The global community of Acrobat and PDF users includes people at all skill levels and with varied interests and applications. There are so many potential uses for the software and file format, and Acrobat is so rich and deep in features that most disciples never come close to even using — much less mastering — many of the capabilities.
At the high-end of the experience pyramid is the subset of people who have become expert users, but that expertise typically covers only a particular application or set of tools rather than the full range. At events like the recent Adobe Acrobat & PDF Central Conference in Minneapolis, that segmentation can be seen in the topical sessions and the different expert speakers for each. Experts can be masters of a particular domain — i.e. PDF for high-end printing — and yet only have an average grasp of another common use — i.e. creating and managing forms.
Even at the high end of the expertise food chain, however, there is an even smaller number who other Acrobat and PDF experts look to — often in adoration, sometimes in awe — as being the ultimate source of knowledge in a particular area. I saw and heard that several times during the two days in Minneapolis last month.
Now you have the opportunity to tap into the wisdom of one of those bona fide gurus at a new website he and his company have just launched.
At the Minneapolis event (as I’ve also witnessed at similar events in the past), I heard several of the other expert speakers publicly offer debts of gratitude for past assistance to Thom Parker of Windjack Solutions — and now also of pdfscripting.com. He’s become pretty much the gold standard for knowledge about how to use JavaScript and Acrobat to take PDF to another level. To those with little or no knowledge of the stuff he routinely does behind the scenes with JavaScript to make PDFs “come alive,” the end results can often seem a bit magical. That includes ways, as explained on the Windjack Solutions’ website, “to add powerful functionality to PDF documents and forms, to automate Acrobat and PDF workflows, and to make PDF forms more end-user friendly.”
With the launch of the new subscription-based pdfscripting.com site, others interested in tapping into Thom’s accumulated knowledgebase now can do so for a pretty modest annual fee. Where there’s been a relative dearth of information for years for people interested in learning about Acrobat and JavaScript, there’s now a veritable fountain of knowledge.
For a limited time, a one-year membership including full access to all resources is $99 USD. Members of the site have immediate access to more than seven hours of in-depth video tutorials covering the basics of Acrobat and PDF scripting; a copy-n-paste script library of ready-to-use or easily customizable scripts for common tasks in PDF documents and forms; a download library of sample PDF files that include beginner, intermediate and advanced scripts for use in projects; and a library of automation tools for Acrobat.
There’s a range of free content on the site for those who want to try before they buy. There’s also ample evidence on AcrobatUsers.com, where he’s been the driving force behind most of the Acrobat JavaScript content — including a recent eSeminar and numerous tutorials, and very active in related forum discussions.
“In addition to the content available now, a big advantage to offering this type of learning resource is we have the ability to continually add new content, and our plan is to be very aggressive in doing that for our members,” said Dimitri Munkirs, VP of WindJack Solutions. “We have been asked with higher frequency over the last couple years to write a book on Acrobat JavaScript or develop a training CD. With pdfscripting.com, we’ve created a more dynamic learning environment than you get with a paper book or CD.”
