The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Adobe Acrobat 5.0.5  
 Ash Nallawalla
 ash@melbpc.org.au

Most people who have used a PC have probably come across an Adobe Acrobat file - a file that has the extension .PDF. Perhaps they are familiar with those files by their distinctive "A" icon. In case you are new to computing, the most common description of Acrobat from a user's perspective is that it's a file that faithfully reproduces its printed appearance. You can view colours, fonts, images - exactly as they will appear when printed with a high quality colour printer. To use Adobe's marketing description, you can "create documents that anyone can open".

Of course, Adobe Acrobat is a lot more than that simple explanation. For starters, most users will undoubtedly acquire a copy of the free Acrobat Reader, which integrates well with popular Web browsers. Almost every magazine cover CD-ROM seems to have a copy of that program and you can also fetch it from the Adobe Web site. Many Web sites offer Portable Document Format (PDF) files instead of displaying the content as HTML pages. When you click such a link, the document opens within your browser, which now displays additional Acrobat-specific controls.

While the Acrobat Reader is free, the package that enables you to create PDF files is known as Adobe Acrobat, which will cost around $535 including GST. I last used version 3.0 at a previous job, so I was quite excited to see the improvements in version 5.0. I have been using it for many months now and have recently obtained the 5.0.5 patch so that it works well with Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows. Nowadays, you get the 5.0.5 version inside the shrinkwrapped retail versions - I just bought a copy for my employer.

Solutions

If your work involves creating or reviewing documents destined for the Web, for the office, or for the printed media, you will undoubtedly benefit from using Adobe Acrobat. Here are some of the problems that can be solved by using Adobe Acrobat:

  • Your favourite word processor is brand X and you wish to send a document to someone who uses brand Y.
  • Your correspondents have the same word processor as you do but it might not be the same version, or they do not have the same fonts, so a well-formatted document looks less attractive to them.
  • The document will not print correctly because of printer or software limitations.
  • You wish to create a document that needs to be available in different viewing media, such as handheld devices, in print and on the Web.
  • Documents with complex formatting are not accessible to visually impaired people.
  • A large document that includes many images may be too large to send to someone by e-mail.
  • You wish to place some restrictions on what a reader can do with your document.
Tagged Adobe PDF

The Acrobat Reader can view PDF files created by Acrobat 5.0 in the above examples, thereby solving these problems. Version 5.0 has introduced the concept of Tagged Adobe PDF. This enables a document to be tagged to define its logical structure, which serves to define elements such as its title, chapters, sections and subsections.


Figure 1. A form created with Acrobat can be filled on-screen.


Figure 2. A signed document adds authenticity.

Tagged Adobe PDF documents can be reflowed to fit small-screen devices and offer better support for repurposing content. Repurposing is a fancy term to mean that you can select some text easily and save it in, say, Rich Text Format (RTF) or XML elsewhere. They also are more accessible to the visually impaired. The Downloads page for Acrobat 5 will take you to free plug-ins for XML, paper capture and accessibility.

Characteristics of a tagged PDF file:

  • The page content is contained in a logical reading sequence.
  • Word boundaries are explicitly identified.
  • Font encodings are mapped to standard font encoding.
  • It includes a structure tree comprised of a standard set of tags.
Benefits of tagged PDF:
  • It can be read by a screen reader for greater accessibility.
  • The document can be reflowed.
  • It can be saved as Rich Text Format (RTF).
How to Create PDF Files

When you install Acrobat 5.0, it adds two icons in the icon bar of Microsoft Office applications. One icon converts the document and the other one converts it and then e-mails it to someone you choose.

Two tools are also installed with Acrobat: PDFWriter 5.0 and Distiller 5.0. The former is a macro that uses Distiller to do its work and the latter is an application that can be run on its own. Distiller is installed as a PostScript "printer" but instead of paper, it produces the PDF file as its output.


Figure 3. You can import a digitised signature from 
an image file or from a Palm organiser.


Figure 4. Distiller has many settings that you can 
adjust before sending a job to the printer.

You can now create PDF files that can be read on a Palm-based palmtop device. For a special touch, you can use the Palm device to digitise your signature and send it to the PC for incorporation in a PDF document. This feature can also be used to sign your document digitally, which gives an additional level of authenticity for important documents.


Figure 6. The PDF Consultant tool enables you to optimise the space 
used within a PDF document.

 Optimising PDF Files

To get good results, you need to check several settings in Distiller. Back when I was using Acrobat 3.0, I noticed that my images were always fuzzy, until fellow member Kevin Mack enlightened me about the Job Options dialog box. You need to use higher quality settings for sending a job for commercial printing than you do for viewing on a computer screen. Reading the manual is what few of us do, but it is usually a good strategy to get the most from a program.

The PDF Consultant tool is useful for analysing a large document, particularly if it is getting too large to send by E-mail. You can choose to remove or compress duplicated or large images, or reduce the number of fonts, for example.

You can insert links to media clips such as QuickTime movies, but these clips need to be distributed with the PDF file: they are not embedded.

In Use

I have to admit that I mainly use Acrobat to make PDF files and to review PDFs made by others. The latter often happens in the Melb PC context, as we (in the Management Committee) regularly review forms and leaflets. Occasionally I use it to fill in forms but it is annoying when you come across a form that has not been enabled for that purpose and you have to print and fill it out with a pen.

At work I have had to prepare training material that includes Web links. Acrobat enables these links so that the reader can click on them and invoke the browser.


Figure 7. PDFMaker in action while converting a 
Microsoft Word document.

Acrobat is truly easy to use and I encourage users to explore the 287-page online manual and discover its full potential. Nearly every business that creates forms and documents for internal or external use will benefit from using Acrobat, which I highly recommend.


Figure 5. You can highlight the text as you make 
review comments.


Figure 8. Our family newsletter now goes as a PDF file 
and we save on colour printing and postage costs.

About the Author
Ash Nallawalla http://easyrsvp.com/ash/ is the CRM Manager for Macromedia Asia-Pacific, the Honorary Editor of PC Update, a Committee member and Honorary Life Member of Melb PC.

Reprinted from the August 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

[About Melbourne PC User Group]