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Acrobat: Security Envelopes

by David R. Mankin 

 

Acrobat will allow you to apply password security to a PDF file, therefore giving you control over who can open your file. There are times, however, that you may want to similarly control documents that are not PDF files.

Here's an example: I have six files that I want to email to a coworker. Because the files contain sensitive material, I don't want just anyone to be able to open them. One of the files is a PDF, but the others are not. A very slick method for securing the files would be to use Acrobat's Security Envelope feature. A Security Envelope is a PDF file (actually a PDF form) that has attached files. Since the Security Envelope itself is a PDF file, one can easily apply security to it, and therefore protect the attachments, regardless of the file type.

To start the process, click the Secure Task Button and choose Create Security Envelope.

 

 

Click the Add File to Send button to browse for your attachments. You may do this process as many times as needed to find files in multiple locations.

 

Once you've collected your attachments, click Next. You will then be given the opportunity to select your desired envelope template. These are simply PDF forms, and you can create your own if you wish. I chose Interdepartment eEnvelope. I opted to send my Security Envelope later in the next screen.

 

The next screen will allow you to select a pre-defined Security Policy, or the opportunity to create one from scratch. (A Security Policy is a memorized security routine that can be applied and reused to PDF files quickly and efficiently). You can bypass security settings and apply them later, or not at all if you prefer.

 

You will end up with a single PDF file. In this case, it truly resembles an interdepartmental envelope--complete with red string and fastening grommets!

 

 

There are form fields ready to be filled with appropriate information. Once saved, the security is applied to the PDF file. The attachments are included inside the PDF, and covered by its security settings. If a user cannot open the PDF file (he/she does not have the open password, for example), they cannot get to the attachments.

A very cool feature that many folks have never seen! Want to learn more? Sign up for one of my live, online Acrobat classes.

 

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

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Acrobat: X-citing News!

by David R. Mankin 

 

There's something exciting in the Adobe world, and it's about to hit the shelves of your favorite software store. Adobe recently announced the pending release of the Acrobat X family of software. There are some really exciting changes and improvements over Acrobat 9. The most noticeable will be Acrobat X's user interface. It is uncluttered, and always gives the document its due focus instead of banks of toolbars and palettes.

 

PDF Portfolios are more usable, beautiful, and cooler, if you can image that! There will be improved scanning results, better OCR, integration with SharePoint technology, a better in-browser PDF experience and an Action Wizard that will blow you away with its power and flexibility.

 

You'll do less fishing for tools in this new release, thanks to a customizable Quick Tools area to the right of the view panel.

 

Exporting to Excel and Microsoft Word has been super-enhanced. There's more--MUCH more. To see a complete features list, click here.

 

The entire Acrobat family is being upgraded. Reader X will be free, of course, and there will be three other Acrobat X products for sale: Acrobat X Standard, Acrobat X Pro and Acrobat X Suite. Current Acrobat owners will be eligible for a special upgrade price. Although the exact release date has not been stated, you can expect this new version to hit the streets very soon.

 

I am very excited about getting my hands on Acrobat X, and bringing it to you in the classroom as soon as possible. In the meantime, sign up for one of my live, online Acrobat classes and learn about the cool stuff you can do with Acrobat 9.

 

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

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Acrobat 9: Pan & Zoom

by David R. Mankin 

 

Many Acrobat users also work with some of Adobe's other amazing products. For example, I use Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat nearly every day.

 

One of the nice Photoshop features that I have grown to rely on is the Navigator, a miniature window of the currently active file. I can use the Navigator to move around to different regions of the Photoshop page, and change magnification, all without having to switch over to the Zoom tool or Hand tool.

 

Not many people realize that a tool similar to the Navigator exists in Acrobat and it allows you to move around the current PDF page, and even change magnification--all without changing tools.

 

While the feature is known as the Navigator in Photoshop, in Acrobat the tool is called the Pan & Zoom tool. It lives on the Select & Zoom toolbar, but it is not part of that toolbar's default set. You'll need to uncover it by right-clicking the Select & Zoom toolbar and choosing Pan & Zoom Window. At this point, the tool's icon will be visible on the toolbar.

 

 

Clicking the tool opens a window that contains a miniature view of your current page. This window is movable and scalable. You'll see a red rectangle that exactly mirrors the region of the page that is in view. Drag that rectangle and you can adjust your view panel to show the new location. Change the size of the rectangle and you will adjust your magnification.

 

If the red rectangle isn't easy to see due to your page's color scheme, you can change the highlight color as well. You can even navigate from page to page by using the Pan & Zoom's own navigation buttons.

 

Another Acrobat hidden gem! If you like that trick, sign up for one of my live, online Acrobat classes.

 

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

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Acrobat 9: It's Update Time

by David R. Mankin 

 

Some things in life just get better with time. As a regular Acrobat user since version 2, I can tell you with great confidence that Acrobat 9 is better than Acrobat 8, which was better than Acrobat 7, etc.

 

 

Improvements and tweaks (and repair patches) are a constant component of the software industry. Adobe clearly doesn't sit back and take their eyes off the ball once its software is released. Those improvements can be obtained through Acrobat's (and Reader's) built-in Updater. To find out if your installation is current, simply choose Help > Check For Updates. If updates are available, you will be prompted to have the updates downloaded and installed.

 

Earlier this week, Adobe released an update which updates Reader & Acrobat to version 9.4. Most importantly, it addresses a critical vulnerability. Here are Adobe's words regarding this:

This vulnerability (CVE-2010-2883) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.

 

This should be enough of a reason to check if you have this update installed. If you have your Updater preferences set to download and install updates automatically, you may already be current (Edit > Preferences > Updater on Windows, or Acrobat > Preferences > Updater on Mac to see your Updater settings).

 

If your Updater informs you that updates are available, don't hesitate. The thought of someone in another hemisphere taking my hard drive and data out for a remote test drive is rather unsettling.

 

Note: You can read Adobe's Release Notes on version 9.4 notes by clicking here.

 

Looking to learn Acrobat in a hurry? Sign up for one of my live, online Acrobat classes.

 

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

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Acrobat 9: pdf.txt

by David R. Mankin

 

PDF files, by their very nature, are a sophisticated, highly flexible and capable file format. I have been asked by dozens of clients and students over the years to show them how to export a PDF to a Microsoft Word document.

 

In the early days of Acrobat, it wasn't necessarily the simplest thing to do. In Acrobat 8's interface, we finally had a large and rather obvious Export Task Button. In Acrobat 9, the task button is gone, but the Export command still lives under the File menu.

 

A Word document exported from a PDF file is usually a rough sketch, in my experience. I have logged many, many hours reworking these files into usable documents. Sometimes the cleanup work seems nearly insurmountable. In these cases, I will then ask Acrobat to create a plain-old text file, essentially a document without any real formatting. To do this, I choose File > Export > Text > Text (Plain) for the most fundamentally unformatted document. I will then open this text file in Microsoft Word, and finally apply proper formatting.

The Export command has lots of file formats to explore. You can export a PDF file as a Word document, RTF, XML, HTML, various image formats, Postscript (EPS too), PDF/A, PDF/X and PDF/E. If you need to export multiple files, there's an option to do that in one task versus opening each file individually.

Acrobat is loaded with surprises. Want to learn more? Sign up for one of my Acrobat classes.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

Acrobat 9: Lost? Bang - ZOOM!

by David R. Mankin

I see folks fall into the same hole over and over again in my Acrobat training travels. They are zooming in on a page, and forget to drop the Zoom Tool when they're done using it. Each successive click to adjust the view only zooms them in more and more, eventually leaving them looking at a white part of the page.  They are zoomed in to 6400%, and they are lost.

Because of this, I consider the Zoom keyboard shortcuts in Acrobat 9 to be some of the most useful in the program, and will allow the lost to be found instantly. Here they are:

The next time you find yourself lost on a PDF page due to a 'zoom mishap,' don't panic.  Pressing [Ctrl] [0] zooms you back out to the whole page to regain your bearings.Once you get used to using these shortcuts, you may find yourself rarely reaching for the Zoom Tool with your mouse. Over the years, I have slowly changed from an occasional keyboard shortcut user to an avid, and almost constant one. 

 

Do you love shortcuts? I talk about them and other productivity boosting techniques in my online Acrobat classes. I'm hoping to "meet" some of you in the classroom.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

Acrobat 9: Custom Stamps

by David R. Mankin

Acrobat technology provides an amazing way to share documents with others and to participate in a shared review cycle of the documents efficiently.

The Comment & Markup toolbar is loaded with familiar tools. Most are digital versions of things that are in your pencil cups and in your desk drawers. There is no need to visit the help file to figure out how the Highlight Tool is used since it works just like the plastic one on your desk.

One commenting tool that has a nice twist to its capabilities is the Stamp Tool. The Stamp tool comes preloaded with some basic stamps. They are categorized in groups such as Dynamic, Sign Here and Standard Business images. Once placed on your page, the stamps can be resized, rotated and a text-based note can be attached.

An often overlooked feature of the Stamp Tool is the ability to create your own custom stamp. The creation process is easy. On your Comment & Markup toolbar, click the small down-arrow to the right of the Stamp Tool (rubber stamp icon). From the menu, choose Create Custom Stamp. Since your new stamp will be created from an existing image (or pdf file), click the Browse button and locate your image file. Note: You may have to change the Files of Type option to match your image file's extension.



Click OK and you will then have the opportunity to give your custom stamp a name and to choose in which category your stamp will be placed. You may select an existing category, or type a name for a brand new category here. Once you click OK, your stamp is ready to use.



Wow--yet another way to make your work stand out from the crowd. If you want extraordinary PDF files instead of ordinary ones, sign up for one of my Acrobat classes where you will learn that there are tons of neat and useful hidden commands and capabilities.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

Acrobat 9: White? Maybe!

by David R. Mankin

 

So you think that sheet of paper you are about to print on is white, right? I mean, the paper sure does look white. But if you grab a sheet of white paper from a different paper vendor, you will notice that the two sheets of paper are not the SAME white. One may look brighter, while the other may seem muted.

Hold up the piece of paper you felt was brighter to your computer's monitor. The document you have open on your screen is designed with a white paper background, but it looks even brighter than the paper in your hand! Wow. The white of your paper will affect the way one sees ink colors after it's printed. There's some science at play here. Paper looks the way it does because the light is reflected to your eyes. Your computer monitor is illuminated from behind, and does not reflect, but rather projects the light to you.

Reflected and projected colors simply do not look the same to our eyes. With all this in mind, and the need for precise color reproduction in printing, it is very easy for your carefully designed document to look different in print than it did when it was designed on screen. Acrobat has become an indispensable tool in the print industry, offering a complete delivery method from designer to print shop.

Are you curious how your PDF file will look on paper? You can get a glimpse well before you send your file off to the print shop. With your PDF file open, choose Advanced > Print Production > Output Preview. Near the top of the Output Preview dialog box is a check box marked Simulate Paper Color. It is unchecked initially.



If you click this box, Acrobat will dim the paper white of your document to simulate reflected white instead of your monitor's projected white. It will look WRONG. The page on your screen will look gray! But if you walk away for a bit, and come back and look at the document, it will actually seem white--just not as bright as your monitor's naturally-projected white. It's not perfectly accurate, since you already discovered that two pieces of paper you thought were both white actually looked different, but it does give you an idea of how the ink that will be spread on top of your white paper might look.

Are you surprised by the difference? I was too. I used to operate an offset press, so accurate color reproduction is something with which I am very familiar. Acrobat is loaded with amazing capabilities. Interested in learning more? Consider signing up for one of my Acrobat classes where you will learn that there are tons of neat and useful hidden commands and capabilities.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

Acrobat 9: Office 2010 and Acrobat

by David R. Mankin

Microsoft released Office 2010 not long ago and I couldn't wait to see the upgraded suite in action. After playing with the new software for a while, I really liked the way Word 2010 looked and felt.

But then it happened....

I needed to convert a Word 2010 document into a PDF. I went about the task using my usual process: after saving the Word file, I went to click on the Acrobat tab found in Word 2007 to bring the Acrobat Ribbon forward... and the Acrobat tab simply wasn't there. Huh? I poked around Word 2010, menu by menu but found no hint of an Acrobat Ribbon or its coveted PDFMaker. Oh no! My readers and my students know how I rely on the PDFMaker for converting Word to PDF over printing to PDF. In fact, if you want automatically-created bookmarks, articles, or have any hopes of a 508-compliant PDF file, you really need to use the PDFMaker.

An internet search about the missing PDFMaker quickly revealed that I was not imagining this problem, and I was not alone in my discovery. In fact, here are excerpts from Adobe's online FAQ regarding this issue:

The Acrobat ribbons, also known as Acrobat PDFMaker, do not work with Office 2010 applications the same way they do with Office 2007. Customers using Acrobat 9.0 through 9.2 will see the Acrobat ribbon in Office 2010 applications; however, attempting to use PDFMaker functionality from the Acrobat ribbon can result in unexpected behavior. Customers who update to Acrobat 9.3 or later will not see the Acrobat 9 ribbon in Office 2010 applications.

Adobe plans to add support for its Acrobat PDFMaker technology for Office 2010 in the next major version of Acrobat.

If you rely on the PDFMaker's capabilities to create smart, capable PDF files, or if 508 Compliancy is required in your PDFs that come from Word, you may NOT want to upgrade your Office apps just yet. Adobe is clearly aware of the issue, and we will all be making smart, compliant PDFs from Office apps soon. Stay tuned.

Are you intrigued by the mention of smart PDF files? Might you be missing out on some of the amazing features that are part of Acrobat technology? Sign up for one of my Acrobat classes where you will learn that there are tons of neat and useful hidden commands and capabilities.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

Acrobat 9: Compare!

by David R. Mankin

You have two PDF files. Both are named very similarly, and you recognize them as being from the same project. But you don't remember what the differences are between the two. You changed the name a while ago, but you don't remember why. If these two documents were printed, you'd place them on your desk and flip through them to see if you could spot something that makes them different. If you changed the font used for headings or body text, you might spot that quickly, but if a name was changed on page 49 of an 80 page proposal, it would likely take a lot of time to find this visually, if at all. If the only difference is the presence of an apostrophe on page 17, you'd likely never spot it.

Luckily, these are PDF documents so you can take advantage of the Document > Compare Documents feature and let Acrobat do the work for you.

Acrobat will ask you to select two documents that you wish to compare (called older and newer document). Acrobat wants a hint as to whether its focus will be graphics or text or both so you will then select the type of document your work resembles (such as Reports, spreadsheets, magazine layouts, etc).

A new PDF file is created for you, called [Compare New]your_document's_name.pdf. This special PDF document starts off with a summary report, naming the old and new document's file name, some basic facts (such as "No pages were deleted"), and a basic legend of indicator marks. You will also see a Compare Panel open on the left. Pages that have differences are marked with a purple box. On the pages with differences from version to version, comments are inserted to point out these differences. You will find a floating legend with explains the different color comment types--blue for inserts, red for deletions, etc.



There is no more guesswork. Not even the smallest difference between the two documents will elude you. Another Acrobat gem!

Sign up for one of my Acrobat classes where you will learn that there are tons of neat and useful hidden commands and capabilities.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.