Acro bytes by Kurt Foss

Roy Greenberg, who has a transactional real estate practice in New York, writes in an article we’ve just re-published on AcrobatUsers.com that he is continuously surprised “by the inability of both lawyers and clients to use the most basic functions of Acrobat and the free reader.”

Accordingly, he offers his 10 best Adobe Acrobat tips, with “an emphasis on communicating with people who are resistant to learning” about PDF. His complete article, originally written for and published by TechnoLawyer.com, is available for download, but here are the tips he describes in greater detail:

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1. Use the snapshot tool instead of an email attachment

2. Use thumbnail images for document navigation

3. Use bookmarks to flag pages requiring signatures

4. Quickest way to replace selected pages in a PDF

5. Place comments directly on a document

6. Ensure that your comments are printed

7. Use the organizer for documents that you regularly email

8. Send web pages instead of URLs

9. Want to highlight portions of a graphic image?

10. Convert online pdf documents to forms

In his introduction, Greenberg writes:

“You’re probably familiar with the most basic function of Adobe Acrobat Professional 8: converting any document to a portable document format (PDF) that can be read by any recipient who downloads the free Adobe Reader. If you view Acrobat Professional as an integrated collection of tools for online communication, however, you can begin to appreciate its potential for communicating with your clients.”

Download the four-page article titled “Top 10 little-known tips for lawyers who use Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.”

Two other great Acrobat resources aimed primarily at the legal community–but with useful advice for users in other fields and business–are the Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog by Rick Borstein of Adobe Systems, and the PDF for Lawyers blog by Ernest Svenson.

Employees of Adobe Systems apparently got a jumpstart on the traditional year-end holiday celebrations this year. The company recently feted the troops to a big blowout event to highlight “25 Years of Innovation.” Several Adobe bloggers, including Terry White and Silke Fleischer, chronicled some of the festive proceedings, complete with party pix.

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The actual milestones accomplished along the way are also detailed on Adobe.com, including an interactive timeline that outlines the company’s past, including product histories, people and significant events.

In addition, the special online tribute features a Flash-based 25th Anniversary Newsletter with additional information–including embedded video clips–about the company’s innovative accomplishments. (The website mentions that the newsletter can also be downloaded, but if there’s a link to a PDF version, it wasn’t obvious.) For Acrobat and PDF enthusiasts, there’s one video clip that’s worthy of special note.

Once or twice at past industry events, Adobe has shown a short video that purports to be from the pre-PDF era, offering a glimpse of the paper-based document workflow practices and issues in a typical office–particularly those that can be addressed with the company’s 1993 launches. The fictitious employees in the video:

• marvel at the ability to send ascii text (’one doesn’t need bold, just a well-placed exclamation point’) around the world
• brag about having one pair of computers within the organization linked together (’98 percent of interoffice computers can’t communicate’)
• rejoice in being able to deliver urgent files via overnight services
• display an enterprise archiving system — rows and rows of file cabinets — based on a paper-document-based system that a lone, semi-senile employee admitted was ‘logical to him’ (others spent up to three hours a day searching for lost information)
• exchange documents electronically by sending and receiving faxes (when the paper didn’t jam) — many that would end up being copied 19 times

The clip is included in the 25th anniversary newsletter. Definitely worth a look if you’ve never seen it–or even if you have. Acrobat humor is a narrow niche!

In a partnership with the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Adobe Systems is looking for publishers of PDF-based content to help trial a new service that facilitates the inclusion of contextually relevant ads in their publications. Aptly named “Ads for Adobe PDF,” the service automatically matches advertisers with topical content, and provides a means to track ad performance.

The project’s management team is looking to involve publishers of different sizes, and with varying content, in its upcoming beta program. Interested publishers can review the FAQ, a Flash demo and samples of ad-enabled PDFs on the Adobe Labs website, then complete an online application form that asks about their PDF-publishing profile.

There’s more information about the service, including examples of a couple relevant publishing projects, in our article “Adobe seeks Ads for Adobe PDF beta participants” on AcrobatUsers.com. And check out this sample PDF with ads.

As you may have noticed, on AcrobatUsers.com, we’ve been expanding the number of Flash-video-based Acrobat tips. For an example, see Lori DeFurio’s “Modifying your PDFs using drag and drop to/from Pages panel,” which includes a link to a video-clip version of the same tip. Some tips exist only as short Flash videos.

Elsewhere on the Web, we’ve been seeing a similar growth in multimedia resources for learning how to more effectively use Acrobat and PDF. If you’re a podcast junkie like me, you may have discovered that there are now at least three podcasts–including the Acrobat Tips & Tricks podcast we launched on AcrobatUsers.com not long ago–that focus specifically on Acrobat. You can subscribe to all of them via iTunes, or download the files separately elsewhere. Check them out …

• The latest is the creation of Tim Huff, Acrobat Business Development Manager for Adobe Systems, who has just unveiled his “Man, I didn’t know Acrobat could do that!” [iTunes] podcast, a spinoff of his website of the same name and theme. So far he’s posted podcasts covering how to create a blank PDF with text and graphics in Acrobat 8, and how to do forms-data collection.

• In September, Steve Adler–previously featured in this blog–expanded his wealth of resources aimed at educational applications of Acrobat with the first of his now-growing “Acrobat Video Podcasts for Educators” [iTunes] series. So far Adler has posted how-to podcasts on modifying PDF bookmarks and actions, on creating and customizing PDF bookmarks, and on how to quickly arrange, reorder and mix pages among PDF documents.

Not coincidentally, Adler is the also author of the “Adobe Acrobat 8 Curriculum Guide” on Adobe’s Education website. In addition to the guide, Adler has posted a collection of related asset files:

• Adobe Acrobat 8 Curriculum Guide [PDF: 3.2 MB]
• Supporting Resource Files [ZIP: 1.5M]

Visit Adler’s website for more of his valuable educational resources.

• Last, but not least, it’s worth citing again the original source of Acrobat-related podcasts — the Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast by Terry White of Adobe. There’s a collection of almost 100 podcasts at the site, covering the various software products that make up Adobe’s Creative Suite family. A subset of the podcasts focus on Acrobat, covering the following two dozen topics and features:

• Do a Shared Review with Acrobat 8 Professional
• Print Bookets Directly from Acrobat 8 Professional
• Create PDFs from your Scanner with Acrobat 8 Professional
• Cropping PDFs in Acrobat 8 Professional
• Graphically sign your PDFs with your picture
• Custimize Acrobat 8 and set the most important preferences
• Hide senstive information in your PDFs with Redaction
• Acrobat 8 Combine and Package Features
• Acrobat Connect
• Acrobat 8 Preflighting and Fixups
• Acrobat 8 New Forms Workflow
• Introducing Acrobat 8 Professional-CS2 2.3
• Digitally sign your PDFs
• PDF Security in Acrobat 7 Professional
• Explore the presentation features of Acrobat
• Flatten Transparency in your PDFs using Acrobat
• OCR your scans in Acrobat 7 Professional
• Use Web Capture to make web pages portable
• Create Article Threads in your PDF
• Use the Acrobat Typewriter Tool on Forms
• Make your PDFs smaller
• Making One PDF out of Several PDFs
• Send PDFs for Review with Acrobat 7
• Create fillable forms with Acrobat 7 Professional

Also worth monitoring for more general tech-related tidbits is Terry White’s Tech Blog.

As we reported previously, two sessions from the recent Acrobat & PDF Central Conference were available as live webcasts to user-group chapters, several of which scheduled local meetings to coincide with the event held October 23-24 in Council Bluffs, IA. At the time, neither the opening keynote by Ali Hanyaloglu of Adobe Systems or the first educational session by Angie Okamoto of Tech Ed Solutions could be accessed live by individual remote members.

Conference organizers have now made Okamoto’s session–titled “Remember the Users: Designing for your Readers“–available for viewing via Acrobat Connect. She discusses the different versions of Acrobat Reader and the importance of taking the functionality differences of each into account when designing a PDF form. “You want to make sure your form looks correct to all users,” she says, “and you especially don’t want to limit who’s able to use your PDF.”

The archived version of Hanyaloglu’s opening keynote on the “State of the Acrobat Union” is expected to be available for online viewing in the near future.

Adobe Systems has posted a patch for versions 8.1.0 of its Acrobat family (Professional, Standard and 3D) and free Adobe Reader that addresses a potential security vulnerability (affecting Windows XP users with Internet Explorer 7 installed), and addresses several other issues for both Windows and Macintosh users. The 8.1.1 updater, available for download (multiple languages) from Adobe.com and soon also available from the automatic product update feature within both products, updates version 8.1.0 of the mentioned products and corrects issues identified in both 8.1 and 8.0, according to the company. A full 8.1.1 English version of Adobe Reader is also available for download.

The 8.1.1 updater closes a recently reported security vulnerability on the Windows platform. According to Adobe, some cross-platform corrections include the resolution of several PDF-forms-related issues and the removal of the FedEx Kinko’s menu item. Adobe recommends that all Acrobat and Reader users apply the 8.1.1 updates.

Version 8.1.1 links:

• Support Knowledgebase: Issues addressed in the Acrobat 8.1.1 update
• Adobe.com: New downloads
• Windows: Adobe Acrobat 8.1.1 Professional and Standard update
• Windows: Adobe Acrobat 3D 8.1.1 update
• Macintosh: Adobe Acrobat 8.1.1 Professional
• Macintosh: Adobe Reader 8.1.1 update
• Windows: Adobe Reader 8.1.1 update
• Reader (English): Full version

Members of the Acrobat user-group chapters in New York, Boston and Dallas (as of October 15) will have a chance to be transported to Council Bluffs, IA on the morning of October 23. Or perhaps more accurately, the Acrobat and PDF Central Conference being held at the western Iowa venue will beam a couple of its opening sessions as live webcasts to the participating chapters in those metro locations.

The special online feed will include the opening keynote address on the “State of the Acrobat Union” by Ali Hanyaloglu of Adobe Systems, and the first-up informational session titled “Remember the Users: Designing for your Readers,” presented by Angie Okamoto of Tech Ed Solutions in Omaha, NE, hosts of the conference. The webcasts will be available via Acrobat Connect Professional only to chapters that host local meetings at the time of the sessions. Check AcrobatUsers.com for an updated list of chapter meetings.

Remote-viewing participants will have an opportunity to ask questions after each session by utilizing the chat-pod feature in Acrobat Connect, says Hanyaloglu, who serves as the leader of the Boston chapter. It was the first to offer Connect participation to its chapter members earlier this year, and many others have since provided a similar option.

There’s also still time to register to attend the conference the old-fashioned way, which expands your access to a diverse range of topical sessions led by a respected group of Acrobat experts. AcrobatUsers.com members can save $100 by entering the “AUC2007″ discount code on the registration form.

A couple noteworthy launches that should be of interest to dedicated users of Adobe Acrobat and PDF:

• ConnectUsers.com

Adobe Systems has launched ConnectUsers.com, a community-oriented site — similar in many ways to AcrobatUsers.com — where Connect Professional customers can participate in discussion forums, peruse tutorials, share best practices and tips, and sign-up for local user-group chapters. Registered members of the AcrobatUsers.com community can use the same Username and Password to log in to ConnectUsers.com.

• Inside PDF blog

Jim King, PDF Platform Architect with Adobe Systems, has unveiled his new weblog titled “Inside PDF.”

King writes that “as PDF Architect and a Senior Principal Scientist, I will cover the recent activities for putting control of PDF into the public hands, present tutorial views on PDF and similar stuff.”

He gets things underway by sharing his perspective on the standards-approval process and its ramifications — particularly Adobe’s announcement earlier this year that it is in the process of moving PDF, an existing de facto standard, to be under public (ISO) standards control. He also notes Microsoft’s recently nixed effort to have its Office Open XML file formats approved as an ISO/IEC Fast Track standard, and briefly explains the two company’s differing approval strategies.

As it had promised following a recent meeting with representatives of several printing-industry organizations, Adobe Systems yesterday announced its solution for dealing with a controversial relationship with FedEx Kinko’s. The industry contingent had complained to Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen and other executives that the inclusion of links within the company’s Acrobat and free Adobe Reader programs to send files directly to a local FedEx Kinko’s shop for printing gave the Adobe partner an unfair advantage over other printers, many long-time users of and advocates for Acrobat and PDF.

Adobe has decided to remove the FedEx Kinko’s links in upcoming releases of both programs, according to a blog posting yesterday by John Loiacono, SVP of the Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. The update will be released in about 10 weeks, Loiacono wrote. He thanked FedEx Kinko’s for helping to find a satisfactory outcome to the dilemma. “They could have taken a tough line,” he wrote, “because we do have a formal contract, but they showed a lot of class and understanding about the concerns within the print community.”

Not all industry watchers were in agreement that Adobe needed to satisfy the demands of printing organizations, several which had joined forces in telling Adobe their members felt betrayed by the inclusion of the FedEx Kinko’s feature that was added in the recent version 8.1 releases of Acrobat and Reader.

In an opinion piece published on CreativePro.com titled “Why the Adobe/FedEx-Kinkos Deal is the Best Thing that Could Happen to the Printing Industry,” Gene Gable advised Chizen to “politely tell the printing industry to ‘grow up’ and start thinking like a real business instead of a bunch of molly-coddled whiners set on blaming others for their self-created woes.”

Gable concludes:

“The outcry from the printing industry regarding the Adobe/FedEx deal has only demonstrated to me that not much has changed in the last two decades. Printers are still thinking too small and are too narrow minded to get out of the rut they have dug for themselves.”

According to published reports, industry representatives who met with Chizen and other top Adobe executives were both pleased and a little surprised by Adobe’s August 1 decision.

“I’m amazed. I really didn’t expect them to do it,” said Kenneth B. Chaletzky, president of Dulles, Va.-based Copy General Corp., according to a Dow Jones report about the proposed solution.

The article added:

“We’re pleased that Adobe was responsive,” said Joseph P. Truncale, president and chief executive of the National Association for Printing Leadership, which he says counts about 3,400 printers, designers and graphic-arts companies as members. “Clearly this was a mistake, and Adobe admitted that.”

Adobe has posted an official FedEx Kinko’s update [PDF: 58 kb] announcement, as well as an FAQ document [PDF: 44 kb] about the issues and its solution. According to Adobe, FedEx Kinkos will continue to distribute a version of Adobe Reader with the option from its website.

Anyone interested in removing the FedEx Kinko’s links prior to the next updates can follow the instructions in a recent Adobe Technote titled “Disable the Fedex-Kinko’s Print Service in Acrobat, Acrobat 3D 8 and Adobe Reader.”

In a recent article on AcrobatUsers.com we talked with Bob Connolly of pdfPictures.com about his book “Dynamic Media: Music, Video, Animation, and the Web in Adobe PDF” that showcases a variety of case studies involving the use of rich-media content in PDFs. Connolly’s real-world examples explore the gamut of possibilities, incorporating audio and video clips, Flash animations, QuickTime VR photography and more into commercially oriented documents produced for clients in different industries.

During our discussion about the book and his company’s innovative work, Connolly also lamented that the vast majority of authors and publishers who routinely distribute PDF files aren’t taking greater advantage of the tools and functionality to create more effective, interactive documents. Even Adobe has been slow to promote the multimedia capabilities of PDF, he says. But he expects that to change with the continued evolution of Acrobat and other related software for creative professionals — especially since Adobe now has both PDF and Flash.

So it seems worth noting from time to time when we encounter signs that some content creators are venturing further into the dynamic realm. A couple recent sightings:

BNET Business Blogs feature a series of multi-document articles that not only utilize the PDF Package feature in Acrobat 8 — bundling a collection of related PDF files together — but also includes linked video clips in the respective cover sheets for each topic.

The Harvard Business Review published its first interactive case study that also adds impact to the PDF version by including a brief video clip in which the author gives an overview of key issues and findings. It provides an additional way to compel people to read the article dealing with a fictional, but realistic, management dilemma — should an otherwise qualified job prospect be disqualified from consideration based on revelations discovered on the Internet.

If you encounter other noteworthy examples of rich-media PDFs, please let us know. We’re glad to cite and promote other indicators of PDFs getting richer.