Adobe Acrobat

Read-Aloud PDFs

Are you aware that PDF documents are readable by your computer? You can listen to any PDF instead of reading it!

Creating PDF files from DITA Content

The DITA OpenToolkit (DITA OT) provides a way to produce multiple outputs, including Portable Document Format (PDF) files; however, the technology for creating PDF files is limited, and modifying the formatting is challenging. This paper explains the alternatives and trade-offs for each method and helps demystify the decision process.

Acrobat 9: PDF Data to Excel

Rather than exporting a whole document out of Acrobat, I'll focus on a table within a PDF page. Suppose you'd like to have this table's data in a spreadsheet so you can manipulate it. There's no need to retype the data into Excel. All you need to do is use Acrobat's Selection tool to highlight the content you wish to export.

Online vs. On-Line

This isn't a discussion of hyphenated vs. not hyphenated. It examines the difference between putting a PDF file on the Internet (what I call an on-line document) and having a truly electronic Web presence for that content (what I call an online document). Unfortunately, the two often get bundled together.

PDF Manuals: The Wrong Paradigm for an Online Experience

Let me describe a familiar user assistance experience. A user installs a new application, and when the user wants Help, the application directs her to the user documentation on a Web site or CD-ROM. What the user finds there is a PDF file containing the manual—or a collection of PDF files, representing a library of manuals, including a user guide, configuration guide, troubleshooting guide, and various references. And the layout of each of these PDF manuals is exactly the same as if it were a printed book. This raises an interesting question: If we’re giving manuals to users to read online, why do we design and write them for paper?

Adobe Acrobat and PDF

After HTML, PDF (Portable Document Format) files are probably the most common files on the Web. PDF is usually used when a file needs to appear or print a certain way, regardless of the browser or technology. PDF files can be made accessible to people with disabilities, although usually with more difficulty than with HTML. A key part of this process involves creating tags that make a document more accessible to screen reader users.

Attaining Review Nirvana with Acrobat 8 Professional

Getting documents reviewed has always been a tricky proposition for writers. From pleading to coercion to bribery just stopping short of third-degree torture, writers have documented many methods for getting reviews done effectively and in time. For those writers who gave up altogether and for those who just did not care too much for reviews, there is bad news coming – companies are asking for user feedback on the content that you wrote. Users, as we know them, can shame the most cynical movie critic when it comes to commenting. In my quest many a tool tried to lure me, but when Acrobat 8 strut its shared review stuff in front of me, I finally succumbed.

Why I Hate PDFs

I hate user manuals that are distributed as PDFs. They are mainly used online so why the artificial page constraints? I'm in the middle of a topic and all of a sudden there is a page break--not because of a topical shift but because had it been printed on 8.5 x 11 we would have run out of paper. News flash: I didn't print it and I was not running out of paper.

Amex Woes Highlight Common PDF Accessibility Problem

American Express has come under criticism, and potential legal action, for the lack of accessibility of its credit card website. A blind customer of American Express credit cards found that Amex's change in the presentation of its online credit card statements from HTML to PDF format effectively prevented him from accessing his financial information online.

Acrobat 7 zum komfortablen Erzeugen von Druck und Schnittmarken einsetzen

Wer kennt das Problem nicht? Aus einem riesigen Dokument wurde ein PDF erzeugt. Nun muss es auch noch für den Druck aufbereitet werden. Dafür fehlen aber die Druck- und Schnittmarken. Acrobat 7 hilft hier aus der Patsche.

Der Weg zum absoluten PDF-Standard in der Technischen Dokumentation

Kein Wunder müssen Technischen Redakteure die ganze Zeit Druckdaten aufbereiten, wenn jede Druckerei ein anderes Datenformat verlangt. Eine Lösung musste her. Ein Standard. Und so ist auch PDF/X-3 ein Thema in der Technischen Dokumentation.

Web zu PDF

Mit dieser Technik steht Ihnen eine einfache Methode zur Verfügung, Webseiten oder einzelne Bereiche eines Webs downzuloaden und als PDF zu speichern.

Creating Coloured Hyperlinks in an Index in a PDF File

This article explains how to create coloured hyperlinks in an index in a PDF file, using Microsoft Word as the source document for the PDF file. Many authors create PDF files using Word as the source document. Most Word-to-PDF converters create a hyperlink in the PDF file if a hyperlink exists in the Word document. Unfortunately, Word does not create hyperlinked cross-references in an index, so no PDF creation tool can directly generate a hyperlinked index. The Sonar Bookends Activate plug-in for Acrobat creates hyperlinks for page numbers in indexes in PDF files. The plug-in does not change the colour of new hyperlinks, and it does not create visible rectangles for the hyperlinks. This article explains how to colour the hyperlinks in the Word source document using macro.

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.

One Hundred and One Forms eTips

One hundred and one tips for designing digital forms using Adobe Acrobat.

PDF and Accessibility

The rapid growth in the use of PDFs on Websites has lead to increasing concerns about accessibility, particularly for the users of screen reading technology, which converts text into synthetic speech or electronic Braille.

PDF Link Usability

Das kennt man: ein ahnungsloser Klick und plötzlich öffnet sich eine mega-lange PDF-Datei. Seitengestalter sind deshalb angehalten Links auf PDF-Dateien zu kennzeichnen. Selbstverständlich macht das inzwischen auch (fast) jeder.

PDF Usability: Debate and Reality

This article examines the claims of those PDF critics and argues that usability complaints about PDF documents are misdirected, and further, highlights some of the key reasons why PDF is the preferred electronic document format.

Customer Profile: Ernest Svenson, PDF for Lawyers

A well-known advocate for the effective use of new technologies in the legal profession, New Orleans-based attorney Ernest Svenson finds Adobe Acrobat and PDF to be highly valued tools in a document-intensive field.

I Did Not Know Acrobat Could Do That

This blog is for all users of Acrobat, to hopefully get the most out of their software. The information is being written by Tim Huff Sr. Business Development Manager at Adobe Systems.

Make Your PDFs Work Well with Google (and Other Search Engines)

In Google's search results, and in the results of most other search engines, the listings of most PDF files appear at best unprofessional, and at worst, downright embarrassing.

PDF Bookmarks: Surveying the Options

Most PDF files do not include bookmarks. This is a pity, because they are so easy to add, and because the real-world usability of longer PDF files suffers significantly by their absence. And there's no shortage of tools for creating and managing bookmarks, as this product survey article explains.

PDF in Government

Duff Johnson looks at how several federal government agencies use Acrobat and PDF to solve old problems and, in some cases, to create new opportunities.

Tips from the Acrobat Dirty Tricksters

Demonstrates and explains a collection of handy tips dealing with various tools and features of Adobe Acrobat.

User-Friendly Technical Document: Not an Oxymoron

PDF is a perfect format for assembling technical materials, so how can a PDF document work more like a standard three-ring binder? Here's how.

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.

Cropping Pages to Highlight Areas in Acrobat

When you receive a PDF that contains, say, an image that is surrounded by text, how do you highlight the image? One way is to export the graphic to an imaging application such as Photoshop, but that involves additional applications and the associated loading times. A great 'quick and dirty' fix here is to use the 'Crop' tool to hide the content that surrounds the image, leaving you with PDF which displays only an image, just the way you wanted it. This tip explains how.

Custom Stamps in Acrobat

While Acrobat comes pre-loaded with a selection of stamps, including 'Approved', 'Declined' and 'Accepted', users can also create custom stamps of such things as company logos for use on their PDF documents. Complex or graphically rich stamps can be created or prepared in imaging applications before being added to Acrobat's selection. This tip explains how to create a custom stamp using an existing file.

Importing and Exporting Form Data in Acrobat

When using PDF forms, it's possible to export, store and import the data in Form Data Format (FDF). Since an FDF file only includes the form data and not the form itself, it is much smaller and more lightweight that the complete PDF form, making it more efficient to manipulate. This tip explains how to export and import FDF data using Acrobat.

Linking to Pages or Destinations Within PDFs

Information about how to link to pages or specific bookmarks within a PDF document.

Markup PDF Pages with Drawings

Using Acrobat, PDF has been established as a popular and user-friendly medium for collaborative workflows. Not only can you add sticky notes or highlight text, you can even draw polygonal or freehand annotations. This tip explains how.

Opening PDF Documents in Full Screen Mode

Adobe Acrobat allows users to configure the opening settings of PDF documents to display them in full screen mode. It's as effective as a PowerPoint display and very easy to accomplish. This tip explains how.

Reducing Screen Clutter in Acrobat

Are you looking to remove all distractions to read your PDF content? Perhaps you just want to remove all distractions so that you can skim through your PDF document before signing off on it and sending it off? This tip explains how to reduce on-screen clutter in Acrobat to allow you to focus your attention completely on the content.

PDFs and Section 508: Compliance, Accessibility, and Usability

This paper addresses limitations and problematic issues of usability and accessibility involved in the creation and use of Adobe Acrobat PDF files for people with visual impairments who use screen readers as an assistive device. In some cases, due to technological limitations, PDF documents can present information incorrectly to such persons. A document which is accessibility compliant may then not be fully usable by individuals with visual impairments. The lack of specific guidelines for accessible PDF documents complicates the issue, though a series of W3C PDF Checkpoints provides some guidance. Problematic issues discussed include footnotes, special characters and formats, acronyms and abbreviations, and tables.

PDF Prototypes: Mistakenly Disregarded and Underutilized

Creating a clickable PDF to prototype a new design is not a new concept, but it is a valuable tool that is often overlooked and underutilized. While working over the years with other designers, information architects and usability professionals, I've noticed that many of my colleagues believe the same fallacies about the limitations of PDFs. Contrary to popular belief, you can do more than just create links and interactive forms with PDFs; you can also add dynamic elements such as rollovers and drop-down menus, embed audio and video files, validate form data, perform calculations and respond to user actions. PDF prototypes have the ability to replicate most interactive design elements without investing a lot of time and effort.

Opening PDFs in a New Window with JavaScript

Using JavaScript can be particularly useful when a website is content managed. Rather than having to rely on site editors to remember to open a link to a PDF in a new window the process is handled by a simple JavaScript function.

Acrobats Are Free

Now that everybody's got the Acrobat reader we can talk about why so few are able to create Acrobat files, also called PDF files.

PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption

Users get lost inside PDF files, which are typically big, linear text blobs that are optimized for print and unpleasant to read and navigate online. PDF is good for printing, but that's it. Don't use it for online presentation.

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.

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.

Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents

When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they're interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn't be given a browser UI.

Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility

PDF accessibility is not as straightforward as HTML accessibility. But it can be done, if you put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites. Joe Clark tells all.

Prepress Tutorial: Preparing PDFs Made from Microsoft Word for Offset Printing

You just received this wonderful PDF from one of your clients. It was made from Word. On top of that, the client who gave you that PDF wants you to make some changes to the text. How do you make those changes using the PDF itself and what do you have to do to make that PDF press ready?

How to Link from an HTML Page to a Specific Page in PDF File

HTML pages can contain links to PDF files that enable you to view the files by using an Adobe Acrobat 4.0-or-later product from within Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can also view the files by using the Acrobat product as a helper application in which PDF files appear in a separate Acrobat window. By default, the PDF file opens to the first page. To open the PDF file to a specific page, you can use named destinations in the PDF file. You can also target an HTML link to a specific PDF page by adding the page number to the end of the URL in the link. When you target an HTML link to a specific PDF page, however, the link works only when you view the PDF file within the browser.

Redefining the Document Using Adobe Acrobat

How content is combined from multiple sources quickly and easily.

Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): The Acrobat and the Illustrator

Using Acrobat, you can make minor edits to a PDF file, but Acrobat documents are very sensitive. Typing a single character can throw several lines off, destroy tables and cause all sort of other troubles. Alternately, it can be relatively uneventful and painless. You will not know until you type in that character.

Generating PDF Files from Word Documents

This document explains how to create PDF files from Microsoft Word documents.

PDF Means Change for Many Print Shops

There is a battle brewing in the back rooms print shops around the country, and after Graph Expo the pressure is on and tempers are flaring. What is causing the problem? PDF. Owners and production managers are going back to their shops to talk about the amazing things they have seen equipment do using PDF files. What they are hearing back from prepress staffs is that PDF files won't work for their shop. Owners are confused and not sure who to believe.

Posting User Documentation on the Web

Our company posts user documents on its Internet web site as PDF files. Announcements are sent to customers and company staff to inform them of the latest document updates. Customers log on a password- protected documentation page, where they can view the documents in a Reader or save them to their PC hard drives. There are several advantages to distributing documents in PDF on the Internet for both customers and our company.

Enhancing Tutorials With Acrobat

Ideas for enhancing tutorial documents using Acrobat features.

Extracting Content

How to extract content from a portion of a PDF document.

Fonts Can Make or Break PDFs

Acrobat's intelligent font substitution is a godsend for office documents, but it can be a nightmare in situations where font fidelity is important. If you're a graphic designer, then you need to know how to work with fonts in PDFs.

PDF Printing, Preflighting, and Prepress

PDF is becoming the de facto standard for not only viewing documents onscreen but also for printing them on paper. Acrobat 6 Professional includes better printing and prepress tools than ever before. PDF pundit Ted Padova shows you how they work.

Reducing 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.

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.

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).

Configuring the Pages Pane

The default layout of the Pages pane displays a single column of small thumbnail pictures of the pages. The default is fine for most kinds of work when you have a document consisting of several pages. However, when working with a very large document, you might want to make the thumbnails smaller and increase the number of thumbnail columns to see more at once. If you have to be able to see the content of the thumbnails, you'll want to increase their size.

Preflighting for PDF/X-Compliance with Acrobat

PDF/X (PDF Exchange) is a subset of Adobe PDF that eliminates many of the color, font, and trapping variables that lead to printing problems. You can verify that a PDF document is PDF/X-compliant in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional before submitting the document to a service provider, and then embed the verification results in the file.

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.

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.

Accessible PDFs

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

Converting Word Documents with Embedded Files

How can I convert Word documents to PDF and ensure their embedded Excel documents also get converted?

Detecting JBIG2 Compression

How can I tell if JBIG2 compression was used on my PDF file?

A Distiller Primer

Can somebody explain what the process of distilling is -- in simple terms?

E-mailing and Submitting PDF Forms

What’s the easiest way to e-mail a PDF form and have people fill it out?

Including Bleeds in a PDF

How do you ensure the PDF file you distill includes bleeds that are acceptable to a printer?

Making PDFs Searchable

Is there a way to take a regular PDF and make it searchable?

Commenting on PDF Comments

If your response to the question 'How do you use Acrobat comments?' is a mumbled 'No comment,' then listen up. Comments and annotations are some of the most powerful ways in which Acrobat can streamline your creative workflow. Here are some tips.

Creating Dynamic Stamps

Dynamic stamps consist of the PDF image of the stamp and a text form field that contains JavaScript to make your stamp dynamic. For example, the Dynamic Stamp 'Approved' contains a form field that generates user name, time and date.

How to Open a PDF With Highlighted Words

The goal: to launch Acrobat Reader from an external application, automatically highlighting some words.

Planet PDF Tools List

A listing of over 700 tools for checking, separating, correcting colors, ordering and re-ordering pages.

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.

Preflighting PDFs for Print

Between 23 and 30 percent of all files submitted for print are in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), a figure that's likely to grow.

Using Distiller to Build Booklets

Adobe InDesign and Adobe PageMaker include utilities that create booklets using a simple page imposition routine. However, other applications such as Adobe FrameMaker or Microsoft Word do not have these utilities and leave users with a bit of a dilemma when they want booklets made. Using Adobe Acrobat Distiller and a simple PostScript file (sig.ps), you can create booklets from EPS (encapsulated PostScript) pages printed from your application. The PostScript file takes the EPS files and arranges them on pages in a single PDF document. This technical guide briefly explains impositions and signatures and provides instructions for editing the associated sig.ps PostScript file used to create a booklet. Knowledge of PostScript may be helpful but is not absolutely necessary; you need only to make a few clearly explained edits for the sig.ps file to work with any documents you have.

Acrobat Tips - Reduce PDF File Size

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.

Printing and Prepress

PDF Resources

Resources for facilitating preflight development of Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents.

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.)

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....

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!

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.

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?

Fehlende WingDings-Zeichen in PDF-Dateien

Gewisse WingDings Zeichen fehlen, wenn ein PDF File erstellt wird. Dies ist unabhängig davon, ob Winword (Office 97) oder eine andere Applikation benutzt wird. Ausserdem spielt es keine Rolle ob das PDF mit dem Word Makro erstellt wurde oder nicht.

Creating PDF Documents from HTML Documents

In this topic, you will create PDF documents from HTML documents.

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.

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.

Focus on PDF Layers

How you can combine layers and scripting to power up PDFs to deliver richer, more versatile content.

Jakob Nielsen's PDF Phobia is Seemingly Incurable

The noted usability guru strays outside his area of expertise once again in a new 'Alertbox' column denigrating any uses of PDF other than printing. We can't help but wonder -- due to the silliness of some of his comments and suggestions -- whether he's being serious. We're afraid he is. Nonetheless, to show our respect, we've christened a special Google Advanced Search setting in his honor.

A Lesson in Templates for Adobe Acrobat

Although Templates have been around since version 3 of Acrobat there was never any really useful supporting information or technical documentation to make use of them. Version 5 and 6 of Acrobat changed all that making it possible to take full control of Templates to create truly dynamic PDF documents.

PDF Author Creates Spoof of Nielsen's Misguided Alertbox

Doug Alford responds in kind to Jakob Nielsen's 2003 essay 'PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption.'

PDF Can Comply With Section 508. Now It's Your Move

A blind person cannot read from a screen any more than from a printed page. Technologies nonetheless exist that allow blind and other disabled users impressively full-featured access to documents. To be accessible, however, the document contents must be available to these so-called 'assistive' technologies.

PDF: Fit for Human Consumption If Designed Properly

Jakob Nielsen hit a nerve with some PDF enthusiasts when he recently wrote in his monthly usability column that, in terms of suitability for use on the Web, the format is allegedly 'unfit for human consumption.' We're publishing a rebuttal that another satisfied user recently sent to Nielsen -- and also shared with us. In addition, Steve Borsch provides several samples of PDFs designed to be read and navigated online.

PlanetPDF

A website with articles about generating Adobe Acrobat PDF files.

Using Acrobat Standard 6.0 in a Document Review Cycle

A six-part sample lesson on how to use Acrobat and PDF for document review. Included for download are several files referenced in the exercises.

Web Hosting PDFs

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of PDF Forms as the User Interface for real-world applications on the Web. We will review the creation process for a PDF form, and walk-through a sample Active Server Pages (ASP) script to collect the data, before reviewing an ASP script that can parse this information, act on it, and return results to the client.

On the High Wire

Some unexpected ways that Adobe Acrobat software can help with design and publishing tasks.

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Tips and advice on creating PDF files that are attractive, readable, and easy to download.

Editing Forms in Acrobat 6

The Form tool as we know has been abandoned. There is now a Field tool which is subdivided into tools for the individual field types.

Making PDFs Smaller

How can I reduce the size of several PDFs at once?

Adding Watermarks to PDFs

How do I insert a watermark in a PDF document?

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.

Making Screen-Ready PDFs

Is there a quicker way of making screen PDFs from print-ready PDFs?

Sizing PDFs for Posting Online

What is the preferred maximum target file size for PDFs that will be accessed online by average users?

Growing Up With Acrobat

PDF moves toward its destiny as the full-service, customizable digital file format we all want.

Packing Light

Acrobat lets you 'pack' fonts into a PDF in three basic ways: by fully embedding, subsetting, or not embedding them. Each method differently affects a PDF file's size, editability, and typographic fidelity.

Your Dais Will Come

Keep calm for presentations by taking a little PDF.

The Form Revolution, Part II

In Part I, you got PDF forms to run and talk. Now you get to make them really smart.

Creating Interactive Documents for PDF

Learn how to add movies, sound clips, and interactive buttons to an Adobe InDesign® CS document. When you export the document to Adobe® PDF, readers can view movies, play sound clips, and activate buttons in Adobe Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add a movie and buttons that play, pause, resume, and stop the movie in the exported PDF document.

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.

Gateway Pages Prevent PDF Shock

Spare your users the misery of being dumped into PDF files without warning. Create special gateway pages that summarize the contents of big documents and guide users gently into the PDF morass.

PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption

PDFs and Accessibility

Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that allows the page creator to ensure that all fonts, formatting and graphics etc are preserved throughout the document regardless of the platform on which it is being viewed. Due to the control the author has over the style of the document, a number of accessibility problems can be identified.

Changing Link Formatting

The 'blue underline' has nothing to do with a link (or vice versa). Coloring links blue and underlining them has been some kind of convention in Web environments, but that has not even been standardized. Actually, if you have a useful browser, you can change default settings that your links will be displayed green and italicized.

Distiller or Writer for Web Docs?

Acrobat Distiller will always produce better quality PDF's than PDFWriter - which is one reason why PDFWriter wasn't part of the standard installation in Acrobat 5 and is completely gone for Acrobat 6. Both tools add metadata to PDF files - PDFWriter only uses the old 'InfoDict' method, while Distiller does both that and the new XML-based metadata.

Getting The Most Out of PDF Annotations

Acrobat's annotations are a handy way to keep track of your thoughts as you review a PDF document. To get the most from this feature, try these tips.

Hyperlink to a Specific Page

I have a 40-page PDF file that I 'd like to create several hyperlinks to -- each going to a different page within that document.

Overlap Two Pages

How to generate 1 PDF file base on these 2 files but with only 1 page. If I am reading this correctly, you would like the contents of two separate/single page PDF files to be located within a single PDF file.

Creating a PDF File

This handout can help you with your PDF problems in Acrobat 3, 4, and 5. This handout does not attempt to address the Truth, but tries to share some hard-won advice about consistently getting good PDF.

Creating PDF Files from FrameMaker Documents

An issue that has come up over and over again on several FrameMaker and Acrobat/PDF email lists as well on the corresponding Adobe User-to-User forums is that of creation of PDF files. FrameMaker 5.5.6 and 6 have what looks like a convenient feature that is supposed to allow you to create PDF files via simply saving the document as a PDF file. I have gone on record as advising end-users not to use this approach for reliable creation of PDF files from FrameMaker documents under Windows and MacOS with FrameMaker 6 and earlier. Why do I most vociferously offer this advice and why doesn't the problem get fixed? And how SHOULD you create PDF files from FrameMaker?

How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks

Creating eBooks that can be bought, downloaded, and viewed online has never been easier or more secure. In Adobe's How to Create Adobe PDF eBooks, you'll find the basic procedures and techniques you need to create eBooks in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Learn how to design good document templates for eBooks, convert your documents to Adobe PDF using recommended eBook job options, and optimize your Adobe PDF documents so that they display at their best in the free Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader.

Optimize Adobe PDF Files for Palm OS Devices

You can read any Adobe® PDF document on a Palm OS® device by simply dragging the file into the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm OS application window. But if you want to optimize the PDF file for the best possible display on a handheld device, combine the power of Adobe Acrobat® 5 with Microsoft® Office 2000 or later.

Creating Forms From Scratch

Starting with a scan is honestly not the very best. The new forms designer from Amgraf is a power tool and gives you many good features. If you have to edit the base scan, your best bet is indeed to recreate it. You might try Adobe Illustrator, or Deneba's Canvas 8 helping you. Another possibility might be OmniForm by ScanSoft. You also might look at the new tool from Adobe's Capture suite, also known as Tea Party, which might help a bit as well.

Expert Offers Checklist To Consult Before Uploading PDFs

In an era when paperless publishing makes people rush to deadline and take less time in the quality-control realm, we've created a Web full of hastily produced PDFs that are full of errors, take too long to download or are otherwise amateurish in nature.

Fit in Window vs. Fit Width

When you create named destinations, make sure that they are in the view that you want them to be when created because that is the view that will be applied when that named destination is called up later. Also, remember to use the Document Properties preferences to force Acrobat to use the preferences that were assigned to the document (as opposed to Acrobat's own viewing preferences). You may find that your file will open and view differently in every Acrobat application that is used if you do not save the document with your preferences.

How To Make PDFs Compliant With Section 508

First, if you don't produce forms for federal government, it is wasted time, but there is information available. Adobe has the accessibility section on its Web site with useful documentation. There are other Web sites about accessibility in general on all the federal government sites, and finally, there are further links from there. Also, if you are providing forms for a federal government agency, you should get in touch with their 'Section 508 representative,' who will give you guidelines for that agency's way to implement it.

PDF Security, Part V: Adding Passwords

In this article, you'll add protection to your file so that no one can change its contents and so that unauthorized users can't open, use, or print the file.

Ten Tips From The PDF Best Practices Gurus

It is our hope that even one of these tips will help you rethink one of your current PDF processes.