The first thoughts on Acrobat 6: Ted Padova talks with Planet PDF

7 April 2003

What's the verdict? Does Acrobat 6 break new ground. Do people need it and its new features?

Ted Padova: I believe Acrobat 6 is Adobe's most exciting new product release since the introduction of PostScript. This new version is a major update and offers users so many new features it would be impossible to list them all here. There are many different market sectors that can greatly benefit from upgrading to Acrobat 6.0 Professional not to mention any kind of office worker in any profession. Acrobat 6 isn't just an upgrade, it's become a mature feature rich program that makes all previous versions look inferior. Just about any computer user will find at least one set of new tools a great addition to the program.

What new Acrobat 6 feature are you most excited about? Briefly explain this compelling feature and why it's exciting.

TP: Acrobat 6 has so many new exciting features, it's hard to narrow it down to just one. But if I had to choose a single new feature, it would have to be the support for layers. For all kinds of creative professionals, engineers, technical people, and those using Acrobat for presentations, the support for layered documents is a great new feature in Acrobat. Along with the ability to set different layer visibility and create links for different layer views, this addition to Acrobat 6 is something everyone will applaud.

What single feature from previous versions of Acrobat do you think has been most improved with the Acrobat 6 release?

TP: There are several, but once again if had to choose just one, I'd have to say the new print controls are a long overdue feature item that has arrived and it's arrived in "style." Acrobat was like a second cousin to other Adobe imaging applications where users needed to depend on third party plug-ins (often at prices twice the price of Acrobat) to perform the job of professional printing. Now in Acrobat 6 Professional, users can preflight jobs, soft proof color, and print with features that rival most professional layout applications.

What are your thoughts on the product segmentation into Elements, Standard and Professional, and the renaming of Acrobat Reader to Adobe Reader?

TP: People are viewing this as Adobe segmenting the product and don't really see it that way. After all, we did have Reader, Acrobat, and Business Tools/Approval for several years. Now in the new version we have Reader, Acrobat Professional and Acrobat Standard. Acrobat Standard is an Acrobat Approval item beefed up to provide users with more features that they wanted from a lighter version of Acrobat. Elements is just a product to enable large corporations to obtain a site license for many copies with a few more tools than those provided by Reader. For the consumer, users of Acrobat should think in terms of upgrading to Acrobat Professional. As for Reader, well we've seen many name changes in the Acrobat family, so this is nothing new. Most of us typically refer to the product as simply Reader, so that part of the name remains unchanged.

Are there any circumstances in which you would recommend staying with Acrobat 5.0?

TP: I see no benefit in staying with Acrobat 5. For the first few months users may want to keep it around until we see if any maintenance upgrades are released. It's such a major upgrade that there may be some tweaks as we move along in the product life. But for features and authoring, Acrobat 6 professional offers users so much more. I think upgrading right away is something I'd recommend to every Acrobat user.

Finally, any general comments or other points you'd like to make regarding Acrobat 6.0?

TP: Acrobat has always struggled a little with users trying to describe exactly what the product is and what it does. Now, more than ever, Acrobat is a companion program that is intended to be a participating application among a user's selection of tools in a productive workflow. Since Acrobat is a program that can benefit every computer user - regardless of the kind of work one performs on a computer today - it has an extraordinary number of tools and features that suit workers in every profession. When people first open Acrobat Professional, it may appear overwhelming. Everyone should realize that just because all those toolbars and features exist in the program, does not mean users need to master every tool and command. In Acrobat Professional, you can load toolbars and access commands that are used to perform the job you want to accomplish. Therefore, think of approaching each job first by spending some time customizing your work environment and use the tools to get the job done. As one masters a set of tools, move on to learn some other features. Little by little any user can become proficient with a little practice as long as everyone realizes that it's not necessary to learn every aspect of the program all at once.

MORE INFO

• Planet PDF's Adobe Acrobat 6 Information
• Ted's Web site