Adobe Acrobat 5.0 [OLD VERSION]

Installation is quick and easy; within 15 minutes of opening the box we were saving Web pages as PDF files and adding comments to our documents. New users may want to take a tour around the help sections (either online Help or tool tips) to get acquainted with the program. In addition, checking out the help section will ensure you don't miss out on some of the more hidden features within the application, such as color management and timesaving Windows and Mac shortcuts.

One of the most important new features of version 5.0 is the ability to develop new documents from PDF files. You can now save the PDF file to Rich Text Format (RTF), and then edit the document using your word processor. Another important new feature is the ability to create interactive forms, which actually look a lot like their paper counterparts. And once you figure out how to upload these forms to your company intranet, you can share them with all relevant team members. Team members can even sign these forms, using a password-protected digital signature.

As always, the ability to comment on documents and Web pages remains an important reason to use Acrobat. A toolbar on the left-hand side gives users easy access to the list of comment tools, which range from highlighting tools, note boxes, pencil and line tools, and strikeout tools which let you erase lines of text. Once you've marked up a file or Web page, you can send the file to team members, business contacts and clients. As long as they have the Acrobat Reader (available free from Adobe's Web site), they should be able to read these files. And Acrobat retains the quality of your documents when you print them, so you don't have any nasty surprises when you pick up your documents from the printer.

Companies with employees in different physical locations can only benefit from Acrobat 5.0. While version 4.0 is obviously still a strong and very useful product, upgrading to Acrobat 5.0 promises a host of Internet-ready new features designed to accompany your business to the next level of high-speed communication. --Gisele Toueg

Amazon.com Review
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is PDF-creation software, direct from the company that first established the PDF standard. PDF stands for portable document format, and it remains the best way to format documents so they can be read by anyone on any platform. Version 5.0 brings significant improvements, particularly with regard to its interaction with other leading software, such as the Microsoft Office suites and programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

Installation is easy. Included in the installation is a function button added to Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. When you've written a document in these programs, simply click the PDF button on the toolbar and it will guide you through saving it as a PDF. Anyone with Acrobat Reader--free and available for download from Adobe's Web site--can view the documents.

You can also upload these documents to Internet sites, or onto networks. This is a key feature of this version. This Web-savvy function means you can post documents on an intranet or a network, and other users can simultaneously view, write on, edit, highlight, and stick notes on it using Acrobat's tools in their browser windows. This has obvious merit for anyone running meetings where not all attendees can be physically present.

You can place graphics from leading software products such as Illustrator and Photoshop into these PDFs, and when clicked on later, they will launch the original creation program if editing is needed. You can also create and add digital signatures to the PDF file, and, once the key is exchanged with your chosen recipient, security of the documents will be assured, as only the recipient can open them.

All in all, Acrobat 5.0 should be an essential toolbox element for anyone who needs to share documents. It is easy to use, creates extremely high-quality items--whether business spreadsheets, brochures for customers (it maintains the integrity of the onscreen version on printers, guaranteeing that the look you intended is rendered to a high quality) or Web sites--and ensures that security is maintained through signatures, and through the fact that only the creator can edit the original file. --Alison Jardine

Amazon.com Product Description
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 lets you easily convert any document to an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Whether you create business plans, spreadsheets, graphically rich brochures, or Web sites, Acrobat 5 is an essential tool. Anyone with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader can open your Adobe PDF file across a broad range of hardware and software. It will look and print exactly as intended. Save on printing, mailing, and warehousing by easily distributing compact, secure, searchable Adobe PDF files with Adobe Acrobat 5.0.

Teams can work smarter by adding comments to your PDF files right from their Web browsers with electronic highlighting and sticky notes, e-signature approval, and more. Control access to sensitive content by adding password protection to your document. Confidently share business plans, spreadsheets, graphically rich brochures, and even Web sites. Use a variety of security options to control access to sensitive content or prevent others from changing or printing your document.

Adobe PDF files retain the originals' visual integrity--with layout, fonts, formatting, links, and images intact. Get enhanced integration with Adobe Illustrator 9.0 and Photoshop 6.0. Acrobat 5 provides support for transparency and consistent color management. Click an image in your Adobe PDF file to edit natively in Photoshop, or open Adobe PDF pages or graphics in Illustrator for editing. Repurpose information from your Adobe PDF files by saving the files in Rich Text Format (RTF) for editing in Microsoft Word. Automatically crop, rotate, or insert a large number of Adobe PDF pages with new batch-processing capabilities, and use tiling options to easily proof oversize documents.

Accelerate the Web-site review-and-approval process. Capture your graphically rich sites as PDF files so clients and internal teams can approve and comment on your text and layout without having to go online. Attach Adobe PDF files to e-mail or post them to your network server. Adobe products are tightly integrated, so PDF conversion with Acrobat is a natural next step after you've created pages with Adobe GoLive or other graphically rich software.

My personal needs are to create PDF files, encrypt them, require passwords to view, and restrict the user from printing and copying. After testing a couple other PDF products, I quickly discovered that their security was overly easy to bypass, no I take that back, they were *ridiculously* easy to bypass. Adobe's security has so far proven to be usefully solid.

Since Adobe provides limited public information about their products, I recommend that you first buy a book teaching how to use an Adobe package and read it through so that you will know what the software actually does and does not do. Yes, I agree, having to purchase a book and spend the time studying is not the prefered way to learn about any product, but the few dollars invested can easily pay for itself by your knowing which software to buy (or more specifically, what not to buy!).

What has amazed me the most with my Acrobat experience is when I had to call Adobe customer service to get a complex upgrade to version 6. Not only did the girl answering know what I was talking about, she also accomplished the entire order within that one phone call! WOW! Customer service like that is unheard of today. Apparently Adobe does care about its products enough to hire quality employees, and with that level of care, I feel more confident that I made the right decision choosing Adobe. Too, I purchased Acrobat from Amazon for the same reason of wanting quality service.

There are other PDF products available, some are even free, but for those of us who prefer quality and usefulness over initially lower costs, Acrobat is an intelligence choice. Choosing the right product today, the one that does not crash nor take time away from our work to fiddle with settings, gives us more time to whine about the costs later. If Acrobat were less expensive, I would give it five stars.


Essential if you like to save web pages   May 21, 2003
Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I use Adobe Acrobat for many things--creating PDF files, editing them and writing documents for work. But if you visit web pages and want to save or print them, the Adobe Distiller is really essential.

The Distiller acts like a virtual printer, and saves a web page view as a PDF file, complete with images. Unlike saving a web page, which relies on being on the internet to bring up linked photos, the PDF captures the pictures and creates a document that you can store away. Even if the webpage is taken down or altered, you have a copy of it. Web pages are rather ephemeral; they come and they go. This is a good way to document them.

I don't find the interface particularly easy to use--it's not like the Microsoft Office package and the icons are all new to figure out. The price is somewhat steep, though it's been lowered recently.

Despite these criticisms, I would not be without this software. It's probably one I use more than almost any other on my PC.