Legal
The views expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Search
May 14, 2009
Announcing Lori's Corner on Adobe TV
As many of my readers know, I've been hosting a 'tech corner' on AcrobatUsers.com for the past few years entitled "Lori's Corner" with tips & tricks and a 'Dear Lori' section where people can ask me Acrobat questions. During the redesign of AcrobatUsers.com (December 2008) the information in the tech corner was integrated into the tutorials section.
It is important for me to continue a relationship with the Acrobat Community and therefore, I would like to announce a new Lori's Corner - now on Adobe TV. The first episode is a book review of titles on Acrobat 9. My guest is Ali Hanyaloglu.
Enjoy- and if you want to send me a "Dear Lori" -- I'll welcome your question.
March 19, 2009
The Ultimate Tourney Guide
On Sunday night, the NCAA (men's college basketball in US) announced the 64 teams participating in their yearly tournament to determine the best basketball team in the country. Adobe along with ESPN have partnered to bring an interactive PDF document to your desktop to allow you to learn about the teams (via streaming video), watch the progress of the tournament bracket, and participate in daily polls.
This document is a great example of what's possible with Acrobat (and Reader) 9 now that we have Adobe Flash run-time in the product.
Let me know your experience, and I hope your team wins!
March 9, 2009
Acrobat & Adobe Reader 9.1 Update Available
An update to Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 is now available. In addition to a security update, there are a few more items:
Updated Software Support
To ensure compatibility with the latest software releases, this update includes support for:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008
- IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 (specifically for Acrobat PDFMaker in email and using Notes for collaboration)
- Autodesk AutoCAD 2009: Acrobat PDFMaker installed in AutoCAD and Acrobat’s 3D Import options
Additionally, there’s support for:
- Catalan and Basque languages
- Using the Pencil tool to add an electronic signature if you’re using a TabletPC or tablet/stylus device
The PDF Portfolio templates posted in August are now included in the update, and of course, some bug fixes.
Where's the software?
Here's the direct links to the software updates.Adobe Reader 9.1 is a full install; Acrobat 9.1 is an update:
Adobe Reader 9.1 : Full install
Acrobat 9.1 Standard : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro (Win) : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro (Mac) : Update
Acrobat 9.1 Pro Extended : Update
January 11, 2009
Announcement: Survey for Adobe Reader Users
The Adobe Reader Team has posted a survey today asking what you want most in the next versions of Adobe Reader. The survey should take 5 minutes or less to complete and is available until January 31, 2009.
December 15, 2008
Addressing New Encryption Laws in Nevada and Massachusetts
Earlier this year, laws were passed in both Nevada and Massachusetts requiring PII (personally identifiable information) be encrypted when stored or transmitted. The Nevada law went into effect October 1, 2008. The Massachusetts law will go into effect in January 2009.
In the text of the laws no specific technology or methodology is called out, but I'm happy to say that both Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle solutions can be used to meet these requirements.
In the text of the laws no specific technology or methodology is called out, but I'm happy to say that both Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle solutions can be used to help you meet these requirements. For example, PDF documents that might contain PII can be encrypted using Acrobat 9's new 256-bit AES encryption or LiveCycle Rights Management; these PDF documents can certified and secured using digital signatures; and Acrobat 9 can examine documents for hidden information and PII can be searched and permanently removed using redaction tools.
I'll continue to update this post as new information surfaces around the laws and specific solutions that will address these two laws, and of course, any new mandates in 2009.
December 10, 2008
Announcement: Acrobat Channel on Adobe TV
I am very happy to announce that we now have an Acrobat Channel on Adobe TV.
At this time, there are two shows - Acrobat Tips & Tricks and Customer Stories. Each show will continue to build out new episodes.
Stay Tuned!
August 15, 2008
PDF Portfolios on the Web
Adobe Reader 9 was released at the beginning of July, and now, just a few weeks later, we're seeing PDF Portfolios on the Web. PDF Portfolios allow the content creator to wrap the information in customized PDF Portfolio template that leverages the Flash Player runtime which is part of Acrobat & Adobe Reader 9. To best view these portfolios, I recommend using Adobe Reader 9 or Acrobat 9. You can download Adobe Reader 9 or a trial of Acrobat 9 for viewing.
For example BNET posted today 4 PDF Portfolios in their Business Library section:
a. BNET Energy: The Green Enterprise
b. BNET BookBriefs: Own Your Job, Don't Let It Own You
c. BNET BookBriefs: Make Your Business Stand Out From the Crowd
d. BNET Best Practices to Managing Employees
PCWorld has highlighted this PDF Portfolio, entitled PC World's Guide to Mobile Living on their home page.
And I was alerted to 2 more from Nikkei Business Publications (both in Japanese):
An example of an on-line magazine with examples of embedded 3D, images, and multimedia and tips for How to Conduct Effective Presentations
I hope you enjoy these great examples of what you can do with PDF Portfolios. If you know of some PDF Portfolios on the Web - let me know!
August 14, 2008
ANNOUNCEMENT: Acrobat 9 PDF Portfolio Contest
Come one, come all…. AcrobatUsers.com is hosting a contest for the best PDF Portfolio. Entries will be judged based on use of Acrobat 9 features, originality & creativity, and overall polish & aesthetics. All entries will be displayed in the new PDF Portfolio Gallery on Acrobatusers.com (coming soon). First place will be a box of Acrobat 9 Pro Extended (Windows) or Acrobat 9 Pro (Mac); 2nd place is an iPod Nano; and 3rd place is a T-shirt.
The contest is open now, and will run through October 7th, 2008. I’ve already submitted my entry – made up of Adobe literature. I encourage you to take a stab at it. Creating a PDF Portfolio template is fun.
Also – please note -- you do not need to buy Acrobat 9 to participate – just download the free 30 day trial – http://www.adobe.com/tryacrobat.
July 1, 2008
WooHoo! Adobe Reader 9 is here!
Adobe Reader 9 is now freely available from Adobe.com. It is currently available in English, French, German, and Japanese for Windows (2000 SP4 and higher) or Mac OS X (10.4.11 and higher).
Get a copy, and then download these examples of documents created with Acrobat 9:
- this PDF Portfolio, which contains some of the Acrobat 9 marketing materials and a Flash movie.
- this Flash application which includes a flash controller, flash playbar, flash movie and captions which can be useful for accessibility requirements, or subtitles for localization.
and, let me know if you have some samples created with Acrobat 9 that I can showcase here.
PDF Widget on Acrobat.com
Many times I've seen a link to a PDF document and thought that maybe it contained the information I needed but I didn't want to wait for the download, or worse yet... I wait for the download and then the file isn't what I really wanted.One of the cool new features of Acrobat.com (Adobe's new free hosted services — currently in public beta) allows you to embed a widget directly in your HTML page (like I've done below) - to allow you to view the PDF content — inline — in the HTML page before deciding if you want to download it. For example, this file is now 10 MB after I attached the exercise files to the PDF document for convenience.
(Please note: you'll need Adobe Flash Player installed to view this content)
How do you do this yourself?
- Login to Acrobat.com. If you don't have an account yet, don't worry. It's free - and you just click Sign Up to get started.
- Upload the file you want to make available in your HTML page.
- Select Copy Embed Code from the details pod (Figure 1) or if you are looking at all of your files (figure 2)
just click on the arrow to the right of the file name and select Copy Embed Code from the dropdown.
Figure 1. Document is open 
Figure 2. Viewing all documents - Place the copied link into your html page, similar to this example:
<html><title>Demonstration of using PDF Widget in a Web Page</title>
<body><p>The following is a preview of PDF content hosted on Acrobat.com</p>
<p><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/
shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,115,0" width="365" height="500"> <param name="movie" value="https://share.acrobat.com/adc/flex/mpt.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/> <param name="flashvars" value="ext=pdf&docId=1826d5f7-ab86-4350-9590-d55c7a18f1c5"/> <embed src="https://share.acrobat.com/adc/flex/mpt.swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="365" height="500" wmode="transparent" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="ext=pdf&docId=1826d5f7-ab86-4350-9590-d55c7a18f1c5"> </embed> </object></p>
<p>Really cool, right?</p>
</body></html>
And my HTML page looks like this
Figure 3. HTML Example displayed in Safari browser.
Now I can flip through the file, and determine if it is indeed the information I wanted, and then select Download or Share from the menu, and I'm directed to Acrobat.com.
Notice here in Figure 4 that I'm prompted to download (vs. preview) due to the fact that here is additional functionality in this PDF supported on in Acrobat and Reader -- that is basically the fact that I've attached the exercise files to the PDF document as an attachment.
Figure 4. Message appears when viewing in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader delivers the best experience.
Enjoy!
June 23, 2008
Reminder -- Acrobat 9 eSeminar
I will be presenting Redefine the Way You Communicate, a one-hour eSeminar on Thursday, June 26th at 9:00 am Pacific and will repeat the content again at 12:00 noon Pacific. If you're not based in the Pacific time zone, you can visit http://www.timeanddate.com/ to do a time zone conversion.
The topic will be Acrobat 9 — how can Acrobat and PDF help you be more productive in your day-to-day tasks. I will cover quite a range of topics including Acrobat's built-in workflows for collecting feedback — either feedback in a fillable PDF form, or feedback on documents as part of a review.
As you may have heard, or read earlier, we've added Adobe Flash to Acrobat and Adobe Reader 9, so I will review how you can use Adobe Flash to punch up presentations, create PDF Portfolios to deliver your information, and embed multimedia in your documents to help your reader understand exactly what you're trying to convey.
And, as a final treat... I will go over improvements for creating PDF documents — from web pages, from your clipboard, or by scanning paper to PDF.
Hope you can make it!
Click here to register/attend.
June 2, 2008
Acrobat 9: A revolutionary release
Yes, I've been "dark" for a few weeks. I've been preparing for today! I truly believe that this release of Acrobat (and Adobe Reader) will be a "game changing" event -- just like desktop publishing in the 1980's and web publishing in the 1990's.The marriage of Flash and PDF (just like the marriage of Macromedia and Adobe) creates a union stronger than the separate parts. That’s right – the Adobe Flash runtime (based on version 9) is baked right into Acrobat and Reader. That means that any Flash content you’ve added to a PDF document on your computer – either Flash Video (FLV) or a Flash animation or application (SWF) – will just work on anyone else’s computer – as long as they’re using Acrobat or Adobe Reader 9.
The Acrobat Family.
We have three products in the family now -- Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. Each product fulfills a certain market segment – for example, Acrobat 9 Standard is great for creating and distributing PDF documents and forms! That’s right – Acrobat 9 Standard has the ability to create fillable PDF forms, distribute these forms, and collect the information in a simple and streamlined fashion. I’ve included a quick demonstration of this process.
Acrobat 9 Pro (formerly Acrobat Professional) continues to be our workhorse product for people who need to work with PDF documents – either to work more closely with others, like using the commenting tools and workflows to collect feedback, to ensuring your documents are sanitized, to working with PDF documents for print production. If you want to learn more about improvements and updates to collaboration, take a look at The Same Page – a blog focused on Acrobat and Collaboration.
And the newest addition – Acrobat 9 Pro Extended – is the ultimate toolset for working with PDF documents. Acrobat 9 Pro Extended has all the capabilities of Acrobat 3D version 8, but also so much more… There’s a Video-to-Flash transcoder which allows drag-and-drop of any type of multimedia format onto Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, and it’s converted to Flash video automatically. And, Adobe Presenter – a powerful add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint, is included! This technology is so cool. It allows you to add audio, video, and SWF in a PowerPoint presentation and then save it to PDF for viewing offline. If you want a deeper look at the differences between the products check out the feature matrix.
Oh.. and one more thing... Acrobat 9 is now available in 28 languages! To see the full list you can refer to the Language Support page.
I expect to share more with you this week, and please feel free to send me comments so that I can help you understand the Acrobat 9 family.
If you want more information...
Take a look at the blogs and articles on AcrobatUsers.com. These contributors have been in the Acrobat pre-release program and can share their first-hand experience with the product family.
Also.. feel free to sign up to be notified when the free Acrobat 9 trial download will be available.
September 25, 2007
Next up ... Adobe MAX
Adobe is hosting three Adobe MAX 2007 conferences this year:
North America: Chicago which starts on Sunday
Europe: Barcelona starting October 15 and
Japan: Tokyo on November 1 and 2.
I'm excited to return to MAX this year, attending in both North America and Europe, hosting a hands-on session called "I didn't know you could do that!" and hanging out at the Acrobat User Community stand. At our kick-off event in Chicago, there are multiple sessions dedicated to Acrobat and/or PDF – Jim King is going to cover standards; Thom Parker has a great talk entitled Pimp my PDF, where he will cover how to jazz up your audience's PDF experience. This session is not to be missed! And as Johnny L mentions in his blog, the sneak peek session is always a highlight.
If you're attending, please feel free to track me down.
September 20, 2007
Supported PDF functionality - Mac OS 10.4
I'm always being asked -- how does the implementation of PDF on my Mac compare to what Adobe offers in Acrobat and Adobe Reader. So, I went to PDF guru, Leonard Rosenthol
.
Figure 1. Default view Figure 2. All white items are unsupported
As background information - the PDF Specification - version 1.x through 1.7 - has been published by Adobe and made freely available on our website. Vendors choose to implement features/functionality as it makes sense for their use.
And of course... if there is an error in this chart, please let me know.
June 13, 2007
Font Packs to use with Acrobat or Reader 8
If you're having trouble finding the Asian Font Packs and/or the European Extended Font Pack for Acrobat/Reader 8 on Adobe.com - not to worry. They're on our FTP site now as MSI files, and will be posted on Adobe.com later this summer as full installers (similar to Acrobat 7).
The Eastern European Font Pack includes Thai, Hebrew, and Arabic.
The Asian fonts - Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, and Korean are each in their own MSI file.
Please note: with these MSI files - you must copy the MSI installer to an empty directory and then run the installer from that directory. We've seen problems if there are other files in the directory. This is only an issue with the MSI files - this will not be a problem when we get the files posted on Adobe.com as full installers.
June 5, 2007
ANNOUNCEMENT: Acrobat 8.1 available today
As of today, an update to Acrobat 8, upgrading Acrobat 8 to Acrobat 8.1 (Professional & Standard) is available via Adobe Updater (in Acrobat). A download on Adobe.com will be available later this month (I'll update you when it is live)
The 8.1 release works with Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Vista. Both PDF as a file format and Acrobat as an application are now "first class" citizens in these environments.
In Office 2007 - we are conforming to the new ribbon UI and are fully integrated. (Figure 1)
Figure 1. Acrobat Ribbon in Microsoft Word 2007
In MSFT Vista - PDF will preview similar to other supported file formats, and of course, you can create PDF by simply right clicking on supported file formats (Word, Excel, PPT, JPG, etc.) (Figure 2)
Figure 2. Right-click on any supported application in Microsoft Vista to create Adobe PDF.
My favorite integration with Office 2007 is with Outlook 2007. Now, when you open an email message in preview mode that has a PDF attachment – you see the PDF in the preview pane. You can view full page, or page width, and even navigate multi-page files. (Figure 3)
Figure 3. PDF Preview in Outlook 2007.
Also - at the request of our customer base, we're supporting 64-bit Citrix and Windows environments. Acrobat is still a 32-bit application, but for folks running 64-bit Citrix environments, or who load Acrobat on a 64-bit Windows system, Acrobat will work as advertised.
For additional information, I recommend you review http://www.adobe.com/acrobat and http://www.acrobatusers.com/ for articles and tips from our contributors on the updates in Acrobat 8.1.
Adobe Reader 8.1 is also available today.
April 14, 2007
Announcement: Activities at AIIM/OnDemand
This week is the annual AIIM/OnDemand conference. The conference will be at the new Boston Convention Center, and Adobe has quite a few activities planned. Three events that don't require a conference pass include:
- Acrobat Developer Workshop on Wednesday afternoon, hosted by Joel Geraci, Technical Evangelist, Acrobat/PDF
- Adobe User Group meeting on Thursday morning, hosted by Ali Hanyaloglu and I
- Creative Suite 3 Deep Dive, either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, presented by Tim Plumer.
Each events will be held in room 104C at the Boston Convention Center. If you're in town for the conference, or if you're based in the Boston area, please feel free to join us for one or more of these events. Registration is available here.
March 28, 2007
Acrobat 3D Version 8 live on Adobe Labs
There's a first time for everything... I'm happy to see our first Acrobat family product on Adobe Labs! Acrobat 3D Version 8 is the next generation version incorporating the excellent technology acquired from TTF in early 2006. Take it for a drive!
March 12, 2007
Adobe Acrobat for IT Professionals eSeminar Series
Joel Geraci, our Acrobat/PDF Technical Evangelist, is hosting 5 eSeminars to address topics of interest to IT professionals and Acrobat/PDF developers: Security, Collaboration Best Practices, JavaScript & Forms, and the Acrobat SDK. These seminars will run from March 21 - June 13 on Wednesdays at 9:00 am Pacific.
More information and registration information is available here.
March 8, 2007
Acrobat 8 ACE is available now
The Acrobat 8 ACE exam is now available. For Acrobat 7 we offered two exams (Print Production and LiveCycle Designer), however, we now consolidated into one Acrobat 8 test. There will be a recertification exam (testing on just the new features, via the internet) in a few weeks, and the full exam is now available at testing centers.
For more information see - http://www.adobe.com/support/certification/ace.html.
The exam prep guide hasn't yet been posted yet on Adobe.com so I've attached a copy here.
Good Luck - and let me know if you're Certified on Acrobat 8 - I'll promote it here.
February 14, 2007
AcrobatUsers.com Turns One
Today marks the one year anniversary for AcrobatUsers.com. If you haven't had the chance to visit yet - please stop by. If you've been following us this year - we appreciate the support. We have over 10, 000 registered members, 18 chapters, and lots of new functionality introduced in recent months. I appreciate the tireless efforts of our bloggers and "Ask the Expert" contributors.
My personal goal for 2007 is to have a portal for Acrobat Connect users and content localized for non-English speaking members.
Happy Birthday AcrobatUsers.com
(and Happy Valentine's Day to each of you)
January 29, 2007
PDF University 2007 in Miami Beach
The 2nd annual PDF University will be held in Miami Beach Feb 28 - Mar 3. I'll be there to present in the track PDF for Document Publishing. I will focus on what's new in Acrobat 8 as it relates to a business user.
To kick off this track, I'm hosting an Adobe User Group breakfast (full breakfast - not just danish) at the convention center @ 7:30 am on March 2nd. Registration and Room Location to follow. With the co-location of The Creative Suite Conference, I expect we'll get folks from the InDesign crowd as well.
As always, we'll give an update on what's happening at Adobe, answer lots of questions, and of course, raffle off some fun gifts.
January 28, 2007
PDF spec released!
I'm so excited about our announcement earlier today. In case you didn't see the Press Release, Adobe has offered up the PDF specification (version 1.7) to the International Standards Organization (ISO). AIIM will be the facilitator.
As a long time Acrobat and PDF user and evangelist, this news and decision by our executive team will ensure a long-lasting PDF community within government, education, and business organizations world-wide. It is clearly the next logical step for PDF as a standard. ISO has already ratified PDF/X and PDF/A, with PDF/E just around the corner.
Leonard Rosenthol, Technical Standards Evangelist at Adobe has prepared an excellent outline of the history of PDF as an open technology on his blog
We have an FAQ posted, but please feel free to comment here if you have questions about the announcement.
If you want to chat in person, I'm aware of the following events this week:
- Joel Geraci, who has taken over for me as Acrobat/PDF Technical Evangelist, is at the Lyra Symposium.
- Rick Borstein, the voice behind the Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog , is at LegalTech.
- I'll be at Smart Geometry Workshop & Conference in NYC.
January 24, 2007
ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW Update to Acrobat 3D
I’m happy to announce that we have just posted an update to Adobe Acrobat 3D. This free update includes several Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL) that provide support for more recent versions of CAD file formats for Adobe Acrobat 3D and the 3D Toolkit. The list of new and updated file formats can be found in the press release and at the download site. Most of the filters have been updated to include the latest versions of popular CAD packages.
And if you don't have Acrobat 3D and want to try it - please visit the trial download page. Note: after you install the trial you will need to add the patch mentioned above to ensure you have the updated filters. Also, if you want more information on Acrobat 3D you can visit the Acrobat 3D Corner on AcrobatUsers.com
January 23, 2007
Announcement: Acrobat Connect Professional Roadshow
I'm excited to let you know that Adobe has a multi-city (12) tour starting next week dedicated to educating attendees on Acrobat Connect Professional. The sessions are 9:00 - 12:00 (registration begins at 8:30 am).
I've been using Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly known as Macromedia Breeze) since the companies came together and I've found that as a world traveler, I love the fact that I can hold a meeting, show a demo, or just share my desktop from anywhere to anyone.
I encourage you to attend one of these events if you can - and if not, there are online seminars as an alternative.
And if you do attend - I would love to hear how your experience was. Did you learn something new? Do you think you'll use the technology?
November 9, 2006
Acrobat 8 commercial plug-ins released
I'm happy to report that Quite Software just released updated versions of all of their Acrobat plug-ins for full Acrobat 8 compatibility (including Universal Binary for Macintosh). That's one week from product release. I think this is a record. Check out the updated plug-ins here.
After my first post - I was gently reminded that other announced their plug-in support as well this week:
I guess I need to do my homework!
August 8, 2006
Announcement: Sync SWF Contest
I'm happy to announce a new contest for our Adobe developer community. This contest is for Sync SWF - the very cool SDK for Breeze Meeting. This is an excellent opportunity for Flash developers to build collaborative Flash applications offering an entirely new channel where the Flash development community can profit from — the rapidly growing number of Breeze customers. So what is a "collaborative Flash application" - well, basically with a Sync SWF application, when someone in the meeting room changes something in the Flash app, everyone else in the meeting room can see what they have changed in real time. All meeting participants are synced up with the state of the Flash application.
Using the new Breeze Exchange, a developer can post and charge for custom Flash applications that Breeze end users can download and use in their everyday jobs. To celebrate this exciting news we are running a contest in which four (4) $5,000USD prizes will be awarded.
Please see http://www.adobe.com/devnet/breeze/articles/sync_swf_contest.html for full contest details.
Although - the webpages don't say this yet.... We will be announcing the winners at Adobe MAX in October.
May 10, 2006
Announcement: Flex Developer Derby extended
You might think What the heck is the Flex Developer Derby? - it is a contest hosted by Adobe, to uncover/identify/discover great applications developed with Adobe Flex 2.
The basics:
- Applications must be developed using Adobe Flex 2. Click here to download it.
- Contest will close on June 30, 2006. All submissions must be received by this date.
- Six winners will each receive a 42-inch Samsung Plasma TV plus a Microsoft Xbox 360. (Hey - if I knew Flex, I'd enter the contest myself to win these gifts for my son, who is enjoying himself -- a bit too much for my taste -- in college!)
- Contest entries must be submitted to http://labs.adobe.com/showcase/special/flexderby/ (also - all the small print required by US Law is available there as well)
Good Luck and I hope that one of our Acrobat/PDF developers is a winner!
May 2, 2006
Learn more about Adobe LiveCycle 7.1
Mike Potter has mentioned this seminar in his blog- but I wanted to ensure the Acrobat community was equally aware of this virtual meeting (using Breeze) to outline the 7.1 changes.
The session will start at 12:00 Noon ET tomorrow and last between 60 and 90 minutes. URL: adobe.breezecentral.com/r90735129/. If you are unable to attend live, we will be creating a recording of the session as well.
April 17, 2006
Create Adobe PDF Online - New Beta Service
I'm excited to announce we've added a new service to our online service for creating PDF files. It's called Protect an Adobe PDF and is available as beta to all current paid subscribers of Create PDF Online. Behind the scenes we're hosting a cluster of Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server and Security Server nodes. When you want to protect or revoke access to the PDF you are creating, the service will set the PDF security settings to match your policy. The settings can changed dynamically for all copies, even after you have distributed them. Feel free to experiment with the 5 pre-defined policies or create one of your own. The recipient of the PDF file will only need Acrobat or Adobe Reader 7 to access the file. Best bet - watch the video, read the FAQ and then try the service.
April 7, 2006
Adobe PDF Print Engine introduced at IPEX
For anyone that knows me personally, pre-press & print production are not my strengths, however, I wanted to let you know about a new technology that we introduced this week at IPEX in the UK. At IPEX, we are hosting two full theatre sessions each day which are devoted to discussion of the Adobe PDF Print Engine and one session each day is dedicated to discussion of reliable PDF creation for print publishing workflows.
For further info on the Adobe PDF Print Engine, see http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfprintengine/main.html.
February 19, 2006
Security Solutions: Integrator Tips and Tricks
A new area for security solution integrators, “Integrator Tips and Tricks” is available in the Acrobat Developer, Security Support Center. The first document for integrators, “Acrobat Trust Manager, Internet Resource Access Control” is now posted.
February 8, 2006
Reader 7.0.7 released today
Adobe Reader 7.0.7 was released today. It is a great update which includes support for Acrobat 3D (released January 23) as well as a fix for a very ugly bug around Flash & Reader.
Users who upgraded to Flash 8 found a nasty problem with Adobe Reader 7.0.5 - their embedded or referenced SWF objects no longer played. You would see a "Buffering..." message in the browser. Good news: this problem has been resolved with Adobe Reader 7.0.7... so, go ahead, and download the update today.
October 14, 2005
Developer Workshops in Asia
Well, I'm leaving for Asia on Saturday. This is a 4-city tour, starting in Taipei ending in Shanghai, with stops in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Adobe will have a booth and I'll be attending/presenting at Intel Developer Forum in Taipei and Shanghai.
Also, we'll be holding 1 or 1.5 day developer workshops in each city.
I will be presenting along with an Acrobat Engineer on Acrobat & PDF development (day 1) and then an overview of the development environment of LiveCycle solutions (day 2).
To register for Beijing or Shanghai, please visit http://www.myadobe.com.cn (the information is at the top of the page).
To register for Hong Kong, please write me.
To register for Taipei, please visit the registration page.
September 27, 2005
Day 1 - PDF Conference
Just finished up Day 1 of PDF Conference . The keynote was delivered by our own Mike Ouslander.
He used a presentation originally created by Jim King (for the PDF Expo 2005 tour in Nordic countries) to give an overview of the history of PDF and Acrobat.
Attendance is light (around 100 people) but there are 12 vendors - including Adobe - and the attendees appear to be happy with the very 'personal' attention they are receiving.
The day wrapped up with the Warp Speed Tour, which allows vendors/developers 5 minutes (and there is a timer) to talk about their products/solutions.
What can you say in 5 minutes? I represented Adobe and decided to focus on 3D in PDF. I showed multiple examples of 3D embedded in PDFs, including samples created by Immersive Design, Kaon, Bentley, and our own team. The audience was truly impressed by the possibilities.
On a separate note, on Sunday, I hosted a 4-hour presentation by Leonard Rosenthol called 'Everything you ever wanted to know about PDF' and an early evening cocktail party for out-of-towners. I'm hoping to record this material and make it available on our website.
September 20, 2005
Announcing Adobe Acrobat User's Group
Today in Washington, DC, at the quarterly Adobe Gov't User's group meeting, Pooja Goyal & Andy Lauta made a presentation on the newly announced Acrobat User's Group community. We've had an InDesign User's Group community for a while, and now it's time for Acrobat to come on board.
I'm excited about this announcement and the first chapter of the new community will be the DC-based Gov't group that has been meeting for once per quarter growing out of the DC Developer Workshop which launched in the fall of 2002.
The URL is live as of today. No content yet, but you can register your name & email to be notified when the web site content is available.
September 7, 2005
Gov't Workshop & User's Group
On Tuesday, September 20th, Adobe will host the Adobe Gov't User Group in Washington, DC. This month it will be an all day event focused on Security. If you're interested, fill out this form.
On Wednesday, September 21st, I will host a Developer Workshop in Washington, DC. Topics: JavaScript & the differences between PDF versions. See Events page for details and registration information.
August 19, 2005
Week in Review
On Tuesday of this week, I delivered a 6-hour hands-on session on LiveCycle Designer. I anticipated a developer audience, but the attendees were a mix of users and developers. The 14 attendees composed primarily of US Federal Government agencies and Government contractors. The feedback was good, but I learned a few lessons:
- Although we claim Designer is easy for a developer to use (to create forms), the biggest challenge is learning where all the attributes are in the palettes. For example, which palette contains controlling margins (Layout); which palette contains binding information (Object); and so on.
- We still have some challenges in the area of JavaScript parity between Acrobat-created JS and Designer-created JS. Some JS functions available in Acrobat do not have a reciprocal function in Designer. I'll be happy when this is resolved.
Thursday, I traveled to Hartford, CT to deliver a presentation to 80 consultants (mostly civil engineers) at the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) on Acrobat 7 for AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) I focused on PDF as a Standard, Create & Combine PDFs, Review PDFs, and Secure PDFs. Many of attendees approached me after the talk saying 'I didn't know you could do that!' and 'That was great. That's exactly what we need'.
For me, hearing comments like that is what drives me to continue evangelizing PDF.
Next up -- PDF Tour in the Nordic Region (Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm). This will be a fun week as many PDF 'gurus' get together to present case studies, tips & tricks, and lessons learned. Additionally, I'll be hosting lunch sessions in each city to talk with developers about their experiences with our current developer tools and their expectations moving forward. If you're in one of these cities the first week of September (5th-8th) please feel free to contact me for information on registration.