Jonathan Bowman’s AEC & EPC Blog

I have received several questions asking why a comment made in Acrobat automatically takes your computer login id?  Several corporations use unique naming conventions for their employee login id’s which usually consist of a series of numbers and letters.  If you make a comment in Acrobat it takes this id by default.  Then other users have issues in trying to identify who user “xyz1234” really is.  Today I am going to show you how you can change this to reflect your true identity.

The first thing you will need to do is change the preference that tells Acrobat to use your login id.  This can be done by simply navigating to Edit – Preferences – Commenting.  The following screen will then be displayed.

 

 

 

 

You want to uncheck the box under “Making Comments” that says “Always use Log-in Name for Author name".  Once you have done this then you can click OK to exit the preferences.

 

Next you want to apply a comment, such as a note, to a document as show below.

 

 

 

The first time you add a note your login id will still be used to generate the identity on the note.  Now you need to change the identity so that if reflect the author’s name that is associated to the note.  To do this you will need to select Options – Properties in the Note window.  Once you have opened this window, select the General Tab.

 

 

 

This is where you can change the Author to reflect your identity versus your login name.  All you have to do is type the name you want to use for your comments in the Author field and check the box that says “Make Properties Default” as shown below.

 

 

 

 

Now each time you place a comment on the pdf it will reflect the Author name you have designated above. 

 

Have Fun,

 

Jonathan

 

 

 

Posted by Jonathan Bowman at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the best features in Acrobat is the ability to round trip comments.  Starting in Acrobat 7 Pro we gave you the ability to enable users with the Free Adobe Reader software to fully participate in document review with complete commenting and markup tools.  The great thing about this is it give you about 90% of desktops that you are able to communicate with and solicit comments.  The two document types in the AEC industry that use this today to solicit feedback and round trip comments, is on Word documents and AutoCad drawings.  For this entry I am going to take you how to complete this process on a Word document.

I am going to start with the pdf document.  To get to this point you can take any word document and convert it to pdf.  The first step is to enable the file so that it turns on the Review and Commenting tools for those users with the Free Adobe Reader.  If you do not do this step, then others users will need at least Acrobat Standard to participate.  This step can be accomplished several ways.  The two review and comment options of “Attach for Email Review” or “Send for Shared Review” will Reader Enable the file .  If it is more of an informal process then you can simply enable the file from the top Comments Menu as shown here:

 

 

Note:  If you would have used “Attach for Email” or “Send for Shared Review” the Adobe Reader would have automatically been enabled for you.

 

Next you need to distribute for review and comment.  If you are not using the methods described above then you simply email or store the file on a central location where other users are able to access the file.

 

Once a user opens the file then they can simply start Review and Commenting on the document.  Below is an example of a document that has been marked up.

 

 

 

Once all desired comments have been placed on the pdf you can now simply import those comments back into the original native authoring document which is Word in this case.  To do so you must open up the original document and choose Acrobat Comments from the top tool menu and then select Import Comments from Acrobat as show here.

 

 

 

 

You will then be prompted with the following screen that confirms you action and allows you to start the import process.

 

 

 

 

You will then be prompted by a box that allows you to specify the comment types that you want to import.

 

 

 

 

When you continue from this screen it will then prompt you to integrate the text edits into the document.  So text that has been inserted, deleted or changed can then be placed directly into the document.

 

 

 

 

Once you have completed all the text edits you will come to the last screen which gives you the import summary.

 

 

 

 

Once you integrate the text edits you are then presented will all the comments in the native Word Document in which you can then use to continue authoring the document.

 

 

 

This is a great feature that you can use to review Word Documents or even use for AutoCad drawings.  What I like the most about this feature is that the review and commenting tools are much easier to use in Acrobat.  I also like the fact that whomever I send the document to for review, chances are they will have Acrobat or the Free Adobe Reader in which to complete the review.  For AutoCad you would follow the same process as outlined above.

 

Have fun,

 

Jonathan

 

Posted by Jonathan Bowman at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had an overwhelming response at the Greenbuild Conference!  There were many interesting conversations over the course of 3 days.  The biggest question that we had to answer was "what are you doing here?" There are many reasons we attended and exhibited at the Greebuild conference, but here are my top 3.

Can you say Platinum???  Even more, we have achieved Platinum status on all three of our corporate towers in San Jose.  Not only that, we were the firsts ones to do it.  For those of you who are not familiar with what I am talking about, Platinum in the highest status you can achieve for "LEED" certification through the U.S. Green Building Council.  The certification process was designed to promote building that is economically profitable, environmentally friendly, and healthy and productive places to work.  The ratings to achieve this status are based on six categories:  sustainability; water efficiency; energy efficiency and atmospheric quality; use of materials and resources; indoor environmental quality; and innovations in upgrades, operations and maintenance.  A lot of attendee's at the conference were seeking ways in which they can improve their facilities and we were there to tell you how we did it. 

 

The second reason we were there was to become LEED certified you have to use our technology.  For those of you who have taken part in the process, you should have recognized the forms that you were filling out.  As part of the LEED-Online, you simply fill out information in a pdf form and submit for approval.  On the backbend our LiveCycle technology routes the form for the appropiate review and approval.  By using Adobe's technology for this process, it makes is a seamless experience to where you are not having to focus on the technology and it allows you to focus on the content to achieve LEED Certification.

 

Last but not least, has anyone heard of Adobe Acrobat?  What a lot of people do not know is that for the last 3 years we have been putting specific functionality into Acrobat to meet the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industry's needs.  At the conference we were showing several different ways you can use the application to further increase you efficiency in your day to day job duties.  Many of you were impressed by Acrobat 3D, which allows you to convert your 3D models into a pdf format and still have full 3D interaction with the model.  On top of that it gives you on average a 100x compression, and anyone with the Free Adobe Reader can also view and interact with the model.  Also, pdf gives you the ability to have a paperless workflow.  If you noticed we did not have one piece of marketing literature in the booth.  We were able to give you all our information on a thumb drive to further promote the Green initiative.

 

Several of you who attended were frustrated at the conference logistics.  The conference has had record growth in the last couple of years.  If you look at the "green construction" industry in general it is currently a $20 billion dollar market and projected to grow to $60 billion by the year 2010.  A lot of you were not able to obtain your badges due to the 2-3 hr wait.  We are now in the process of putting your information in by hand for the software give away's that we were conducting at the booth.  Hopefully in Boston next year they will have the logistics worked out for the record number of attendee's. 

 

Have fun,

 

Jonathan

 

 

 

Posted by Jonathan Bowman at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)