Accessible PDFs

Accessibility is not an especially familiar concept in the computing world. Most of us encounter the idea of accessibility often enough by way of special vehicle parking spaces, ramps, braille signage, beeping crosswalks, and so on. Improving accessibility is more than a courtesy, it is an accepted and vital goal of any advanced society.

Johnson, Duff. PlanetPDF. Design>Document Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Accessible PDFs

How can I generate a Table Header Cell Element (TH) field automatically with Acrobat?

PDFzone (2004). Design>Information Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat 6 Pro, a New Forms Layout Tool?

I was recently asked by my employer to do some research on various form designer packages to see what they had to offer. Right around that time Acrobat 6 was released, but to consider it a fully featured forms 'layout' tool was the last thing on my mind. Little did I know that I would soon change my mind. After working with Acrobat 6 Pro for a while and getting to know all the new and useful tools it has, it gradually started to dawn on me that it offers form design and layout capabilities that one could only dream about with the previous versions of Acrobat.

Guignard, Bryan. PlanetPDF (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat - Ein PDF-Dokument Wieder in Text (oder HTML) Konvertieren  

Wie kann ich eine Acrobat-Datei in ein editierbares Textdokument (ASCII, RTF oder HTML etc.) zurückverwandeln? (Anmerkung: Diese Frage wurde zu Zeiten von Acrobat 3 und 4 gestellt. In Acrobat 5 soll Exchange eine direkte RTF-Exportfunktion besitzen.)

Transcom. (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat Features Turbocharge the Online Review Process

One of the more tedious and error-prone processes in technical writing is that of collaborative document review. Even when documents are shared electronically, keeping track of comments, suggestions, and changes contributed by multiple team members can be exasperating. Too often errors due to collaborative review lead to delays, missed deadlines, misunderstandings and an inaccurate final document.

Gravel, Charlie. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat How-to: Enhancing Tutorials With Interactive Elements

A funny thing happens to students after class: They forget what they've learned. But adding interactivity can engage the reader. Try these simple methods.

McCue, Claudia. Creative Pro (2004). Articles>Education>Tutorials>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat Tips - Extracting Content

Suppose you have a multipage document and you want to remove a part of it for another purpose, such as combining it with other information for another document. In this tip, I'll explain how to separate, or extract, a portion of a document.

Baker, Donna L. PlanetPDF (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat Tips - Reduce PDF File Size

Distributing documents as Adobe PDF files can reduce the problems that may occur when you exchange large presentation or page-layout files. In many cases, you can make your Adobe PDF file even more compact without compromising the document's integrity. The PDF Optimizer in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional gives you easy access to several options that can help you reduce the file's size, including compression options that are comparable to the ones available when you create an original Adobe PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Distiller.

PlanetPDF (1996). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat - TrueType-Schriften in PDF Sauber Darstellen

TrueType-Schriften erscheinen in der Standardeinstellung der Adobe-Software Acrobat 3 am Bildschirm immer nur stark gepixelt, während PostScript-Schriften sauber lesbar sind (das Problem konnte in Acrobat 4 bislang nicht beobachtet werden). Das muss nicht sein!

Transcom (2000). (German) Design>Typography>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat und Seitenfolge

Ich habe gerade zwei PDF-Dateien aneinandergefügt (über 'Seite einfügen'), ABER: jedesmal, wenn ich die neu gespeicherte Datei öffne, wird die 1. Seite des 2. Dokuments dargestellt. Ich würde hingegen gern die 1. Seite des 1. Dokuments sehen....

Transcom. (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat und Verwendung von PostScript-Schriften

Wir haben Probleme mit unseren PDFs, und zwar erscheint der Text bei einem Zoom von 100% auf dem Bildschirm verschwommen. Zoom von 150% ist ok, Ausdruck ebenfalls.

Transcom. (German) Design>Typography>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat und WinWord - Lesezeichen mit Abschnittsnummern

Gibt es beim PDFMaker (Adobe-Zusatz [Add-In] zur Generierung von PDF-Dateien aus WinWord) eine Möglichkeit, in den Lesezeichen (Bookmarks) die Abschnittsnummern einzubinden?

Transcom (2000). (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Adding Page Labels

A nice feature in Acrobat is the ability to 'name' or label pages with meaningful descriptions rather than just page numbers. This can be very useful if your PDF document contains in introduction section and is then split into sections or has specific chapter numbers. By adding Page Labels to a page or even a range of pages you instantly get to that section by typing it's name in the Page Number box at the bottom of the screen (on the status bar).

Wraight, Dave. PlanetPDF (2001). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Adding Watermarks to PDFs

How do I insert a watermark in a PDF document?

Becker, Edward. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Techniques

Some sites would hardly exist at all if they took down their PDF files (PDF stands for 'Portable Document Format'). This format is an incredibly useful format for some situations, providing a method to post content on the Web that will print exactly as the author intended it to. Creating PDF files is faster and easier than creating HTML files in many cases. This increases its allure for Web developers.

WebAIM (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat: Publishing Online Documentation  

Documentation departments are often faced with the challenge of quickly distributing high-quality versions of printed documentation via the company Intranet, the World Wide Web, or CD-ROM. Adobe Acrobat is a simple, cost-effective way to publish documentation for a variety of media and requires little time or technical expertise to produce professional-looking results. Technical writers and web developers can easily use Adobe Acrobat to create portable document format (PDF) files from printed documentation. They can then add links and bookmarks, create an index, produce simple interactive forms, and add multimedia components to their documents.

Ogata, Kerry L. and Thomas A. Witherspoon. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Adobe Acrobat

Adobe XML Architecture Specification

The Adobe XML architecture combines the powerful data and business logic capabilites of XML with rich presentation capabilities of Portable Document Format (PDF). The Adobe XML architecture offers support for arbitrary XML, allowing you to leverage existing and industry-standard schemas. Depending on the process requirements, forms can be deployed as PDF or an XML Data Package (XDP) and processed as XML.

Adobe. Design>Publishing>XML>Adobe Acrobat

Adobe's Robert McDaniels Responds (Again) to Nielsen Criticisms of PDF

Many of the 'PDF Usability Crimes' Nielsen cites have nothing to do with Acrobat or PDF but are the result of poor design choices. Most of same arguments about poor navigation, large file sizes, and excessive text blocks can be used to describe poorly designed HTML as well. There are some very valid reasons for using PDF's online as opposed to HTML.

McDaniels, Robert. PlanetPDF (2003). Articles>Usability>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Advanced Techniques for Creating Accessible Adobe® PDF Files  

A step-by-step guide that covers more advanced techniques for optimizing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files so that they can be made accessible to users with disabilities such as blindness or low vision.

Adobe (2004). Books>Web Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Baking up a Batch of PDF Files  

Customize how Acrobat works for you by building and using batch sequences. The beauty of a batch sequence is that you can modify or run it as you like.

Baker, Donna L. Adobe (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Building a PDF Book  

Wilson describes a process for PDF versions of papers manuals by converting Microsoft Word files with Adobe Acrobat.

Wilson, Dennis E. Intercom (2002). Design>Information Design>eBooks>Adobe Acrobat

Cleaning up PDF Documents in Acrobat

If you are posting your PDF document to a web site, you'll generally want to upload a clean copy that will streamline the viewing experience for your site visitors. This tip outlines a quick way to remove unnecessary annotations, widgets, JavaScript, links, bookmarks and attachments, along with optimizing your documents for fast web viewing.

Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Combining Multiple PDF Files

In Acrobat 4, you open one PDF file. Then in the 'document' menu, choose 'insert file.' You’ll have to do this four times to bring your five documents together.

Harris, Steve. PDFzone (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat