Recently in Acrobat Category

Adobe Releases Acrobat 10.0.1 right on schedule

By James Lockman on February 8, 2011 9:02 PM | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks
Adobe has adopted a quarterly update schedule for Acrobat. The second Tuesday of the last month of Adobe's quarters will be update Tuesdays, and Adobe hit this one right on schedule. Acrobat 8,9 and X all got updates today.

System administrators appreciate schedules. They also appreciate software that updates on a schedule. Adobe is offering these quarterly updates via the desktop update mechanism as well as through a SCUP catalog for system administrators. This allows sysadmins to better manage the deployment of updates to Acrobat.

You can read more about today's updates here.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Adobe Acrobat.com gets a makeover and new services

By James Lockman on November 5, 2010 9:43 AM | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks
Adobe introduced Acrobat.com a couple of years ago as a platform to enhance collaboration for its users of Acrobat 9. It included a file sharing feature (Share), a web conferencing feature (ConnectNow), and the ability to host document reviews from Acrobat 9 and forms data collection workflows from Acrobat 9.

It has evolved into a larger suite of services integrated closely not only with Acrobat 9 and the upcoming Acrobat X, but also with Creative Suite 5 and its CS Review service. It is a useful cloud offering in its own right, whether or not you use it with Acrobat or Creative Suite. Going beyond its document collaboration roots, it also includes the ability to become a Learning Management System repository when used with Captivate 5. I wrote a some blog entries a few months back about using Acrobat.com as a repository for eLearning with Captivate 5. And, for the basic service, it's free!

This morning, Adobe rolled out SendNow and CreatePDF, two new services that extend the value of Acrobat.com.
acrobat.com new service lineup

SendNow Service
SendNow allows you to send files to other people via email. It is similar to services like YouSendIt, but this based on the existing Acrobat.com infrastructure and has the backing of Adobe Systems' extensive cloud. 

You might wonder how it's different from the existing Share function of Acrobat.com. Share is about collaboration, and when you Share a file, it ends up in the other person's Acrobat.com files when they log into Acrobat.com. It's pretty neat when you're working with several people on the same project and you want everyone to have a copy of the document.

In the case of SendNow, it delivers an email with a tracked link to the file. When the user clicks the link, they are taken to a web page where they download the file. No login, no fuss, no muss. The file remains available for seven days then disappears. You can send up to 100MB at a time, and each file can be downloaded up to 100 times. If you need larger files or longer duration, you can subscribe to the SendNow service and receive more disk space as well as other benefits.

sendnow email message

CreatePDF Service
CreatePDF is a service that allows you to upload files and convert them to PDF. It also includes a desktop printer that will print to the service, and a capability to combine two or more PDFs into one PDF. The basic service will allow you to convert 5 files to PDF and print 5 files to PDF. To use the combination feature, you need a paid subscription.

CreatePDF Interface

Pricing models
The new services are available separately from Acrobat.com. It is unclear whether a subscription to Acrobat.com includes SendNow and CreatePDF, since the page hasn't been updated yet. However, since an Acrobat.com subscription has always included unlimited PDF conversions, I would imagine that the $15 per month for the Plus version of Acrobat.com would at least include CreatePDF, but I'll update this when I learn more about it.

Why Bother if I already own Acrobat?
Acrobat users are wondering about why they would need this service. Well, imagine that you're working on a shared computer that DOESN'T have Acrobat installed. Or, you're working in a library or other public terminal and there's no PDF maker. This offers you the ability to create a PDF from your native Office documents as well as the complete suite of file formats that Acrobat supports. Also, for many companies, the cost of Acrobat isn't palatable just for creating and combining PDFs, but a monthly subscription service is just the trick to increase productivity. And, of course, you get all of the other benefits of Acrobat.com to boot.

Growth is Good.
I am excited to see Acrobat.com grow. I believe that the cloud is a good move for Adobe, and while many users are just getting introduced to Acrobat.com, those of us who are old hats are liking the new features and services. I can't wait to see what's next.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Come see me at GraphExpo 2010 in the IDEAlliance G7 Summit Booth!

By James Lockman on September 15, 2010 5:11 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
I'll be back in Chicago for another GraphExpo, this time speaking as part of the IDEAlliance G7 Summit. If you're in town, stop in and say "Hi!"

The talk is called "Using RGB in your PDF/X Workflow," and should be an eye opener for many printers who thing that RGB is a four letter word.

Here's the session description:

When we think of PDF/X workflows, we typically think of PDF/X-1a and its promise of a file with high quality graphics, embedded fonts, and no transparency, RGB or color management. Our production workflows have evolved, however, and now transparency, RGB and color management can help make our print workflows accurate and profitable. As extended gamut printing and complete digital workflows become the norm, we need to be prepared for PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4. These two specifications within the PDF/X family allow for and expect color-managed content in PDF files. In addition, PDF/X-4 allows transparency for workflows that take advantage of the Adobe PDF Print Engine. In this session, we will explore how to implement PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4 workflows.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Safari PDF contains active hyperlinks

By James Lockman on October 2, 2009 10:46 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I discovered that Leopard PDF exported from Safari contain active hyperlinks. Browse to a site, choose Print... and click on the PDF button in the lower left corner of the dialog. Choose Save as PDF... from the menu. The PDF will then maintain the links in the active page when you click on them in your PDF reader.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Don't try this with a Flash site; when you print to PDF, Safari attempts to parse the Flash and does a poor job of is. As a test, browse to Adobe.com and try printing to PDF using Quartz PDF. Not quite what you were expecting, eh?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Where's my Acrobat Review Tracker? A problem and a resolution.

By James Lockman on September 1, 2009 8:34 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Last week while working with a customer while riding the Amtrak Downeaster between Boston and Portland, Maine, I created a Version Cue CS4-based PDF review. This process has always worked great in CS3 and Acrobat 8, and this was my first attempt with Acrobat 9 and Version Cue CS4. Platform disclaimer: ALL MAC Leopard, CS4 & Acrobat 9. All up to date as is the OS. Network is DHCP on the train.

The review creation process went without a hitch, and I was able to log into the VersionCue server, open the PDF in the browser, add comments to the PDF, and exit the browser. I then opened the PDF again in the browser, logged in as another user, applied some more comments, and exited the browser. When I tried to open the PDF from the VersionCue management console (open PDF in Acrobat is the button), however, the PDF opened in the browser and I saw no comments. 

Intrigued, I tried to see whether the review had been added to my Tracker, and when I opened the Tracker, I was presented with a dialog asking if it was OK for Acrobat to use the keychain item related to the VC server. I agreed, and that's the last I saw of the Tracker. 

Now, the Tracker won't start up. Occasionally I got these keychain messages from Acrobat, so I assume that the Tracker was still trying to connect to the VC server, but I can't see the Tracker. Well, having uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat in hopes that the Tracker might reset itself, and after discovering that Acrobat conveniently remembers all of the reviews with which it is associated even after a reinstall, I dug around and found the following file on my Mac:

 ~user/Library/ApplicationSupport/Adobe/Acrobat/9.0_x86/Collab/Workflows 

I found the browser-based review that was causing the problems and changed the server ip address to localhost, where the VersionCue server resides regardless of its DHCP situation. Restarting Acrobat, though, and Tracker would still not appear.

I had resolved to confuse the hell out of Adobe tech support, when another idea occurred: join another shared review (not browser-based review like VersionCue). So, I joined another shared review, and Acrobat opened and voila! the Tracker reappeared, but then died after I tried to delete the dead review from the list. Thinking more about this, I restarted Acrobat and disabled "Show Notification inside Acrobat" in Preferences>Tracker, and opened the Tracker. Now, the Tracker did not try to connect to the bad server, and I was able to try deleting the bad browser-based reviews. Selecting one of the bad browser-based reviews, I clicked the trash can and got this handy message:
DeleteAcrobatSharedReviewBadServer.png
Without any guidance from the interface, I decided to go for broke and chose "OK." It was the right choice. The bad Browser-based review is gone, and my Tracker is back. 

Lessons learned: don't try to start a browser-based review on a train.
Enhanced by Zemanta
« A Scout is... | Main Index | Archives | Adobe »

Search

About this Archive

This page is an archive of recent entries in the Acrobat category.

A Scout is... is the previous category.

Adobe is the next category.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.