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Topic: Re: I hate to feel like an after-thought (Via Email)
Conf: (P-PDF) Mac Issues, Msg: 89008
From: prodok
Date: 6/4/2003 02:21 PM

>>ADOBE REP: Hey, look at the way Acrobat takes the custom
>>transitions of bullet points in Power Point and converts them into PDF
>>transitions.
>>
>>ME: Can you do that on a Mac?
>>
>>ADOBE REP: Uhhhh, no.
>
> That is due to a combination of Microsoft engineering issues, and
>Adobe marketing issues. The former in that Microsoft doesn't provide the
>same degree of extensibility on the Mac as they do on Windows, and the
>latter in that Adobe doesn't see the large number of Office users on Mac OS
>and so won't invest the time/$$.
>
> And to me, this is somewhat outside the main Acrobat product -
>just as the all the "PDFMakers" (Office, MSIE, Visio, etc.) are...

Hmmm... Beg to differ, the "PDFMakers" _ARE_ part of the Acrobat
_product_. They are however outside of the Acrobat _application_.
Product can have two different meanings, and in this context, we can
not take the "developer point of view" perspective, but must take the
marketing perspective, and in this case, the product is "essentially
everything you find in the box".

Therefore, it is a shortcoming of the product, and the question is
how much discount Adobe had to give for these shortcomings.

I do understand that, particularly for the PDFMakers, the source
document application is already crippled.



>>ADOBE REP: Hey, look how you can roundtrip comments from
>>Acrobat to Word. And all the text and strike-throughs show up.
>>
>>ME: Can you do that on a Mac?
>>
>>ADOBE REP: Uhhhh, no.
>
> This isn't just a Mac OS issue - the issue is true on Windows as
>well. This particular feature requires Office XP (the latest and greatest)
>- so most Windows users won't see this feature!

See above.



>>I didn't mind some of the differences between Windows and Mac, but
>>it feels like the difference between the platforms is getting bigger, not
>>less.
>
> You're wrong on this one. I've done a thorough review of both
>products - and they aren't that far apart...EXCEPT in terms of the
>PDFMakers...
>
> The Acrobat application is almost 100% on par.
>
>
>>And I know that Adobe would never release a version of InDesign,
>>Photoshop, or Illustrator that had such a huge set of features on
>>Windows but not on the Mac.
>
> All of those other products are Creative Pro products - Acrobat is
>an enterprise product. It has a VERY different market...One that is
>dominated by Windows...


Hmmm... is it really an enterprise product. Yes for Acrobat 6 Standard.

But I would count Acrobat 6 as a Contents Development product, which,
particularly because of the prepress features, is definitely not
"enterprise use".

However, this is a differentiation so subtle that "enterprise types"
don't get it...



Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering
Low Paper workflows, Smart documents, PDF forms
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland

Fax: +41 1 700 20 37
or +1 815 425 6566
e-mail: mailto:max@prodok.com
http://www.prodok.com



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