comments list and choose Properties:
   
8. The Redaction Properties window opens. I like to set as follows:
   A) Set the Area Fill Color to gray. Saves toner!
   B) Set the Outline color to No Color for easier reading.
   C) Set the Fill color to Red
   D) Set the Fill opacity to 50%

   Click OK when you’re finished.
   

It’s now easier to pick out and read the redacted items. Instead of the annoying red outline, you have a subtle red fill color:

And, the Preview now looks like this:

Like it? Change the Defaults!

Now that you’ve changed your redaction mark appearance, it is easy to make the setting the new default for all new marks you add.

Right-click on any redaction mark and choose "Make Current Properties Default":

How to Undock the Comments List in Acrobat XI (11)

Managing lots of annotations in the Acrobat X Comments list can be a bit tiresome. The narrow panel doesn’t offer a lot of room for maneuvering.

In Acrobat XI, we’ve added a new option to undock the Comment list. Here’s how to do it:

1. Click the Options menu in the Comments list
   
2. Choose "Undock Comments List"
   

The Comments List is now a resizable window you can place anywhere on screen or even on a second monitor:

To redock, choose the Options menu in the Comments List and choose "Dock Comments List"

Acrobat XI offers many improvements over previous version (of course). PDF Editing is amazing and creating and conforming to PDF/A is significantly easier and more reliable.

Packaging Adobe Reader or Acrobat for your end-users isn’t difficult, but sometimes IT folks don’t know all of the settings or best practices.

In this article, I’ll discuss:

• Where to download the Enterprise version of Adobe Reader and get your corporate licenses of Acrobat
• How to download Adobe’s free customization tools
• Recommended deployment settings
  • Customization Wizard settings
  • Registry Key Settings

This article will walk you through the settings I recommend using the Acrobat XI Customization Wizard.

The information is not intended as a replacement for the numerous documents Adobe makes available to enterprise IT administrators. Here are a few you should check out:

Acrobat Enterprise Toolkit Page

This page is the starting point for everything you need to deploy Acrobat XI.
http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobatetk

On this page you will find:

Enterprise Administration Guide

This 118-page guide is the main documentation for deploying Acrobat and covers AIP, SCCM/SCUP, GPO, bootstrapper, Citrix and other deployment options.

Preference Reference

The Preference Reference, a dictionary of registry level preferences containing over 300 keys. The application is updated on a monthly basis.

Training Videos for the Acrobat Customization Wizard

Adobe Technical Evangelist Joel Geraci offers videos on using the Customization Wizard.
http://tv.adobe.com/show/it-matters-with-joel-geraci-season-2-acrobat-x

SCUP Catalogs for Acrobat X and Reader X

SCCM/SCUP are Microsoft’s latest change and configuration management solution that replaces older methodologies such as SMS and GPO. Unlike these older technologies, SCCM provides features such as metering, asset intelligence, inventorying, and improved remote client administration.

GPO Templates

If you use Group Policies, we provide a starter template to help you out.

Rick Borstein’s Acrobat XI Deployment Webinar Recording

http://seminars.adobeconnect.com/p4v4sbc4bu8/

Step 1: Download your Software

If you are deploying Adobe Reader, make sure you download the Distributable Version of Adobe Reader. You can download it here:ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/11.x/

For Acrobat XI Standard or Acrobat XI Pro, log into the Adobe Licensing website at http://licensing.adobe.com to download your licenses.

Step 2: Download the Adobe Customization Wizard XI

The Adobe Customization Wizard XI is a free downloadable utility designed
to help IT professionals take greater control of enterprise-wide
deployments of Acrobat XI and Adobe Reader XI. With it you can
customize the Acrobat installer and application features prior to
deployment. Providing a graphical interface to the Windows Installer for
Acrobat, the Customization Wizard enables IT administrators to:

• Modify the installer via a transform file (MST file) without altering the original package (MSI file)
• Customize the look and feel of Acrobat or Reader before deployment to meet the unique needs of your user base

Click Here to download the Adobe Customization Wizard XI (WIN)

Adobe also offers an Acrobat Customization Wizard for Mac. It is limited in functionality, but it may be useful for those law firms which manage Macs in art and trial graphics areas.

Step 3: Launch the Adobe Customization Wizard XI (WIN) and Begin Customizing

Choose File> Open Package and browse to the .msi file for Adobe Reader, Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Pro.

You will see a number of categories on the left side of the window which correspond to various functions of the product. In the screen capture below, the options available for Acrobat Pro are listed. For Standard or Reader, you will see fewer options.

The recommendations below are my own and may not be applicable for every law firm.

Personalization Options

Enter your firm name and serial number. You may modify the installation path if needed. Check "Suppress display of EULA".

Installation Options

In addition to the defaults, check "Remove Previous Versions of Adobe Reader".

We do not recommend having both Acrobat and Reader on the same system.

Large global firms who have a global volume license with Adobe may also take advantage of the MUI installer which allows for bundling any supported language version in a single install.

Features

This section allows you to choose which features will be installed. In the screen capture below, I’ve expanded all of the options so you can see all of the options.

To elect NOT to install a feature, select the feature from the list at left, then set the initial state to "This feature will not be available". For example, you can choose not to install the Lotus Notes integration.

Files and Folders

The Files and Folders tab will help you distribute to your end-users:

• Custom Stamps
• Actions
• PDF Optimizer Settings
• Application-level JavaScripts

In this section, you can move items from the local computer to the destination computer and also choose not to install some default items.

Two items I think will be of most interest here are Actions and Custom Stamps.

Actions

Law firms use Acrobat XI Actions to automate multi-step processes. You can remove the default Actions which ship with Acrobat and replace them with your own.
Removing the Default Actions

A) On the Destination Computer, open: Adobe>Adobe Acrobat 11.0>Acrobat>Sequence>ENU
B) Choose one of the default Actions in the list, right-click on it and choose Modify
C) Set the Action to Remove file and click OK.

Repeat for all Actions

Note that in the screen capture above,the Destination computer is the lower panel..

Adding your Firm’s Actions

To copy Actions installed on the local computer to the destination computer, follow these steps.

A) On Source computer, open USER>App Data>Roaming>Adobe>Acrobat>11.0>Sequences
B) On the Destination Computer, open: Adobe>Adobe Acrobat 11.0>Acrobat>Sequence>ENU
C) Drag the Action to the Destination computer

Note: This copies the Actions to a folder that the user cannot change.

Adding your Firm’s Custom Actions

To copy Stamps installed on the local computer to the destination computer, follow these steps.

A) On Source computer, open USER>App Data>Roaming>Adobe>Acrobat>11.0>Stamps
B) On the Destination Computer, open:
ProgramFilesFolder> Adobe> Acrobat 11.0> Acrobat> Plugins> Annotations> Stamps> ENU
C) Drag the Stamp to the Destination computer

Note: This copies the Stamp to a folder that the user cannot change.

Step 4: Custom Registry Keys

Although the Customization Wizard includes many popular settings, it does not offer access to all of the settings available inside Acrobat.

However, you can use the Customization Wizard can push down registry keys to control Acrobat settings which are not directly changeable using the graphical user interface of the wizard.

Make sure you look at the Preference Reference to find the reg keys you need.

The recommended way to push down new registry key settings is to:

1. Configure the source computer
2. Copy the appropriate registry keys to the destination computer

My colleague Joel Geraci, Adobe Acrobat Technical Evangelist, shows you how to do this in his video Advanced Customization Wizard X on Adobe TV.

Shortcuts

The Customization Wizard allows you to choose which shortcuts will be made available on the destination computer. To remove a Shortcut, right-click it and choose Remove. You can also move Shortcuts and create new folders for shortcuts in this panel.

Server Locations

The Server Locations settings allow you to add server location
paths and redundancy. You can
add, rearrange, or remove locations. This feature sets the SOURCELIST property which is a semicolon-delimited list of
network or URL source paths to the installation package which is appended to
each user’s existing source list. The installer uses the first accessible
location it finds and only this source is used for the remainder of the
installation.

Distiller

The Distiller section of Customization Wizard allows you to add, remove and set defaults for PDF Settings. PDF Settings are used when your users create PDF using the Adobe PDF Printer, through Acrobat or through contextual menus.

If your firm has in IP practice, you might consult also locate your firms USPTO PDF Settings and include those, too.

A) Click the Add button and locate the Near to PDF/A pdf setting or other settings file
B) Click on the Near to PDF/A setting which has been added to the list
C) Click Set as Default to make the setting the default setting for all PDF creation by Acrobat

PDF Printer

The PDF Printer section offers some basic controls for PDF creation. Only one setting needs to be changed here. I recommend deselecting Add Document Information. Deselecting this option prevents Acrobat from bringing over Word metadata such as Title, Author, Keywords, etc., as well as any custom metadata fields.

Security

The Security panel in the Customization Wizard allows you to configure a Trusted Identity Server. If you have an enterprise PKI infrastructure (most law firms do not), then you could configure settings here to allow your users to digitally sign and certify documents based on your LDAP.

PDF documents have interactive features such as forms and multimedia that blur the lines between documents and applications. Like a browser, you will want to control the way that Acrobat interacts with applications outside your firewall.

For example, Acrobat will warn users when they click a link in a PDF:

Since it is not uncommon for law firms to create PDFs with links to court rulings (LexisNexis, Thompson-West) or court sites, you might consider adding these domains as a privileged locations so they do not trigger the warning for users.

You can set that up as below:

Digital Signature

I don’t know of any large law firm that is using Digital Signatures at an enterprise level, so I suggest you skip over this section.

Rights Management Servers

Acrobat integrates with Adobe’s LiveCycle Rights Management server which offers server-based security. This extra level of control allows you to limit who can read documents, revoke rights to documents and a lot more. I only know of a couple of law firms which use it, but in this panel you can set up the integration between Acrobat as a client to the rights management server.

Webmail Profiles

Acrobat XI supports webmail like Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Office 365. If your firm uses Exchange, you likely don’t want your employees sending mail through their personal mail program directly from Acrobat. You can turn this feature off. Of course, if you have migrated to cloud email, you’ll love this!

Online and Adobe Online

This area requires some special attention as some settings here impact other workflows.

A) Disable Updates – You will be using other methods to push down updates
B) Disable registration for Acrobat
C) Disable Digital Editions, Adobe’s eBook help
D) Disable Product Improvement Program – Sends anonymous usage data to Adobe
E) Disable viewing of Ads in PDFs
F) Disable Shared Review and Form Data Collection on Adobe’s cloud servers
G) Disable uploading documents to Adobe’s cloud-based file sharing service

Comments and Forms

This section allows you to pre-populate servers for your end-users who want to take advantage of collaborative review and forms data collection. I don’t see law firms using these features in high volume, so I think you could skip setting that up.

Acrobat offers an auto-complete feature (like browsers) to make filling out forms easier for individuals. However, paralegals and legal secretaries do fill out a lot of PDF forms on behalf of clients. While the default for auto-complete is Off in Acrobat, some law firms worry that a user might turn it on which could lead to mistakes or (at worst) an accidental disclosure.

File Attachments

This area is security-related and governs which types of files cannot be embedded in a PDF. There are about 70 different file types that are on the forbidden list including ZIP, EXE, COM, BAT, etc.

If your firm uses Acrobat’s email archiving feature for quick and dirty EDD (electronic data discovery), note that this means that ZIP file attachments will be skipped when harvesting email. If getting those zips is important to you, you could enable ZIP files, but I urge you to leave this section as-is as embedded zips are a security risk.

Headers, Footers and Watermarks

I recommend pushing down default settings for Header/Footers and Watermarks. By making default settings available, you won’t have to coach new users on how to use these features.

You might ask the trainers in your organization what types of Headers/Footers and watermarks are used most often, but I’ve taken a stab at creating a few for you.

Header/Footer Examples

Watermark Examples

Adding watermarks to documents is another task that users frequently do. Out of the box, Acrobat does not provide any, but you can pre-populate these, too. I’ve include two samples below for you:

Of course, if you make your own in Acrobat, you’ll need to find them so you can push them down.

The settings are stored as XML files in the following location on your local hard drive. Grab them:

XP C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\11.0\Preferences\HeaderFooter

Win7  C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\ Acrobat\11.0\Preferences\HeaderFooter

Once you’ve found the watermarks, you can add them easily:

Redaction

Redaction is the permanent deletion of sensitive content. Acrobat X supports Redaction overlay codes which allows your users to place text on to of the redacted content:
Users apply the overlay codes by right-clicking on a redaction mark:

You can create an populate the list of custom redaction codes that your firm needs.

Acrobat provides an interface to create and export these redaction code sets directly. See my article Creating and Using Custom Redaction Patterns for full details.

To add the custom code set to your Acrobat install:
A) Unless you are a government agency, you probably don’t need the US Privacy Act or US FOIA codes. You can delete them.
B) Click the Add button to import your custom doe set.

Remaining Sections

You can ignore the Portfolio Navigator, Launch other Applications and Direct Editor sections. If you do use a custom Portfolio Navigator, push it down using the Files and Folders instead.

Get Ready to Package

Generate a transform file

A transform (.mst) file contains your modifications and any
files added to the project (.msi) file. The Wizard updates the associated
transform file every time you save a project. You can generate a copy of an open
transform file and then apply it to another project.

To create a Transform file:

1.   Choose Transform > Generate Transform.

2.   In the Save dialog, browse to the
desired location.

3.   Enter the transform file name in
the File name box.

4.   Choose Save.

In order to apply the new transform file to another project,
you must open the new project and load the transform file.

Generating SMS-compliant packages

In order to
distribute your modified installation files (.msi, .mst, and Setup.ini) using Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), you must create an .sms file and, optionally, specify a Management Information Format (.mif) file in the same directory as the project (.msi)
file.

To do so:

1.   Choose SMS > Create SMS file at save.

A check mark appears next to the command name when it is
selected. This option creates an .sms file in the same directory as the project
file the next time the project is saved. A Microsoft Systems Management Server
(.sms) file is a text file containing product information and installation
settings.

2.   Choose SMS
> Specify MIF file name.

A check mark appears next to the command name when it is
selected. A Management Information Format (.mif) file describes the installed
application and is preset in the Windows directory on the destination system.

3.   Enter a name in the MIF Filename
box.

4.   Choose OK.

The US Federal Courts and other public agencies are moving towards submission of PDF/A (PDF for Archiving) files. Many legal professionals are obligated now to know how to create and work with PDF/A files.

http://seminars.adobeconnect.com/p4wjtt3z1h7/

PDF/A Webinar Content

Learn about the various “flavors” of PDF/A See the new PDF/A-related features in Acrobat XI for easier conformance: Find out the requirements and restrictions of PDF/A How to create PDF/A using multiple methods Working in PDF/A View Mode Use the Standards Panel Verify compliance with PDF/A Conform existing PDF documents for compliancy with PDF/A Use Actions to automate PDF/A conversion or conformance

]]> http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2013/02/miss-my-pdfa-webinar-watch-the-recording/feed/ 0 http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2013/02/add-a-toc-to-a-pdf-document-with-evermaps-autobookmark/ http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2013/02/add-a-toc-to-a-pdf-document-with-evermaps-autobookmark/#comments Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:40:22 +0000 Rick Borstein http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/?p=741 Continue reading →]]> Our partner Evermap has recently released an update to their popular AutoBookmark tool which has me really excited!

AutoBookmark ($189 or $99 each in a 5 license pack) is an Acrobat plug-in (Windows only). It adds a menu item and a panel to Acrobat. A free trial is available if you want to check it out.

AutoBookmark is my go-to Acrobat plug-in tool for managing complex projects with a lot of bookmarks and links. You can easily copy bookmarks between files, create bookmarks from headings or Bates numbers and about a hundred other features.

It’s a great tool to have if you prepare sets of linked exhibit files in complicated cases.

The latest release of AutoBookmark can (ta-da!) create a Table of Contents from Bookmarks in your document.

Adding a TOC to your PDF makes it easier to navigate and it looks great, too. It’s a requirement when creating closing binders and final document sets.

Making Bookmarks

The first step will be to bookmark the pages in your file. Acrobat can generate bookmarks via the following methods:

• Automatically using the PDF Makers in Office applications
  • Headings 1-9 in Word
  • Worksheet Names in Excel
  • Slide Titles in PowerPoint
• Optionally, when Using Combine Files
  • A bookmark to each document name is created
• Manually
  • Navigate to a page in a PDF and create a bookmark (CTRL-B)

With AutoBookmark, there are a number of ways to create bookmarks automatically if your PDF doesn’t have them. Here are a few you can read about on the EverMap site:

Automatic bookmark generation from text content
Bookmark text from a user-defined search list
Bookmark text patterns
Creating bookmarks from links, text highlights, comments and destinations
Creating bookmarks from ASCII text files

Create a TOC in Seconds

With your bookmarked file open, you can create a TOC in a couple of clicks with AutoBookmark.

1. Inspect your Bookmarks to make sure they are what you want. Here is an example:
   
2. Choose Plugins> Table of Contents> Create from Bookmarks
   NOTE: This menu is installed by AutoBookmark and is not present unless you purchase AutoBookmark
   
3. The TOC window opens. You can set many options for font, color and size.
   
4. Click OK

The Resulting TOC

Awesome! In just seconds, I added a TOC to my PDF.

AutoBookmark created links to each of the bookmarked pages. If you change the PDF, you can delete the TOC and regenerate it easily. I tested PDFs with hundreds of bookmarks. In one case, I created a 21-page TOC.

Conclusion

AutoBookmark is a wonderful add-in tool for Acrobat. If you spend a lot of time bookmarking files and links or manually creating TOCs, this tool will pay for itself quickly!

Adobe Reader Mobile is a free app available for iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms. Using Adobe Reader Mobile, you can manage a library of PDFs from your phone or tablet, view PDFs, add notes and comments, fill in forms and more.

You can read more about this release on the Adobe Reader Mobile blog. In this article, I’ll talk about the new Cloud Sync feature which allows you to easily move PDFs from your PC to tablet or phone and keep changes synced.

Cloud Sync

Legal professionals are increasingly mobile. The good news is that Adobe Reader Mobile now syncs content with Acrobat.com. Changes that you make to a PDF— adding a comment or filling in a form— are automatically saved back to acrobat.com

Moving Files to the Cloud.

Acrobat XI and Reader XI allow you to upload a PDF to acrobat.com in a click or two.

The easiest way is to click the Cloud button in the Acrobat toolbar:

Alternately, choose File>Save As and choose Acrobat.com from the bottom of the screen:

Accessing Files on your Phone or Tablet

On your iPad, iPhone or Android phone or tablet, open Adobe Reader and click on the Acrobat.com section. All your documents and folders will appear:

Marking up the Document on your Mobile Device

In Adobe Reader Mobile, you can mark up your document with highlights, sticky notes, a pencil, etc.:

Working with Files in the Cloud

On your Mac or PC, go to https://files.acrobat.com/ to see a list of all the files synced to the cloud. You can preview the file (without annotations) or download it:

From the web interface you can preview files, create folders, upload files, sort and search.

Changes Synced
After downloading the file, you can continue working on the file in Acrobat or Reader XI:

On my blog, I answer a lot of questions about how to put various navigation tools in the toolbar. I always advise putting the Previous View and Next View buttons on the toolbar. Right click on the toolbar, choose the Page Navigation section and add the buttons you want.

The Previous View and Next View buttons allow you to easily switch between pages you have visited in the PDF. They operate a lot like the Back and Forward buttons in a browser.

For example, let’s say you look at the something on page 9 of an eBrief and then click a link that goes to an exhibit on page 36.

Using the Previous View button, you can quickly jump back to page 9. Just press the Next View button to hop back out to page 36,

What? They cited that?

Doh! I can’t believe I didn’t know . . .

There is a keyboard command for both Previous View and Next View. Objectively, I suppose I knew they existed, but I’d never tried them:

I find I’m using these keyboard commands all the time now. So, maybe you can teach an old dog a new trick.

Woof!

> Adobe Reader XI

If you’re an Acrobat user, you probably don’t think about Reader that much unless you’re trying to get your client to fill in a form or comment on a file.

Fortunately, that just got a whole lot easier for you and your client with Reader XI.

Save Form Data and Comment

Adobe Reader XI for Mac and Windows can now:

• Fill in and save data in PDF forms
• Use all 20+ commenting tools available in Acrobat

Staying Updated

Adobe Reader XI, by default, will keep itself updated. That’s great for the security of your clients.

You’re invited to join Mark and other Adobe Experts to discover Acrobat XI Pro: "The Ultimate Multitasker" and Acrobat XI Cloud Services featuring Adobe electronic signatures, Adobe EchoSign. 

Acrobat XI Pro is packed with smart tools that give you even more power to communicate easily, seamlessly, and brilliantly.  From editing PDF text and graphics, to converting PDF files to PowerPoint presentations, to creating new PDF and web forms, to sending documents to others for signing, Acrobat XI is all new!  Plus, discover a truly integrated and complete electronic signature/web contracting solution that can be used on any computer, tablet or mobile phone with a web browser allowing documents to be signed by anyone anywhere.

Adobe Acrobat XI with Cloud Services
9:30am -12:30pm  | Breakfast and Registration at 9AM
Boston	Princeton	Philadelphia
Tuesday, October 16th The Westin Boston Waterfront 425 Summer Street Boston, MA 02210 (617) 532-4600 Directions	Wednesday, October 17th Westin Princeton Forrestal Village 201 Village Boulevard Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 452-7900 Directions	Thursday, October 18th The Westin Philadelphia 99 South 17th Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 563-1600 Directions
Click here for a detailed agenda   |   Add to your Calendar

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