Talk amongst yourselves

by Donna L. Baker, ACE, Baker Communications

Reviewing and collaborating are core features in Acrobat. Over the last several years and Acrobat versions, reviewing has became increasingly user-centric. We moved from incorporating comments into a source document in Acrobat 5, to enabling documents for commenting by Adobe Reader users in Acrobat 7 and shared reviews in Acrobat 8. Now, in Acrobat 9, reviewing moves to a new realm with the advent of Acrobat.com, a free Adobe service for real-time online collaboration.

In this article, the first of a two-part series, I’ll take you on a high-level tour of Acrobat.com from the review-and-collaborate perspective. The follow-up article looks at reviewing in both Acrobat and Acrobat.com.

Introducing Acrobat.com

In Acrobat 9, review and collaboration centers on Acrobat.com, along with supporting e-mail reviews. Acrobat.com is an RIA (rich Internet application) built on Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR. Access Acrobat.com through your browser or through program commands in Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9.

Accessing the program

In Acrobat 9 (or Adobe Reader 9), click the Collaborate task button and choose a command (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Select a collaboration choice.

If you aren’t working in Acrobat, open the application at www.acrobat.com. The available services shown on the interface are accessible via a single login (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Select a service from the Acrobat.com interface.
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Click any of the links to display information about the service; click Begin to display a login screen. Type your e-mail address (used as the Adobe ID) and password, and select the Remember me check box to speed up future logins.

Note: If you don’t have an Adobe ID, click Sign Up! and follow the prompts.

Available services

Once you log into Acrobat.com, you can access a variety of collaboration and sharing services. Keep in mind that Acrobat.com services may work with your usual workflows in addition to reviewing and collaboration.

The services at Acrobat.com include:

• Adobe Buzzword.
  Use Buzzword to write and collaborate on documents. The program offers many common word processing features.

• Adobe ConnectNow.
  You can meet with one or two colleagues to use a shared screen for active collaboration.

• Share.
  Use the Share service to store your files, and send your colleagues a link to the file rather than sending or distributing files by e-mail

• MyFiles.
  You can store and organize up to 5GB of files of all types

• Create PDF.
  You can try out the online PDF file converter to convert up to five PDF files free of charge. A file can be up to 200MB in size. For more than five conversions, subscribe to the Create Adobe PDF Online service (or convert files yourself in Acrobat.)

Aside from the Create PDF feature, you can readily incorporate Acrobat.com into your common workflows, or adjust what you do to take advantage of the convenience and availability of online access to your files.

Note: The Create PDF feature is a demo of the online conversion service. The service can convert multiple file types to PDF, including text, image, Microsoft Office, Star Office, Word Perfect and Open Office files. While there’s no doubt it is valuable for those who simply need to convert PDF files, if you are in a position where you need to do more than that, buy a copy of Acrobat 9 Pro or Pro Extended.

Using MyFiles

The MyFiles feature offers 6GB of storage online—plenty of space for storing files you intend to share. You can also use MyFiles to store files for reference, or use the service to upload files on the go. For those who take working vacations (and we know who we are!), accessing your work files at any time from any computer is quick and convenient.

Sort and manage files

Open MyFiles in several ways. Choose commands on the Acrobat 9 or Adobe Reader 9 Collaborate task button’s menu to open MyFiles as a full-screen application or associated with another interface. For example, Send & Collaborate Live shows the MyFiles feature at the bottom of the screen. From any Acrobat.com screen, click the MyFiles icon to open the feature (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Uploaded content listed in MyFiles.
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The interface is extremely easy to use. Choose one of the sort methods for displaying your files (the figure shows the default Alphabetical sort), and choose whether to view as a list (shown in the figure) or as thumbnails. The MyFiles listing shows only those files you’ve uploaded—click the Buzzword Docs link to view files created and saved online.

To access a variety of commands for using the file, click the drop-down arrow at the right of the file’s name (also shown in the thumbnail view) to display a menu (Figure 4). Click Open, or double-click the file’s name or thumbnail, to open the file in a new window.

Figure 4: Choose from several file management commands.

View files

Open a Flash version of your file to view its contents and more details. You can scroll through a multi-page file, view sharing and access information, as well as view basic details about the file (Figure 5). Open files when you want to check their contents before downloading, deleting or sharing.

Figure 5: Check out a file’s contents and other details.
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Storing files in the MyFiles repository is a convenient method for distributing content elsewhere. From the MyFiles menu—either that for an individual file or via the view shown in Figure 5--choose Embed Code to copy the code to the clipboard for insertion in a web page, or choose Copy Link to save the file’s link to the clipboard to distribute via e-mail, web page, or chat message.

Files uploaded to the MyFiles repository are stored for further sharing or review, not for content manipulation. That is, you can’t upload a Word file to MyFiles and make changes in its content. In the MyFiles, Sharing or ConnectNow services in Acrobat.com, you work with a Flash preview of your file.

The buzz on Buzzword

If you need a file that you may want to share, and may want to work on further (such as during that working vacation), upload and store it in Buzzword, the Acrobat.com document-processing application. Access Buzzword from the Collaborate task button menus in Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9, or via the Acrobat.com interface.

Buzzword is a well-featured word-processing program. Whether you start from scratch or import a document, you work in Buzzword just as you might any desktop application (Figure 6). Click any of the icons on the Buzzword toolbar to reveal specific toolbars, such as the Table toolbar shown in the figure.

Figure 6: Create or edit documents in Buzzword.
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Once in Buzzword, you can edit, comment and revise as a team. You can invite others to collaborate on the document using the Share feature at the bottom left of the application window. Click Share to open a dialog box and add the names of recipients. Select a Role from the drop-down list. You can choose from a Co-author, who has full rights to the document, a Reviewer, who can read and comment on the document, or a Reader, who can read the document, but can’t make any changes or add comments (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Generate a distribution list.
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Proceed through the dialog boxes, reviewing the e-mail message and sending it. Back in the Buzzword interface, you’ll see the invited participants, their status and whether or not they’ve accessed the file at the bottom of the Buzzword window.

Share a file from Acrobat.com

Share your online files directly from Acrobat.com (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Share uploaded content in several steps.
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Follow these steps to share a document for collaboration:

1. Click Share on one of the application screens or the initial Acrobat.com interface to log into the Share service. The Share fields display on the MyFiles window above the file list.
2. Specify the files for sharing: Drag a file from the MyFiles area on the window to the Choose files to share list, or click Browse, locate and select a file from your computer, and click Upload. The file appears on both the share list and in the MyFiles list.
3. Click Share With to open a list of e-mail addresses you’ve used in Acrobat.com and select e-mail addresses for your invitation; type additional e-mail addresses as necessary.
4. Modify the Subject and add a Message if you like.
5. Click Share to send the e-mail to your recipient list.

Once receiving your e-mail, the recipient can click on the thumbnail or the URL to access the file online (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Recipients receive an active link in the e-mail.
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Whether you’re working online or offline, working with PDF or other files, starting from scratch or using existing content, there are multiple reasons to turn to Acrobat.com to assist in your daily workflows. Acrobat and Acrobat.com are integrated in a number of ways that let you store, manage and create content. A configurable file can be shared through Buzzword, and files stored in MyFiles are easily distributed for sharing and reviewing.

Next time, I’ll show you how to use ConnectLive in Acrobat, and ConnectNow online. I’ll also run through the latest features in the Tracker.

Acrobat.com offers so much more than the areas I’ve touched on. Have you tried it out yet? What do you think? Check out more on using Acrobat.com along with the rest of the new Acrobat 9.