Author Archive: Rebecca Staley

Updates to Adobe Reader Mobile

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (11)

This week we’ve got a new release of the Adobe Reader Mobile app for Android and iOS. We’ve been reading all the reviews you’ve posted, and we’re happy to announce that we’ve worked in a couple often-requested features. We have three different platforms that we’ve just released, each with some unique enhancements.

File management for Acrobat.com files.

This has been a common request ever since we added both Cloud Storage and enhanced file management. It just took us a little longer to get the combination working together. Now you can delete and rename the files you have stored in Acrobat.com from directly within the Reader app.

View notes attached to text markups.

If your file has notes attached to the highlighted, underlined, or struck-out text, Reader will now show a ‘note’ icon to let you know that there’s a comment attached; just tap the icon to read it. In a future update we’ll also allow you to add a note to your own text highlights (right now, you can already add a comment anywhere on your document).

Updated iPhone UI

We’re adding more capabilities to our iPhone app, and we’ve outgrown the old bottom icon bar design. So we’ve moved to a new model with a sliding pane. Seeing this new design in action will make it much more clear than whatever we’d be able to describe here.

Access to your Acrobat cloud services. If you’re a subscriber to ExportPDF or CreatePDF, you can now take advantage of that subscription from within the Adobe Reader app on your iPhone or iPad. Just open the file you want to export from or convert to PDF and you’ll see an extra little button in the top menu bar. Track your file’s conversion progress in your Outbox (also new in this release). This will be coming to Android later this year, but we didn’t want to wait before letting our iOS users have it.

We’ve also made a couple of small improvements to our Android app that we think are worth mentioning, because they were direct customer comments that we addressed.

Keep your Cloud Cache private.

We want to keep an eye out for your data’s safety. The SD card of Android devices isn’t necessarily always safe from prying eyes, so we’ve moved our Acrobat.com cloud cache to the private data area so other apps can’t see the files unless you want them to. You can still move it back to the SD card if you really want to, though.

Open HTTP links

Our Android Reader can now directly handle links like https://path/file.pdf, so you can have Reader open PDFs without first downloading and locating the file on your device.

Performance improvements and Bug Fixes.

We’re always looking into fixing bugs and improving the performance of the app, and have fixed many of the issues that users have reported to us over the past few months. If you notice something that we haven’t, come to our forums to let us know what you’re thinking or experiencing!

Android forum

iOS forum 

Now that you know what’s on the line, get out there and update! Don’t forget to give us a review in the app stores or leave us a comment here on the blog; we always want to hear about how you’re using (or would like to use) Adobe Reader Mobile. What do you think we should include in the next release?

Raise your hand if you’re reading this on your smartphone right now.

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (2)

Okay, well, we can’t see if you raised your hand or not. But we do know that many of you are doing lots of work from phones and tablets. We also know that every day there seem to be new ways to keep your productivity levels up, even if your laptop has crashed or you’re away from your desk. Our personal favorite (surprise, surprise) is to store all of our files in Acrobat.com, where we can access them from the Adobe Reader mobile app to read, make comments, and even add our signature to documents. It’s amazingly simple to find your cloud documents from a mobile device.

All that being said, we also realize that sometimes you are, in fact, on a laptop or desktop computer; so why should it be any more difficult to open your Acrobat.com files from Adobe Reader on your standard work machine? The answer is, it’s not: you can open up your Acrobat.com files from within Adobe Reader without ever opening a browser window. Just go to “File > Open…” in Adobe Reader and in the “Open” dialog box, select the option “Open from Online Account” and then choose “Acrobat.com”.

Screen Shot 2013-06#F375A92 (3)

You’ll be prompted to sign into your account; once you’ve logged in, you’ll see a list of all the files you’ve stored in Acrobat.com. You’ll be shown PDF files by default, but you can also choose to view all your files, PDF or not. You can search for a specific document with the search bar, or sort the visible documents by name, date, file size, and more.

Screen Shot 2013-06#F375A12 (3)

You can also access your files from the “Tools” pane whenever you’ve got another file open. Just expand the “Store Files” panel and click the link that says “Open Acrobat.com Files”. You’ll go through exactly the same process delineated above.

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No matter whether you’re on the road or at your desk, Adobe Reader can put you in touch with all the important documents you’ve got stored in the cloud. Unfortunately, now you have no excuses not to get your work done.

Get to know Acrobat.com with Adobe Reader

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (25)

Take a minute to think about the way you currently store and access your important PDF files. Maybe you’ve got an external hard drive that you carry around with you, or maybe you email documents to yourself and call that “cloud storage”. Maybe you just store them locally and hope your computer doesn’t crash. In any case, Acrobat.com and Adobe Reader can help you do better: any PDF document you’ve uploaded to Acrobat.com can be opened with Adobe Reader on your laptop, desktop, even your smartphone or tablet with the Adobe Reader mobile app. That means instant access across all your devices. Doesn’t that sound easier than scrolling through your inbox looking for a specific attachment? Yes, we think so too. Read on for details.

By now, you probably know that when you’ve got any file open in Reader, you can upload it to Acrobat.com just by clicking the “Upload” icon in the toolbar.

Upload to Acrobat.com

The Tools pane will open up and you can watch the upload’s progress. But maybe you didn’t know that you can also access those uploaded files (and all your other Acrobat.com files) from that same Tools pane: in the “Store Files” panel, notice the link marked “Open Acrobat.com Files”. If you’re signed in, you can click that link to pull up a window with all of the files you’ve stored in the cloud.

Open from Acrobat.com

You can even sort them or filter them if you need help finding a specific document:

  • Use the Search bar in the upper left to find a particular document by title or keyword; just start typing and the relevant documents will appear.
  • In the upper right, click the menu icon for viewing options. You can sort according to name, date, size, or format, and can filter out visible documents according to one or more of those same attributes.

Open from Acrobat.com

Once you start using Acrobat.com to store and access your files, we think you’ll get used to this method of cloud storage pretty quickly – especially because you won’t even have to open a browser to access the cloud.

Adobe Reader XI: Not just for reading anymore (Part II)

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (48)

In our last post, we were talking about all the time-saving ways you could use Adobe’s online document services through Adobe Reader XI; now, we’d like to share just how to get that work done. But here’s the thing: there is no way to explain just how simple it is to use these services. Will that keep us from trying? No way. As soon as you catch on, feel free to open up Adobe Reader and try it yourself (we don’t think it will take you very long).

The key to using any of the services – with or without Adobe Reader – is your Adobe ID. It’s how you identify yourself to each service, and it’s how you sync all of your information between Reader, Reader Mobile, Acrobat.com, and any of the other services you’re using. (Don’t have one? Don’t worry. You can create one for free at any place you would otherwise sign in; you can even do so within Adobe Reader! Read on.) There are several ways to sign in from within Adobe Reader, but one of the quickest ways is to open up your Tools pane; here’s what that looks like:

  1. Click on “Tools” in the upper right corner of the application.
  2. Once the Tools pane is open, you’ll see a little blue bar at the top of the pane with a “Sign In” link. Click on that. (If you see your name there already, you’re already signed in – good work!)
  3. A pop-up window will appear where you’ll be able to sign in. If you don’t have an Adobe ID, you can create one with that same pop-up window.

Easy, right? And now that you’re signed in, you can access any of the services in that Tools pane. All of your subscriptions are associated with your Adobe ID, so if you’ve subscribed to one or more of the services, you’ll have those paid options available to you. Otherwise, you’ll have access to the services at their free or trial level, where available (for more info on pricing, see: Acrobat.com, SendNow, ExportPDF, CreatePDF.). Here’s how to access each of the services from Reader:

  1. Export a PDF file to Word or Excel by expanding the “Export PDF” panel. Choose the PDF file to convert (the document that’s currently open will be the default here), and choose the format you’d like to convert it to (.docx, .doc, .xls, or .rtf). Click on “Convert”, and watch the magic happen. When the conversion is finished, you’ll be prompted to save the converted file to your computer – or, if you prefer, directly to an Office 365 or SharePoint location. Want to give it a shot? Subscribe to ExportPDF.
  2. Create a new PDF file by opening up the panel marked “Create PDF”; just click to choose the file you’d like to use. As with ExportPDF, you can choose from locations on your computer or from an online location. Now click “Convert”. Give Adobe Reader a few seconds to communicate with the CreatePDF servers, and voila – you’ll get a prompt to open the newly converted PDF file in Adobe Reader. Have we even had to leave Adobe Reader yet? No. Convert your own files by subscribing to CreatePDF.
  3. When it comes to sending files with Adobe SendNow, you’ll see some options: choose the file and the recipient, and then write a message to be delivered along with the file. You can decide whether you’d like your recipient to sign in for access to the file; you can opt for delivery receipts to find out when the file has been downloaded; and you can limit the time that the file will be available for download. All without ever leaving the Adobe Reader window you’ve got open already. For the full range of features, try a SendNow subscription.
  4. Finally, open up that last panel to upload the current document to Acrobat.com for secure storage and access from any device; the free service includes 2 GB of storage space and hooks into Adobe Reader Mobile for reading on the road. You don’t even need a subscription for this service; just use your Adobe ID to access your own cloud storage account.

When we told you that Adobe Reader wasn’t just for reading anymore, maybe you thought that we were being facetious. We were not: Adobe Reader XI grants you access to all these services and more, and all you need to get started is an Adobe ID. Time to give Adobe Reader another look, people; see what this software can do to amp up your workflow and inject some more time into your day by downloading it for free.

Adobe Reader XI: Not just for reading anymore

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Rebecca Staley | Comments (28)

Adobe Reader has been around for a while now – nearly 20 years, in fact. In those two decades, there have been a lot of changes, both in the digital document industry and in Reader itself. The most recent incarnation of Adobe Reader is without a doubt the most robust version yet, thanks in no small part to the fact that this Reader is no longer just for reading. With Adobe Reader XI, we’re bringing your work tools to where you’re doing your work; we’ve added a new Tools pane to help you access our online document services quickly and easily from within the Reader interface. Here’s what we’ve included to help you get your work done:

  • If you have a PDF file open and you want to make some changes to the content, you can export that PDF file to Word, Excel, and other formats using ExportPDF and continue your work in one of those natively editable formats. That includes scanned PDF files or image-only PDF files; even if you can’t search the file’s text, you can still export it. Instead of starting from scratch or manually copying and pasting text from the document, you can save time by converting to one of the formats that you edit documents with every day without skipping a beat.
  • When it comes time to convert that file back to PDF or to combine several files into a single PDF document, open up the “Create PDF” panel from the Tools pane and take advantage of the CreatePDF service to do just that. You can use CreatePDF to create and combine multiple files online and store those documents in the cloud from wherever you may be, and you can do it from Adobe Reader with just a few clicks.
  • When you’re looking at a PDF file that you want to distribute or share with colleagues and clients, you can send the document to them securely and track that document’s activity with Adobe SendNow. Your subscription will allow you to send documents of up to 2GB; you can even add custom branding to SendNow emails and download pages. Definitely beats sending a hard drive via overnight mail!
  • What about those times when you’re halfway through a 200-page document but you’ve got to leave the office? With a single click you can upload that document to Acrobat.com and access the file (at whatever page you left it on) from the Acrobat.com folder in Adobe Reader Mobile for iOS or Android. Acrobat.com lets you access all of your files from virtually any device, whenever you need them; why stay bound to a desk when Adobe Reader can follow you wherever you go, and Acrobat.com always has your files stored securely in the cloud?

Adobe Reader XI makes all of this happen directly from the Tools pane, your personal portal to productivity. Take a look at your options by clicking on “Tools” in the upper right corner of Reader the next time you open a document; you’ll be amazed at the things you can do. All you need to get started is an Adobe ID, which is free to create; sign in or create your ID through the Tools pane to see what these services can do for you and your workflow.

Next week, we’ll get granular and go over the how-to for each of the tools available to you in Reader; tune in to get the good news!