Acrobat 7 Pro

[Sid Dean]

Hi, All --

Has anybody tried Acrobat 7 Professional yet? Any feedback?

Thanks.

Sid

[Clark]

Sid,

Haven't tried it yet myself but there has been a lot of discussion on the Adobe/Acrobat forum:

http://www.adobeforums.com/

Clark

[Stephen Owades]

Hi, All --

Has anybody tried Acrobat 7 Professional yet? Any feedback?

Thanks.

Sid
I've been using Acrobat 7 for several months now, and am quite happy with it. I did have some problems with the activation scheme on my IBM ThinkPad, but an engineer who deals with activation at Adobe was able to diagnose and deal with the situation. The program itself is fine, and has a number of nifty new features. Any specific questions?

[Andrew B.]

Hmmm. We did not have to activate. I wonder if that's because we bought a multi-user license.

[Shane Stanley]

Hmmm. We did not have to activate. I wonder if that's because we bought a multi-user license.

Yep.

Shane

[Sid Dean]

The program itself is fine, and has a number of nifty new features. Any specific questions?

A bunch. I've been using Acrobat 5 and am prett happy with it but have read about some interesting features in 7 Pro.

1) Does it really create smaller files than earlier versions?

2) Have you tried converting RGB photos to CMYK? How difficult was the process?

3) I understand 7 Pro lets you convert scanned PDFs to searchable PDFs without using a plug-in. Is that correct? Are the results satisfactory?

4) Does 7 Pro allow working with layers?

5) Finally, I read that you can directly assemble a wide variety of file types into 1 PDF. Does Acrobat 7 retain the original page size of the various documents thus assembled, or does it adjust all files to a pre-set target page size in the PDF?

Whew. I'll stop there:)

Sid

[Sid Dean]

Clark -

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Sid

[Stephen Owades]

A bunch. I've been using Acrobat 5 and am prett happy with it but have read about some interesting features in 7 Pro.

1) Does it really create smaller files than earlier versions?This is a compound question, and I don't know the answers. Since Distiller 7 can produce files in several Acrobat formats (compatible with earlier versions), you'd have to experiment with making several PDF versions with Distiller 7 and prior Distillers and compare the results, before you could say that it "create[s] smaller files." I've mostly been using Distiller 7 to make PDFs in earlier versions, since I want to be sure that people with older Acrobats can see them. File sizes seem reasonable, but there are too many variables for me to know the answer to your question.
2) Have you tried converting RGB photos to CMYK? How difficult was the process?It's very easy to have Acrobat 7 convert objects from one color space (say, RGB) to another (say, CMYK). Just a couple of mouse clicks.
3) I understand 7 Pro lets you convert scanned PDFs to searchable PDFs without using a plug-in. Is that correct? Are the results satisfactory?I'm not absolutely sure about the "without using a plug-in" part, but Acrobat 7 does ship with the capability of converting scanned PDFs into searchable PDFs, and it does a reasonably decent job. No OCR system is perfect, and I haven't spent much time learning how to fix the bad matches that it can sometimes make--but it does let you fix them.
4) Does 7 Pro allow working with layers?I'm not sure of the answer to this. How would you create layers in a PDF?
5) Finally, I read that you can directly assemble a wide variety of file types into 1 PDF. Does Acrobat 7 retain the original page size of the various documents thus assembled, or does it adjust all files to a pre-set target page size in the PDF?Assembling files, whether existing PDFs or other file types that get converted to PDFs, is a bit slicker in Acrobat 7 than in Acrobat 6. Page sizes are left as they were when you assemble PDFs together; page sizes for other file types (like JPEGs) are as they would be if you converted them individually to PDF.
Whew. I'll stop there:)

Sid

[Sid Dean]

I'm not sure of the answer to this. How would you create layers in a PDF?

Stephen --

Thanks for the Info.

Re. layers in PDF, it is a concept I just stumbled across a few weeks ago.

The concept is also referred to as Optional Character Groups. For example, architects or draftsmen can produce 1 PDF which allows readers to switch between layers to see different levels of a building or a machine design.

For publishing, you can produce 1 PDF which allows readers to switch between languages, rather than having to offer several different versions of your publication.

PlanetPDF.com has a good background article published Feb. 18 2004 by Dave Wraight, entitled "Focus on PDF Layers (OCG)".

http://www.planetpdf.com/creative/article.asp?ContentID=6527


It seems that until now you could not create layers in Acrobat itself, but had to rely on certain design applications such as InDesign CS. Now the German company Callas advertises a plug-in called PDFLayerMaker for Acrobat 6 and 7 which is supposed to allow retroactive creation of layers in existing PDFs.

Their news release is at:
http://www.callas.de/en/2005_01.php#000392 (http://www.desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/ü¶˜)

I haven't tried it yet, but they do offer a free trial download from their site. The full version costs 99 Euro, or about $ 125-130.

Offhand I'm not sure whether it might be just as practical to create my layers in PageMaker and then distill separate (and probably smaller) PDFs, but I think I'll try it out.

Sid

[Stephen Owades]

Stephen --

Thanks for the Info.

Re. layers in PDF, it is a concept I just stumbled across a few weeks ago.

The concept is also referred to as Optional Character Groups. For example, architects or draftsmen can produce 1 PDF which allows readers to switch between layers to see different levels of a building or a machine design.

For publishing, you can produce 1 PDF which allows readers to switch between languages, rather than having to offer several different versions of your publication.

PlanetPDF.com has a good background article published Feb. 18 2004 by Dave Wraight, entitled "Focus on PDF Layers (OCG)".

http://www.planetpdf.com/creative/article.asp?ContentID=6527


It seems that until now you could not create layers in Acrobat itself, but had to rely on certain design applications such as InDesign CS. Now the German company Callas advertises a plug-in called PDFLayerMaker for Acrobat 6 and 7 which is supposed to allow retroactive creation of layers in existing PDFs.

Their news release is at:
http://www.callas.de/en/2005_01.php#000392 (http://www.desktoppublishingforum.com/bb/ü¶˜)

I haven't tried it yet, but they do offer a free trial download from their site. The full version costs 99 Euro, or about $ 125-130.

Offhand I'm not sure whether it might be just as practical to create my layers in PageMaker and then distill separate (and probably smaller) PDFs, but I think I'll try it out.

Sid


From the PlanetPDF article you linked to, I see that layers in PDF can be created with Creative Suite 1.x applications, so they probably worked with Acrobat 6 as well as Acrobat 7, since the original shipping version of Creative Suite predated the release of Acrobat 7. I obviously haven't explored this stuff, but it might be interesting.

If you want to create fancy stuff like multi-layered PDFs, you might want to consider switching from PageMaker to InDesign CS2, which is a more modern and powerful application in many ways.

[Sid Dean]

<<If you want to create fancy stuff like multi-layered PDFs, you might want to consider switching from PageMaker to InDesign CS2, which is a more modern and powerful application in many ways.>>

Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it.

Sid

[Dev Jag]

Hi,

I have downloaded and installed Adobe Acrobat 7 professional tryout from Adobe.com

When I run the software although it says that I have a tryout of 30 days and I understand that I need to activate to continue using it. But the Welcome screen only has a launch button and no activation button. Further, even on the Acrobat menus after its launched.. the Activate option is disabled under help menu. And that too is there for fraction of a second after which it also disappears completely. There is no option to start activation. I would like to activate by phone in order to continue using Acrobat.

Can anyone let me know how to get a product activation by phone page? There is no option under any menu, enabled or disabled to start activation.

-Dev

[donmcc]

I am pretty sure that the tryouts do not convert to full versions. You have to purchase the full version from Adobe (either as a download or as a CD), and then you will get a version that you can register and activate.

Don McCahill

[Sid Dean]

I am pretty sure that the tryouts do not convert to full versions. You have to purchase the full version from Adobe (either as a download or as a CD), and then you will get a version that you can register and activate.

Don McCahill

That's right. I tested the trial version for 30 days, then ordered the full version, which I installed and registered. (If you have an earlier version already and want to upgrade, do not de-install that older version until you have the Acrobat 7.0 installed and running).

The best deal seems to be on amazon.com.

Sid