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Topic: Re: Acrobat 8 the weakest upgrade in years
Conf: (P-PDF) Talkback, Msg: 156134
From: blondemoment
Date: 11/17/2006 07:37 AM

Whether or not Acrobat 8 really is the weakest upgrade in years as Mr. McIlroy states in his letter to the editor, I believe that for the legal community, the introduction of the native redaction tool (not to mention the bates label feature) is well worth the upgrade for the legal community.

Prior to Acrobat 8, redaction in Acrobat was a malpractice suit waiting to happen for the not-so-savvy user. Before Acrobat 8, redaction alternatives included: manually redacting a document by cutting out the text, placing a black sheet behind the page, and copying it (yes, this practice still exists in the 21st Century!), scanning a document to eCopy and using eCopy tools to redact the document, redacting a document electronically and scanning it to OmniPage Pro or other scanning software, using what I consider unfriendly third party add-ins (none of which were impressive), or, for those who liked to live close to the edge, go through the painful and frightening process of redacting a PDF with Acrobat's rectangle tool, saving the redacted PDF as TIFF files, and reassembling them into a new PDF, or printing to Adobe PDF, making sure to print Document and Markups, and checking the Print as Image option under the Advanced button.

While Acrobat 8 may not be the be-all and end-all for those in the electronic publishing business, but it is the best upgrade I've seen that addresses the needs of the legal community. Acrobat 8's native redaction tool is easy to use, fast, and doesn't require complicated instructions in order to use it. That's more than enough upgrade for me!