Those of you who follow my blog are no doubt saying, “Gosh, Rick, aren’t you a bit late to the game here?” After all, Adobe Acrobat DC shipped three weeks ago.
I am negligent, although on advice of counsel I will not actually admit that . . . 🙂
In this post, I’ll present just the essentials of the Acrobat DC. I hope to follow up with more detailed posts in the future.
Adobe Acrobat DC Essentials for Legal Professionals
- Adobe Acrobat DC is the latest version of Acrobat and is the successor to Acrobat XI
- The “DC” stands for Document Cloud, a set of (optional) connected cloud services for Acrobat
- The PDF file format has not changed.
Any work you produce with Acrobat DC can be opened in previous versions or other tools which work with PDF - The new version includes about 40 new features and a redesigned interface
- You can buy Adobe Acrobat DC via subscription (paid monthly or annually) or perpetually (purchase outright).
I plan to blog more on this topic, so stay tuned. - New Adobe Acrobat DC Mobile app
What are the Document Cloud services?
Many attorneys are already using cloud services. You may wonder what your ethical obligations are when using cloud services. I suggest you consult the Practice Management section of your local bar association for advice. Some US states have issued opinions and the American Bar Association offers this useful web page which aggregates this information: Cloud Ethics Opinions Around the U.S.
For many of our legal customers, the idea of cloud services is new, but I must say that the services available with Adobe Acrobat DC are really useful and work very well. I think you will enjoy using them in your practice.
Below, I’ve included brief descriptions of the services which I think are most valuable for legal professionals.
Electronic Signatures
With Acrobat DC, you can collect legal e-signatures quickly and securely — without printing, faxing, overnight delivery or requiring your client to come to your office. This eliminates paper and saves time. More importantly, it removes friction from signature processes and keeps the workflow completely digital. Recipients sign documents in any web browser on any device (PC, Mac, tablet or phone). All parties receive a certified, tamper-evident PDF with a full audit trail.
Learn more about Electronic Signatures included with Adobe Acrobat DC
Send and Track
Send and Track allows you to send large files to clients and colleagues. You can easily track the progress of your sent files from anywhere and you will be notified by email when a file is viewed. Send and Track is integrated into Acrobat DC, but you can also access it from your web browser or use the Outlook add-in (Win only) to easily send links to large attachments.
Learn more about Send and Track included with Adobe Acrobat DC
Mobile Link
Mobile Link allows you to access recent PDF files you have opened from any device. This feature transparently makes any PDF you’ve opened available in any Acrobat client (desktop or mobile). It even opens the file to the exact same page! You no longer have to email a document to yourself or explicitly save a document in a designated folder. I have to say this feature works incredibly well and I use it daily.
Learn more about Mobile Link included with Acrobat DC
What new features are included in Adobe Acrobat DC?
Acrobat DC includes 41 new or enhanced features. Consult this table which compares to Adobe Acrobat DC to Acrobat XI
I plan to blog in more detail about some of the features in the future.
23 Free Review Stamps for Acrobat
Acrobat includes a plethora of review tools, but most are not very eye catching. You want your edits to get noticed, right?
Today, I’m sharing a set of 23 stamps that I have designed. These stamps help you call attention to your edits with colorful iconography:
Stamps included in the file
I created the stamps using Adobe Illustrator, so each stamp is a tiny, vector file that scales and prints well. The text has been converted to outlines, so adding a stamp from the supplied file does not embed fonts in your document.
Download the Stamps File
Review Stamps.pdf
Right-click the link above and choose Save As or Save Target As to download the file to your desktop.
The Stamps file is a PDF, but it has some special properties. You must install the file for it to work as a stamp.
IOW, just opening the file won’t do you any good!
Install the Stamp File
Follow these steps to install the Stamps file.
Note that you will need to be an admin on your computer to install the file.
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\11.0\Stamps
MAC OSX
The folders might be hidden . . .
These folder locations may be hidden on your computer, so don’t freak out if you don’t see them at first.
Here are some tips for finding them:
WIN: Open an Explorer window and paste the path into it. Change the USERNAME to your user name and hit enter.
MAC: Open your Home folder, then go to the View menu and choose Show View Options. Check Show Library Folder.
On the Mac, you will need to show your Library folder
Another way to find the Stamps folder
An alternate way to find your stamps folder is to have Acrobat tell you where it is located. You can do this from the JavaScript debugger. Here’s how:
Use the JavaScript debugger to find the stamps folder
Using the Stamps
This part is easy!
A few tips for using Stamps
Add a Note to your Stamp
After adding the stamp, double-click it to add a note:
Double-click the note to add a sticky note to it.
Keep the tool selected
This option will keep the Stamp tool selected, but you will need to select the individual stamp needed.
To keep the Stamp tool selected, right-click on it and choose Keep Tool Selected:
Sizing Stamps
Stamps may be sized. Just click and drag to size as you apply them. Or, select the stamp later and drag the handles to scale it.
Stamps may be rotated. After applying the stamp, find the rotation point and drag to rotate the stamp:

List View for Stamps
If you don’t like the gigantic list of stamps with preview, choose “Show Stamp Names” from the Stamp menu to use a slim, text only list:
Choose this option to see a text-only list of stamps
Add the Stamp Tool as a Quick Tool
Quick Tools appear at the top of the document window. Add the Stamps tool so that you don’t need to open the Comments pane.
Right-click on the Stamp tool and choose Add to Quick Tools:

Deleting or Changing the Order of the Stamps
You can re-order or delete stamps in the file.
Open the Review Stamps.pdf file in Acrobat from the your Stamps folder (see above).
Open the Pages panel in Acrobat. Note that the first page is blank. DO NOT DELETE the First page.
To Delete a stamp, select the thumbnail, right-click, and choose Delete Page
To re-0rder the stamps, drag the thumbnail of the page to a new location.
Use the Pages Panel to delete or re-order the stamps file.
Need to know more about working with Stamps?
Visit the Acrobat Help page:
http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/adding-stamp-pdf.html