Adobe Reader Blog

In December we announced an update of Adobe Reader for Android that fixed some issues we discovered with Android 4, and added a few enhancements based upon the great feedback we received from our users. The highlights include the reintroduction of the Reflow Text feature, the ability to remember the last read position, the ability to open PDF Portfolio content and attachments, and bug fixes that had been present since the release of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. See the post on the Acrobat Blog for more details on these updates.

We’re constantly working to improve Adobe Reader for Phones and Tablets, and we have some great enhancements already underway in 2012 that I’m sure you’ll be excited to see. We appreciate your ongoing feedback and support!

Dennis Griffin, Principal Product Manager, Adobe

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded, installed, and provided feedback on the most recent update for Adobe Reader for Android 10.1. While many users are happy with the updates we made in the release, we clearly made a mistake in removing the Reflow feature. We hear your comments and it’s our top priority to bring this feature back as quickly as possible. We will let you know as soon as we have additional updates.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback.

Dennis Griffin, Principle Product Manager, Adobe

We are excited to announce that today, Adobe Reader for iOS is available free on the Apple App Store. Just like Adobe Reader on the desktop, now you can use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to quickly view and interact with the widest range of PDF file types – including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and even Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files. For more details on Adobe Reader for iOS, including a video overview of the app, check out the blog from Anuj Gupta, product manager for Adobe Reader.

And, we just released Adobe Reader 10.1 for Android, offering many of the same great features for fast, high-quality interaction with PDF files on your Android smartphones and tablets. Simply scan the following QR code to download the latest version from Android marketplace. Enjoy!

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader

Today, we announced the availability of Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.1.1), 9.4.6 and 8.3.1. For more information regarding the security details in these releases, please see Security Bulletin APSB11-24. For detailed Release Notes, please see the Release Notes Library.

EchoSign for Adobe Reader
With Adobe Reader X (10.1.1), you can now click on the EchoSign link directly in Reader and you’ll be taken straight to the EchoSign page where you can start signing, sending and tracking your PDF documents. The entire signature process from the request for signature to the distribution and execution of the form or agreement is done online. The EchoSign signature service provides a secure subscription-based service to individuals, SMBs and enterprise customers. It enables real-time visibility into the signature process and automatically storing and managing all signed documents. We expect it will make electronic signatures the common way for people to sign documents.

Adobe Reader X(10.1.1) UI Enhancement
As we add new services, like EchoSign mentioned above, you will notice that the Reader UI has enhanced tools panes as well. Instead of “Comment” and “Share”, we have now re-organized them to hold “Tools” and “Comments”. These enhancements not only allow for better expansion in the future, they also provide a better user experience when accessing Reader’s advanced capabilities as tested with our end-users.

Adobe Reader and Acrobat Version 8 End of Support
As a reminder to the previous blog post: Adobe Reader and Acrobat Version 8 End of Support, Adobe provides five years of product support from the general availability date of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat (Windows and Macintosh – Note: Adobe only supports the most recent major version of Adobe Reader for Linux Version 9.x). In line with that policy, support for Adobe Reader 8.x and Adobe Acrobat 8.x will end on November 3, 2011.

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader

As stated in the Adobe Support Lifecycle Policy, Adobe provides five years of product support from the general availability date of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat (Windows and Macintosh – Note: Adobe only supports the most recent major version of Adobe Reader for Linux Version 9.x). In line with that policy, support for Adobe Reader 8.x and Adobe Acrobat 8.x will end on November 3, 2011.

End of Support
End of Support means that Adobe will no longer provide technical support or distribute runtimes, including product and/or security updates, for all derivatives of a product or product version (e.g. localized versions, minor upgrades, operating systems, dot and double-dot releases, and connector products).

Recommendation to Customers/Users
Adobe strongly recommends that customers update to the latest versions of Adobe Reader at: http://get.adobe.com/reader. By updating installations to the latest versions, customers benefit from the latest functional enhancements and improved security measures.

Additional Resources
For more information on the Adobe Support Lifecycle Policy, visit: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol. For a complete list of Adobe products and technical support periods covered under the policy, visit: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol/eol_matrix.html.

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader

With today’s release of the Safari 5.1 browser, we wanted to alert you of some compatibility issues and workarounds that relate to Adobe Reader and Acrobat. Adobe Reader and Acrobat are not compatible with the Safari 5.1 browser, announced today. Adobe Reader and Acrobat will continue to work as standalone applications on Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.6, and will render PDF documents outside of the browser, but applications that require the Adobe Reader or Acrobat plug-in to render PDF documents in the Safari browser will be affected. For Adobe Reader, Acrobat, and LiveCycle customers who utilize functionality like forms, digital signatures, portfolios, guides, 3D, extended PDFs and rights management, and who require the Adobe Reader or Acrobat plug-in to render PDF documents in the Safari browser, we recommend that you continue to use Safari 5.0.x and Mac OS X 10.6.

As we continue to investigate this, we will be sure to keep you updated. Currently, we expect to provide a better workaround for this issue in early 2012.

For more information, please see Knowledge Base Article CPSID_90885.

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader

Today, we announced the availability of Adobe Reader and Acrobat X (10.1). While addressing critical vulnerabilities, as mentioned in Security Bulletin APSB11-16, this important release also includes several other enhancements.

Auto-Updates
About a year ago, we released enhancements to the Adobe Reader Updater (see “Update on the New Updater“). At that time, our data showed that the user population was adopting our updates roughly three times faster than before. With Adobe Reader 10.1 for Windows, we’ve enhanced the fully-automated capability of the new updater, and will be moving our users to adopt that setting, by providing the dialog pictured below within the product.

As a reminder, “fully-automated” mode will regularly check for important updates, download them to your machine, and install them automatically. When finished, you will be alerted via a small message in the system tray that your software has been updated. This method is the recommended best practice for keeping Adobe Reader up-to-date and more secure given the fact that it does not require user intervention.

Acrobat Protected View
Leveraging the sandboxing work we did in Adobe Reader X, we’ve extended Adobe Reader Protected Mode to Acrobat 10.1 operating inside the browser. We’ve also introduced Protected View for Acrobat 10.1 operating in standalone mode. Protected View offers a simple view of documents, requiring confirmation before advanced functionality can run. For more information, see ASSET Blog Post: Inside Adobe Acrobat Protected View.

Enterprise Notes
Adobe Reader X (10.1) is a full installer on Windows and a cumulative update on Macintosh. Adobe Acrobat X (10.1) is a cumulative update on both Windows and Macintosh. As stated previously, SCUP catalogs are available for the Windows platform. For more information, please see the Release Notes.

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Reader

If you’re like me, you have a ton of useful and valuable information saved as PDFs on your laptop. And, if you’re like me, you get a little frustrated when you have to go back and edit those documents. The process is time-consuming, involves retyping your content with all the potential errors that brings, and often the results aren’t what you expected.

Not any longer. Today we announced Adobe ExportPDF, an easy-to-use, subscription-based, online PDF-to-Word converter that lets you reuse your Word content, which means you reduce errors, improve productivity and finish your projects faster than before. All you need to do is upload your PDF file to our online service via your Web browser. We turn it into a Word document that you then download and edit with ease.

Adobe ExportPDF converts PDF files to native Word 2010 or 2007 DOCX format and can convert the vast majority of PDF files around today, including those containing scanned documents. The only files that it won’t convert are PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDFs, or PDFs with permissions applied to prevent printing, copying or altering content. It will support the conversion of PDF files up to 100MB in size.
By the way, once you’ve edited your Word document, you can use Adobe CreatePDF to reconvert it to a PDF file that anyone can read using Adobe Reader. Learn more about CreatePDF here.

I expect ExportPDF will make my life easier. How about you? Annual ExportPDF subscriptions are just US$19.99 for unlimited conversions. So sign up today.

Todd Gerber, Group Product Marketing Manager, Acrobat.com Solutions

Today, we added support for four additional languages for Adobe Reader X for Android: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese and Korean.

You can download this free update (V10.0.1) from here (click from your Android device). With this update, you can now use Adobe Reader X in any of the seventeen languages – English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, Czech, Polish & Turkish.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts: you can post your comments on this blog or in the user forums.

Aman Deep Nagpal, Senior Product Manager, Acrobat Solutions

One of the important improvements in Acrobat and Reader X is that it’s easier to manage updates through support for Microsoft’s System Center Updates Publisher (SCUP). Using SCUP catalogs and Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), IT managers can manage the deployment of updates across their organization. Joel Geraci previewed this in his IT Matters blog in November where he also mentioned that our first SCUP catalogs would be available along with our first update.

Earlier this week, with the release of our 10.0.1 update, we included download locations for our first SCUP catalogs. You can find them in the release notes. We’ll also be including them in release notes for updates going forward.

There are separate SCUP catalogs for Acrobat X and Reader X. You can download them from the following URLs:

http://armmf.adobe.com/arm-manifests/win/SCUP/Acrobat10_Catalog.cab
http://armmf.adobe.com/arm-manifests/win/SCUP/Reader10_Catalog.cab

You’ll find instructions for deploying updates using SCUP and SCCM in our Enterprise Administration Guide which is available on our Enterprise Administration page.

Still hungry for more on SCUP and Acrobat and Reader X for IT? Joel and I will be talking about SCUP and other deployment improvements for Acrobat and Reader X in a free Tech Talk on February 22. Join us.

Chris French, Senior Product Manager, Acrobat Solutions