Adobe Reader 8: Now available
The free Adobe Reader is up-to-date with Adobe Acrobat 8. Adobe.com now offers downloads of Reader 8, which for Macintosh users for the first time includes a version specifically for the newer Intel-based Macs.
Reader 8 includes a similar ‘Getting Started’ screen as Acrobat 8–that began shipping a month ago–detailing what’s new and highlighting some of the key new and enhanced features, and linking to the most-used functions and tools.
Among the long-awaited and often-requested capabilities is the ability to Reader-enable PDF files with Acrobat 8 so users of the free Reader can directly save user-entered form data. Also, Reader 8 includes a “Start Meeting” button for launching a real-time, online meeting. Similar to Acrobat 8, the Reader 8 user interface has also been streamlined. Note also that the Reader 8 application icon (at right) is much easier to distinguish from that of the full-featured commercial program.
December 16th, 2006 at 7:05 am
Kurt,
So far I don’t see much in this blog or the Acrobat User site about Mars.
My take is that this is actually the best feature of Acrobat 8. You have to have Reader 8 or Professional 8 for the plugin to work. Why it turns up as a beta so soon after a new release is a bit of a mystery but I am thinking about it as a hidden feature.
For a long time linking PDF and XML has been a topic. If it actually works, moving content in and out of PDF, this is pretty useful stuff.
I realise this site is supposed to be for knowledge workers, people who may not worry too much about server software. Meanwhile the LiveCycle offers are still widely regarded as just too expensive to consider. So a mix of XML and open source may open up some new possibilities.
Maybe this last point is for the developer community who are supposed to follow Adobe Labs but sometimes I think the marketing approach to segmentation gets in the way of understanding.
Any reports on Mars would be welcome.
Will