The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Adobe Acrobat 3
Bob Burt
 bobburt@melbpc.org.au

Adobe Systems is the creator of PostScript, which has developed as a highly successful system for device-independent printing. That is to say, PostScript, which is both a page-description language and an interpreter, produces files which can be printed from a range of platforms, including Windows, Windows NT, Macintosh and UNIX.

Acrobat extends the concept of across-platform availability to viewing and managing documents onscreen. Using Acrobat, you can create documents in virtually any application on any computer system and convert them to the transportable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) without quality degradation. Such PDF files can be viewed, navigated, copied and printed with Acrobat Reader, which is available from the Internet, for example, free of charge.

The package

Acrobat 3 comes on two CD-ROMs, one for the Acrobat creative applications, the other for the Acrobat Reader and a range of explanatory PDF files. Printed documentation is very sparse, comprising a 30-page Getting Started manual, but this is adequate for its purpose. The documentation on disc is very extensive, however, and all in PDF style. There is, for example, a 400-page book entitled Internet Publishing with Acrobat 3 by Gordon Kent and an impressively illustrated booklet, entitled Introduction to Electronic Publishing. A very handy Quick Tour of Adobe Acrobat provides some introductory lessons on the key features of Acrobat. By the way, the online help provided in all the Acrobat applications is in PDF style.

QuickTime, which is required to play movies embedded in PDF documents is also available on disc. Likewise, Adobe Type Manager can be installed separately. It is not required to use any of the Acrobat components, but, when it is installed, you can avoid using TrueType fonts. Unlike the Adobe Type 1 fonts, TrueType fonts provide text which is both unsearchable and unselectable, which in many situations would be an unacceptable restriction.

Installation

The instructions are simple to follow, but you do have to decide which components to install, bearing in mind that the hard disk space required can be substantial. For example, my installation used up 3 percent of my new 2.1 GB disk. You also have to watch out for linked components. For example, the Capture plug-in requires both Acrobat Exchange and PDF Writer. You also need to select the driver that matches the scanner that you expect to use, although if you don't mind being liberal with hard disk space you can select all the available drivers!

The application Distiller Assistant is a very useful component of Acrobat, since it allows you to print directly to Acrobat Distiller, thus creating comprehensive PDF files with ease. The snag is that to use the Assistant you need close to 20 MB of application RAM plus the amount of RAM required to run the program generating the document. There is no point in installing it unless you have at least 20 MB - more would be much better.

During installation, a great deal of activity occurs behind the scenes. For example, establishing links to your word processing and spreadsheet applications and installing PDF Writer as a "printer."

The Acrobat applications

The main suite of applications comprises
  • Acrobat Exchange - to view and modify PDF files
  • Acrobat Distiller - to create PDF files from PostScript files
  • Acrobat Distiller Assistant - to streamline PDF file creation
  • Acrobat Catalog - to build full-text indexes of PDF file collections
  • Acrobat PDF Writer - to create simple PDF files from your standard documents
  • Acrobat Reader - to read, copy or print PDF files
A dditionally, many features of Acrobat are plug-ins (for Acrobat Exchange), including
  • Acrobat Scan - to use the Scan command in Exchange together with a scanner to convert paper documents to PDF Image Only files
  • Acrobat Capture - to convert scanned documents into visually faithful searchable and editable documents
  • Acrobat Import Image - to import a range of raster-image file formats
  • Acrobat TouchUp - to perform single-line text editing
  • Acrobat Movie - to add pointers to movie files or sound files in PDF documents
  • Acrobat AutoIndex - to automatically add indexes to your Index Selection dialog
  • Acrobat ExecMenu - to create links that access any menu item in the Acrobat viewer
  • Acrobat Search - to search full-text indexes created with Catalog
  • Acrobat Forms - to create and fill in electronic forms
  • Acrobat Weblink - to create links to the Web
  • Acrobat Optimizer - to reduce the size of PDF files by removing redundant copies of images and background graphics
O ther plug-ins are available from third parties for such things as automating link creation, serving PDF files as OLE documents and teleconferencing.

Using Acrobat

As a new user you would need a fairly considerable amount of time to become reasonably familiar with this product, particularly if you expect to use most of the resources that it provides. Where do you start? I suggest it is well worth spending the time to read the introductory material provided as PDF files and to take more than a glance or two at the more comprehensive documents provided. Using Acrobat Reader for this purpose is a simple step and you will see plenty of examples of good presentations.


Figure 1. Converting an MS Word memo to PDF with PDF Writer.


Figure 2. A PDF file for editing, displayed in Acrobat Exchange.

You should complete the tutorial, which will provide you with the confidence to progress further. It will establish for you that the key program for development of PDF files is Acrobat Exchange. You would initially prepare your documents with your favourite word processor or desktop publisher, with graphics imported after creation by your graphics software or selection from a graphics library. Movie and sound files are not imported. They simply require links to be established, but you must not forget that the PDF files you create must be accompanied by the movie and sound files when they are transported to another computer system, written to a CD-ROM or used as a series of Web pages on the Internet.

The PDF Writer is useful to quickly convert a document (which may contain simple graphics) from within your word processor, spreadsheet or desktop publisher to a PDF file, but for more extensive or complex documentation you would use Distiller, which normally creates much more compact files. It produces the best results for high quality publications. To use it, you would first ensure that the Adobe PostScript Printer Driver is installed and then add Distiller to your list of installed printers. You first create a PostScript file, then convert the file to PDF with Distiller.


Figure 3. Adding a Note to a PDF file.


Figure 4. Adding a thumbnail (and entire file) of a PDF Form to an earlier PDF file.

New features

Version 3 of Acrobat carries a considerable range of new and improved features.

PDF creation has been enhanced by improving the capacity to compress images and fonts and control printing information.

The viewing features have been expanded. You can integrate with Web browsers, open and convert image files, add actions to links, bookmarks, pages and form fields and create and fill out forms.

More control is provided for PDF display on-screen. You can open documents with settings suitable for tutorials, help and kiosk applications and you can effect continuous scrolling between pages.

More actions can be assigned to links, bookmarks and form buttons. Links to other PDF files open in the same window, thus avoiding the stacking of multiple windows. You can also create buttons and regions in your PDF files to initiate actions such as playing movies and sounds, navigating and executing a menu item.

Conclusion

Acrobat 3 has been promoted as a valuable package for the creation of documents on the Internet (World Wide Web) and other online systems. However, it may well be that the PDF system is sufficiently advanced to supersede unadorned PostScript, in part at least, for the printing market. Of course, at print time, the PDF file will convert to a PostScript stream. Perhaps the greatest of a number of benefits which PDF files would bring to such a procedure is that one consistent format would be made available for printing.

Reprinted from the May 1997 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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