Reviewing and collaboration continue to be core features of Acrobat. The introduction of Acrobat.com takes reviews live and online. The last article offered a tour of Acrobat.com. This time, see how reviews integrate real-time and traditional-collaboration workflows in Acrobat 9, and manage reviews in the Tracker

Review and collaborations sessions start much the same way in Acrobat 9 as they did in previous versions. That is, by e-mail invitation. Unlike earlier versions, Acrobat 9 provides options for collaborators to share content live from their desktop, share screens and work via Acrobat.com.

In the previous article, I described how to start a review from within Acrobat.com. This time, check out the options from within Acrobat 9 Pro and Pro Extended.

Start a review from Acrobat Pro

Acrobat 9 Pro offers several methods for achieving the same outcome—that is, sharing and collaborating live with colleagues. The choices depend on your workflow. If you need a formal review, and expect to have live collaboration at some point, choose the Send for Shared Review option. On the other hand, if you want immediate input from a colleague or two, or a less formal interaction, choose the Collaborate Live feature.

Send for Shared Review

Get reviews underway from your desktop using a simple wizard-based process. Click the Comment task button and choose Send for Shared Review.

Follow the prompts in the wizard:

1. On the first pane, locate and select the file for sharing.
2. On the second pane, choose a method for collecting comments. Your choices are Acrobat.com (the default) or your own server.
3. Login to your Acrobat.com account on the next pane; an e-mail invitation opens.
4. In Acrobat.com, complete the e-mail invitation (Figure 1). Click Send to distribute the e-mail.

More on the e-mail invitation

Some features of the e-mail invitation are the same as in previous versions of Acrobat, such as addresses and boilerplate text. As identified in Figure 1, Acrobat 9 Pro offers additional features tailored to collaboration:

• You’ll find the delivery method at the top of the dialog box (specified in Step 2 in the previous section).

• Below the e-mail message, click Access Level to choose whether to allow indiscriminate access to the file for anyone knowing the URL, or restrict the access to the recipient list.

• New in Acrobat 9 Pro is the feature allowing for a review deadline—click the link to choose an end date, or leave the default two-week review cycle.

• Choose an option to control whether page sharing and chat are enabled for the file.

• Recipients receive a link to the file. When clicked, the link opens a window at Acrobat.com containing a download link (Figure 2).

Figure 2: A link in the e-mail offers a download for the file.

Tracking reviews

As the initiator of a review, you obviously don’t receive a link to open your own file. Instead, Acrobat 9 Pro shows you a document message bar and a link to track the review (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Control the review from the source PDF file.

Use Tracker

Click the link on the document message bar, or choose Comments > Track Reviews to open the Tracker (Figure 4).

As indicated in Figure 4, use the features in Tracker to view pertinent reviews. Select a review’s name in the Reviews frame at the left to display information about the review in the right frame. If you are the review initiator, you’ll have options to control the review, such as changing the deadline, ending the review (overriding an initial review-end date), as well as other review and e-mail options.

Reopening the review file

Use a review online in addition to working through Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Comments are synced with the server even when Acrobat is closed, so anyone in a review who logs in can access current comments.

Once you or your participants have worked on the file, and uploaded the comments for review, the next time the file opens, a Welcome Back to Shared Review dialog box displays. You’ll see updated information about your review, such as the deadline, number of reviewers and comments, the list of participants and the review server in use.

Initiate a live review session

Rather than starting from an e-mail-review invitation and progressing to live interaction, Acrobat Pro and Acrobat Pro Extended allow for direct collaboration using the Send & Collaborate Live function.

There are three levels of live collaboration available:

• Collaborate Live offers view of the same document and a chat pod.
• Coordinate the view of all participants using Page Sharing, which also uses a chat pod.
• Move online for a more extensive experience in a meeting room on Acrobat.com using screen sharing.
  

  Note: Use live collaboration when you want to share work quickly or informally. Your collaboration setup doesn’t include a review deadline, and the default file sharing method is via e-mail.

Follow these steps to start the review session:

1. Choose Send & Collaborate Live from the Collaborate task button’s menu. By default, the active file in Acrobat 9 Pro is selected for review. If you don’t have an open file, you’re prompted to select the file as the first step of the process.
2. Your ID is authenticated and you’re logged into Acrobat.com. However, you’re still working in Acrobat, where a Send and Collaborate Live e-mail dialog box opens.
3. Add recipients, and modify subject or message as desired.
4. By default, a copy of the subject file is attached to the e-mail message. If you prefer, select the option “Store file on Acrobat.com and send a link to recipients.” If you choose to store the file on Acrobat.com, the Access Level choices are available to offer open access or limited access, as with a shared review.
5. Click Send to distribute the invitation to your recipient list. Your file is enabled for collaboration, saved with _collab appended to the name, and sent by e-mail.
6. Once your colleagues receive their e-mail and download it, when they open the file in Acrobat or Adobe Reader 9, the document is displayed along with the Collaborate Live navigation pane on their desktop. The user can sign in as a guest, or use the Adobe ID.
7. Back with you, in Acrobat, along with the review document, you’ll see the list of Current Viewers as they arrive, and the Document Chat pod shown in the Collaborate Live navigation pane (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The Collaborate Live navigation pane shows chat and participant list in Acrobat.

Live collaboration features

Use Send and Collaborate Live to review a PDF with one or more remote users in an online session.

Several features enhance the collaboration experience using Collaborate Live. For example, collaborators see the participant list, and can actively chat in the document window.

Your screen layout and view are readily shared with your participants. Click Start Page Sharing on the Collaborate Live navigation pane (shown in Figure 5) to have all document viewers display your current location and magnification in the document.

Any changes made on your document are instantly shown on the participants’ screens. Document actions — such as mouse and tool actions, navigation, zoom, and so on — are synchronized during screen sharing, giving all participants instant access.

Click Stop Page Sharing when you’re finished.

Participating in a ConnectNow session

Continuing from a live collaboration session in Acrobat, you can move to an online meeting room for greater interaction, such as sharing notes, adding whiteboard features and so on.

To launch a screen-sharing session from within your review document, follow these steps:

1. Choose Share My Screen from the Collaborate Live navigation pane’s Options menu. Your browser opens and loads a message in the browser window stating your meeting room was launched via the web page, and that you can close the browser window without impacting your online session. Close the browser window.
2. In the Adobe ConnectNow meeting window:

Include one or two participants via the Meet Online With Others dialog box (Figure 6). Click Send E-mail Invitation Now to open an e-mail window, where you select and invite different participants

Figure 6: Invite one or two other participants to your meeting room.
See larger image.

However, if you’ve been collaborating live with one or two others, your collaborators receive an invitation, and click View Screen in the message to join the meeting automatically.

3. Attendees login to your meeting space from their computers. A viewer request shows as a popup in the meeting window. Click Accept to allow them to enter.
4. Run your meeting. Click Start Screen Sharing to open an introductory window that explains what you see on screen compared to your meeting participants (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Conduct real-time interactive meetings in your meeting room.

5.  Click OK to close the introductory window. You’ll see a pod containing control and meeting features, such as annotations (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Conduct real-time interactive meetings in your meeting room.

Note: If you are the host and sharing your screen, you can access all features. Your guests can participate, but can’t access management features such as changing the pod layout or inviting another guest.

Participant requirements

Allowing participants in a ConnectNow session has minimal requirements that include:

• ConnectNow communicates using standard HTTP and SSL ports, therefore, no firewall modifications are necessary.
• Participants are invited as guests, and can remain as guests without opening Acrobat.com accounts.
• No downloads are required aside from a current Flash Player, with one exception.
• To participate in screen sharing, guests need to download and install the ConnectNow plug-in.