8 December 2003

By Kurt Foss, Planet PDF Editor

Editor's Note: We recently hosted a promotional contest to give away 12 copies of the "Acrobat 6 PDF Bible" by Ted Padova and Wiley Publishing. We asked participants to respond to the following query (directly below) in order to qualify for a chance to become one of our randomly selected winners. After each week's drawing, we published the qualification responses from the winning entrants. With the contest now completed and closed, we're publishing below a cross-section of responses from other entrants from our global Planet PDF community -- including Acrobat/PDF users from across the U.S. and from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Russia -- in which they each define Acrobat and PDF based on their particular experience and usage.

QUALIFYING QUESTION: Adobe Acrobat can be a difficult program for some to appreciate, in part because of its diverse functionality and myriad possible uses. Briefly describe how you would define Acrobat to someone who asked you to explain why *and* how you and/or your company utilize it (and PDF) based on your primary usage.

Mircea Bunea
Art Director
Urmascapaturma Design
Timisoara, Romania

A: "Acrobat is simply THE tool to manage a correct and functional workflow between the graphic design bureau and the printing houses (that's our main domain of interest). It does not matter anymore what layout programs you use, you can rest assured the PDF files of your work you create to send to the printing house are totally compatible with their workflow. No more missing fonts problems, no more software incompatibilities.

Then, for the presentations domain, it is very easy to create complex and eye appealing presentations, including animations, sound, direct links on referenced Web pages. As an e-book creator, you can create and manage easily whole collections of printed or virtual publications you design for your clients. Even if printed, a collection of such magazines can be unbelievably easy to use as an e-book collection, where you can especially use the complex and highly operational search-and-find tool, plus the ease of reading chapters by clicking on the appropriate Table of Contents titles.

And, equally important, the interchange of documents is made an easy task, given the capabilities of reviewing, modifying and inserting notes in the PDF files you create."

Sara Jane Roginson
Electronic Media Publisher
Manitoba Public Insurance
Manitoba, Canada

A: "Acrobat is a dependable document management system that enables complete control over how documentation is viewed, distributed, printed, filled out, utilized and filed. I work for a crown insurance corporation; and as such, there is a multitude of information. The implementation of our PDF workflow allows insurance brokers across Manitoba the ability to view and interact with this documentation in exactly the same way."

Muhammad Aftab Alam
Vc Developer
Ascertia, Pakistan

A: "400 million seats of Acrobat Reader out there, it's the electronic version of paper. It is so flexible, beautiful visual graphics, multimedia, and under it a programming language. There are some companies where everyone in the enterprise has to have a copy of Acrobat on their machine, because they use it for internal documentation, or they use it for forms-based workflow. Acrobat will save us so much money in workflow solutions, for example in electronic forms."

Steve Durham
Manager/Desktop Specialist
RR Donnelley, Premedia
Digital Solutions Center
Pontiac, IL

A: "I would tell anyone asking me about Acrobat/PDF that it simply means file diversity. By this I mean that once a good PDF is made it can be utilized by virtually everyone, from the largest corporation to your grandmother. It will be a complete cross platform file whether you have a MAC, PC, PDA ... using full Acrobat or the FREE Reader. The file sizes are small, making for quick-and-easy transfer via disk, any electronic or Web medium ie., the Internet to anywhere in the world. PDF is easily readable, easily printable and easy-to-share."

Thomas Neff
Application Developer Supervisor
PA Legislative Data Processing
Harrisburg, PA

A: "Adobe Acrobat is used to put documents into a format that can be consistently viewed and printed by users, irrespective of their environment. We can provide a document to any user knowing that it will look and print just the way we want it to.

We are using Adobe Acrobat to generate legislative bills, resolutions, calendars and associated documents in a format that the legislature requires to be viewed and printed."

To Top

Sarah Walkowiak
Online Delivery Coordinator
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA

A: "Most people are familiar with reading PDF files through the Adobe Reader, so I start from there, and let them know that with Acrobat and our HP Digital Senders (a scanner that e-mails PDF files from a paper source) it is easy to create and combine 'read-anywhere' PDF files of most documents whether handwritten or digitally created. I also focus on the reduction of paper, web capturing and cross-platform compatibility.

We use PDF files primarily with our faculty, who create PDF files, of course, notes and handouts to share online through Blackboard. Within our department, we use PDF files to proof brochures and similar documents. I use them personally to submit expense reports, scan in old meeting notes and other documents that I need to keep but don't need to refer to often, and to take reading materials onto my laptop or PDA when I am on the go."

Etienne Grosjean
Information Designer
Cybermation Inc.
Markham, Ontario, Canada

A: "Acrobat is a program that allows distribution of any document in an universal format usable by anyone. We use Acrobat for delivery of documentation to the printer, to user via the Web, and internally. We also use it for internal document that are confidential by using the security features to prevent copying, printing or modifying. We are starting to use it in the document review process, using the commenting features. I am also experimenting using the form features."

Susan Lepard
Intranet content manager
Farmers Insurance
Los Angeles, CA

A: "Acrobat is an extremely useful program: At first glance, it is a deceivingly simple, easy-to-use program used to convert Word and Excel documents to a portable document format file for display on our Web sites. It can be used by all Web site viewers in a free, readily available, easily downloadable Adobe Reader program. When we explore the in-depth capabilities of Acrobat, it is a complex, multi-layered program that has the ability to solve our document file size issues through bookmarking and splitting large, complex documents. We use it because it is the program of choice for Web documents."

Dustin Borklund
Toyota Financial Service
Torrance, CA

A: "I would describe Acrobat as the software tool that allows users to view, print and edit PDF files. So what is a PDF? A PDF is a digital laser print of sorts. It's an editable image of a printed output. It has excellent print integrity (prints on any printer the same way) and can contain words, images, sounds and video. It can also be made into a fillable form.

We use PDFs as the preferred file format of softcopies of forms and other documents that must print correctly on any printer. They can be emailed or presented on a server. PDF is also the file format of all of our procedures and form exhibits."

Paul Boisvert
Technical Writer/Product Designer
Homestead Technologies
Menlo Park CA

A: "For my company and the types of documents I create, Acrobat allows me to craft highly interactive documents to educate our users about our software and services. With Acrobat, static documents come to life through forms and JavaScript actions turning an ordinary product sheet with screenshots and marketing content into an engaging interactive product tour that any user can open and view."

To Top

Ritchard Istace
Technical Manager
Printmaster Ltd.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

A: "PDF is a means of exchanging graphically rich, digital documents without requiring access to the originating software or fonts. As such, it is an efficient means of distributing advertisement files in digital form. Our primary use of Acrobat is to preflight PDF files to a set of standards that are even more stringent than PDF/X in order to ensure their utility at over 300 newspapers throughout western Canada."

Wayne Kliman
Technical Writer
InfoGenesis
Goleta, CA

A: "Our company uses Adobe Acrobat to guarantee that whoever views the document can see it as it was designed with all the fonts and graphics in place. This resolves the problem of needing to bundle graphics and fonts with the associated document, and allows us to link graphics to the primary document (in Word or FrameMaker) which keeps the 'mother' document slim and trim. In addition, when the document is made into a PDF, it becomes fairly compact and 'locked down' so that its contents can be copied, but not changed as might happen if the document was left in Word.

One more feature is the bookmark functionality which permits much easier document navigation -- something especially important in long documents. Add this to the full-text search capability (and Adobe's Catalog function) and you can not only search the document that's open, but also hundreds of documents at the same time."

Pam Clifford
Imprint Coordinator
Group Publishing, Inc.
Loveland, CO

A: "A quick-and-easy answer I give folks who want to understand Adobe Acrobat (now take into consideration these are generally neophytes who have no understanding whatsoever, and wouldn't understand a more technical answer) is that it is to print publishing what Polaroid was to photography. It takes all files needed to create a printout of a product and turns it into a snapshot. You don't need the fonts or the program originally used to create the file, just the PDF file itself."

Barry Stier
President
Sea Turtle Scuba, Ltd.
Boca Raton, FL

A: "We must supply our customers and potential customers with instructions, schematics and other kinds of documents that will enable them to understand how to use our diving products. Adobe Acrobat will convert our documents that have been variously produced on programs like Word Perfect or Corel Draw into PDF files that we can easily send to our customers via Email, on CD discs and floppy discs. They are even quicker for us to print if we need to give someone a paper copy. It will also enable us to set up instruction files on our Web site that will be easy to download."

Derek DeMarco
North Valley Graphics Inc.
Chico, CA

A: "Don't get me started! Adobe Acrobat is a communication enhancement tool kit. It eliminates the short-sighted authoring applications inability to communicate outside of their limited environments. It is also now a publishing enhancement tool in its ability to create digital forms, handle document or project review and comment, initiate and maintain document security, and with the ability to digitally sign and verify work flows we now have a true answer to the paper waste trail. Acrobat is also now a great tool for information storage and archive, whether it be with digital PDF form submittal or 'hard copy' word searchable documents. The depth and abilities of Adobe Acrobat are hard to fully grasp. We are seeing right now more information shared to more people than ever before. At this time with the minds involved in the pushing of the PDF envelope, we have only scratched the surface of the many diverse avenues of PDF communication, and the ability of Adobe Acrobat to help in the sharing of this information to the largest audience has only just begun."

To Top

Mary Elise Dedicke
Technical Writer
Fleet Libris Information Solutions
Albany, NY

A: "Our team develops multi-volume documentation sets in FrameMaker. Because our clients and colleagues don't use FrameMaker, Acrobat allows us to share these documents with them. It preserves a document's formatting and protects its content, providing a snapshot of a milestone reached (a draft phase or the end of our processing year). Using Acrobat, we can add navigational tools such as links and bookmarks that make our PDF information products more user-friendly than their paper counterparts."

Jeffrey C. Weber
Site Manager
Delex Systems Inc. (MCAS CHerry Point)
Havelock, NC

A: "My company decided to use Adobe Acrobat to produce and distribute our primary training product for the USMC EA-6B aircrew because it allowed us to take a wide variety of files of different types and convert them all to a single format that was easily accessible by all of the squadrons and commands we deal with. It also allowed us to link a huge number of related documents together allowing easy navigation of over 600Mb of what would otherwise be loose files. Finally, the PDF files that we created helped reduce the overall size of these many documents allowing us to distribute the product on CD and online."

Eric Horlin
Manager Survey Inspection
Department of Land Information
Midland
Western Australia

A: "The Department of Land Information (DLI) is implementing a system which will allow surveyors to lodge survey plans as PDF files. The plan PDF files (known as e-Plans) will be vector based PDFs created directly from the CAD system that draws the plan. The e-Plans can contain multiple sheets.

Adobe Acrobat has numerous features that allows for more efficient processes when accepting plans in PDF format (rather than hardcopy). These features include:

• Vector Graphics that are scalable and, subject to certain limitations, editable
• Cataloguing allowing for the inclusion of metadata and searching of files
• Multiple Digital Signatures which allows the e-Plans to be 'signed off' by the relevant parties
• Comparing versions of files and rolling backwards to identify any changes made to e-Plans between the different digital signatures applied
• Collaboration Tools that assist with the audit and review of e-Plans
• Numerous Imaging Tools
• Form Tools that allow for various fields to be placed over e-Plans to record the processing steps and plan status
• Acrobat 6 supports layers, which we intend to take advantage of at some stage"

Craig Hebert
Art Dept. Supervisor
SuperCoups
Avon, MA

A: "As far as 'why Acrobat,' there is no 'why,' there is only Acrobat, there is no other program or file format that can not only embed all the files contents (with securities if necessary), not ONLY preserve the quality and integrity of the file, but a strong file format that is compatible with practically any computer. We've been using a PDF workflow for years now and it's simple, and so efficient. Our franchises are located all over the country and don't have all the high-end programs to be able to open our documents so while working on ads, our server side Distiller creates a high-res and a low-res PDF every time you print to the spooler. The low-res gets posted via ftp to the franchise's folder (versus black-and-white faxes or postage on overnighting files) and the high-resolution is sent to prepress for imposition. When putting 18 coupons on an imposition, it can be very time-consuming finding fonts, or problems with the native files, versus, just simply, placing the PDF with all its contents embedded. Acrobat/PDFs save time, money, and a lot of stress."

Rebecca Downey
Technical Writer/Rédactrice Technique
Matrox Imaging
Dorval, Québec, Canada

A: "Adobe PDF allows us to release print-ready documentation without having to deal directly with collating and stacking paper as it comes out from multiple printers and/or plotters. All documentation reviewers now receive a high-quality copy via email, instead of a poor-quality photocopy with potential collation errors. Color inserts, additional attachments, landscaped pages and even covers can now be printed to one virtual printer, distilled into one file and sent directly to our print room for storage, off-site printing or local reproduction. Copies of these same PDFs are released on the Web for our users, support and sales staff to access as needed. For the technical writing team, the print process is now just one easy step with Adobe PDF and we wouldn't have it any other way."

To Top

Jeanette Butler-Scott
Photographer
Photographic Art by Jeanette
Newark, CA

A: "As a photographer and computer consultant, I am always preparing informational documents and forms. By using Acrobat I am able to put together documents that not only look good, but are small and easy to email. Using PDF adds an extra touch to everything I do. Recently, I made photo contact sheets (12) in PhotoShop and saved directly into a PDF multi-page document from within PhotoShop. This document is saved to a CD along with a Photo Web Gallery. I tell people it's all about the ease-of-use for my clients."

Hugh Ashton
General Manager
j-views
Kanagawa-ken, Japan

A: "Adobe Acrobat provides us with an alternative to paper when producing manuals for professional audio products. An Acrobat file is an electronic replica of the printed product, and we circulate our drafts and proofs of user documentation as Acrobat files between ourselves, Japanese engineers and marketing staff, and product specialists in the USA. They add their electronic comments, in Japanese and English, to the file and then return the comments alone. We collate and view these comments, and act accordingly, all at Internet speed. No more lost sticky notes, and we can track the progress of a document through its various stages.

At print time, we send a PDF file, imposed using an Acrobat plug-in, directly to the Asian printers. As opposed to PostScript files, we can make a visual pre-film check of the final product, with subsequent savings on local (Japanese) imposition and film production costs."

Laine Lester
Staff Attorney
ODEN Insurance Services, Inc.
Tulsa, OK

A: "Acrobat is a tool that gives us the ability to provide exact copies of government forms that can be completed and signed electronically. We use PDF to help our clients create a paperless office with a reliable reproduction of the original form."

Robert Palmer
Principal Technical Writer/Editor
DST Systems, Inc.
Kansas City, MO

A: "Adobe Acrobat enables us to deliver compact, secure documentation to our clients that preserves the integrity of our original documents, and enables our clients to use the documents as they need -- whether as an online resource, or as a printed guide. We are able to enhance the document with bookmarks, links, and additional information so the end-user has a better chance of finding what they need quickly, without calling customer support. Acrobat fits seamlessly into our documentation workflow and delivery channels."

Bill Stull
Technical Resources Manager
SYNRAD, Inc.
Mukilteo, WA

A: "The primary advantage of the PDF is that our corporate 'look' -- logos, graphics and fonts -- are displayed as intended on any operating system, both inside and outside the company. The PDF provides a 'snapshot' of our manual with the advantage of having live hyperlinks or other actions built-in. The use of PDFs at Synrad enables our worldwide customers to immediately access Operator's Manuals and dimensional drawings for our entire product line. We can easily email a PDF or place them on a web page for downloading. We also use Acrobat to create forms for our Shipping and Customer Service groups. Acrobat Forms save time by enabling employees to enter information in variable data fields and skip those fields where data remains constant."

To Top

Eugenio Pierno
Information Systems Architect
University of Naples
Naples, Italy

A: "I choose applications able to generate PDF files anytime is possible, because a PDF file reader is readily available for any platform. No need to force anyone to buy proprietary software simply to be able to read, and no open formats (eg. RTF) who look differently in different applications. Security is also a reason, for example when generating a certificate that should not be modified in any part."

Jeff Hansen
Desktop Pre-press Tech. Support/ Operator
Lane Press
South Burlington, VT

"I would describe Acrobat as the Swiss Army Knife of digital document creation. More and more of our magazine customers are switching to a PDF-based workflow on a monthly basis in order to save both time and money. At the heart of this workflow is Acrobat. These customers submit their work as PDFs generated with Distiller, according to procedures we supply to them in a PDF file. A few of these customers will then ask us to create a PDF of their final, printed, magazine for use on their Web site. As a troubleshooting tool, Acrobat is invaluable. Instead of waiting to view a page after it has ripped, I can make corrections, create a PDF and check it in a fraction of the time this would normally take. Even better, at least 95 percent of the time, what I see on my monitor is exactly how the final page will print."

Alexander Konyshev
IT-specialist
OMZ-Onshore & Offshore
Yekaterinburg, Russia

A: "Acrobat makes our life easier and facilitates the working process. It provides creating a file by single click, which can be further sent by e-mail; thus, the information is available for reading and easy printing at any PC or Mac all over the world. This interpolating communication standard consolidates all the users.

It's extremely pleasant to have a possibility of PDF file creation in any software. While discussing some project revisions, in any existing PDF file some notes and comments may be added or audio and video information installed.

Adobe Acrobat may be found useful in any computer job. Depending on the user's level, different Adobe Acrobat versions exist (Reader, Elements, Standard, and Professional); so, the program enables interconnection between professionals and ordinary users."

Uri Ashey
animation and illustration
Jerusalem, Israel

A: "Until I purchased Acrobat, I used to tackle a lot of difficulties and time loss while trying to send any work I've done to a print house or to any other client. I couldn't know if the file I made is too big or if my clients will be able to open it with their programs. Now all those problems disappeared! And I'm sure there's a lot more that Acrobat can give me, I just need to explore it more."

Mike Phillips
Technical Author
Boeblingen, Germany

A: Because it's dumb to give away your source files. Do you want to be open to misrepresentation? Possible legal liability? Expose sloppy meta-data to anyone outside this office? Or become a lending-library for paper documentation? On the other hand:

• R&D, Production need review, revision and change management both for project documents and for documents that will be linked to its on-line help, any of which can be optimised for screen.

• Contract printers need a simple, reliable format, strict revision management and a hardcopy for comparison.

• Customers want a current paper manual at product shipment but otherwise are much happier with electronic distribution and self-printing (if needful).

• Support need a controlled library of legacy documentation. You can either piss-about or make some PDF files. These can, of course, be read by any PC and can included any special fonts and so on Corporate wants but no customer has. Enough? OK, your marketing team approves layouts in PDF, too. Still not convinced?

To Top

Joseph A. Anu
Software Consultant
Integrated Computing Environments Ltd.
Cochin Special Economic Zone(CSEZ)
Kakknad, Cochin, Kerala, India

A: "PDF become de-facto standard and considered to be the best-suited format in printing & prepress industry. So anybody can leverage PDF's capability by providing some additional functionality presently Adobe Acrobat lacks. Our company is using Adobe Acrobat Plugin Development as an additional area of revenue in software business."

Joe Wash
Senior Developer
RR Donnelley
Lancaster, PA

A: "Acrobat PDF provides the most complete and compact platform for rich-data exchange, enabling flawless reproduction of documents as they were intended to look. We count on properly-made PDFs as our primary incoming file format to allow us to faithfully reproduce client documents in a digital-print environment in their exact manner. Adobe Acrobat provides a flexible, yet very safe interface to modify PDFs if necessary, yet does not makes it 'too easy' to really mess up a file, minimizing the risk of error by human intervention into a very editable file."

Clifford Woods
VP Promo & Marketing
Kismet Business Brokers
Moorpark, CA

A: "We use Adobe Acrobat because there is nothing else like it to do what we need to do! Our company provides information packs to people sellers and buyers of businesses. We prepare individualized information packs and with Adobe's PDFMaker, we simply cut-and-paste information into a Word document, press a button and we have an information pack that looks very professional and can be emailed, faxed or mailed. A very professional-looking document arriving with our clients every time!"

Gerardo Gala
Programmer
Indymac Bank
Pasadena, CA

A: "Indymac bank is a mortgage institute. For a loan to get funded, there are a number of conditions to be met. These conditions are satisfied thru submissions of documentation and these documentation may come in PDF from our vendors.

We are using Adobe not by choice, but by our vendor's mandate. Our vendors send the multiple-page PDF files to us. Each PDF is composed of several smaller documents: 7-page income-verification documents, 6-page property title search document, and other documents all bundled in one PDF file.

We need to associate the individual pages to the conditions. Thus we have a need to display the PDF files one page at a time where our application is aware of which page of the document is currently being viewed so that the correct page can be associated to the corresponding conditions.

We are looking for a third-party control that will allow us to allow to display one pdf page a time, and our application must be aware of the current page."

Markus Hartel
doxxdesign
Creative Mind
New York, NY

A: "Adobe Acrobat is used to produce and view PDF files. PDF stands for 'portable document format' and allows you to exchange files without the hassle of different line spacing, missing fonts or graphics between different operating systems. With PDF you also ensure that the colors of your document are showing correct. Right now I use PDF to get approval for print designs from all of my clients, without the need for them to own all the expensive publishing software."

To Top

Hans Vernhout
director
Cover Multimedia Produkties
Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands

A: "Adobe Acrobat is an easy to create compact file format to show our clients and the printer EXACTLY -- on their own computers -- the look and feel of our new graphic designs, and to deliver the approved designs EXACTLY in the same format -- right out of our design software -- at the printer. No need for expensive and complicated proofing systems, conversions and courier services. Just things that are already at everyone's desks: Internet or e-mail and the free Acrobat Reader!"

Richard O'Gorman
The Man
MacSlave Unltd
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A: "We own what we produce; what we own we take care of. That's why we use Acrobat -- because it extends our reach. We transmit our work electronically. Acrobat provides a platform (operating system) independent file format in PDF, which preserves the integrity of the information. The author retains control of compression/file size and security (who sees what and what they are allowed do with it) and through Acrobat's ability to embed interactive elements into the document, with its annotation and data collection features -- in effect the document becomes an agent of the creator."

Arzina Merali
Systems Analyst
Alberta Government
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

A: "We use Adobe Acrobat to create PDF documents from Microsoft Office Products, Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe InDesign and other products. Some documents such as brochures and publications are prepared in PDF for sending to the printer after pre-flighting. However for most part since PDFs can be viewed by all with just the free Adobe Reader, it is often used for sending information in the portable format that does not require the authoring software. In addition, since Acrobat can add annotations like comments, notes, stamps and more, it is also used for reviewing and consolidation of comments. Moreover large user publications and other documents are made available on the World Wide Web easily after creating PDFs from the original authoring applications. Adobe Acrobat is also used for modifying PDFs and, on the other hand, security features are used so that the document cannot be modified. It is great software for creating, modifying, distributing and making available documents from different platforms and varying needs. As co-founder of the Alberta Government Adobe User Group, we make available to our user base, tips, how-to, and other resources for Acrobat."

Ravi Kiran
Software Quality Engineer
Adobe Systems
India

A: "One could create any kind of document with almost any of the applications like MS-Office, AutoCAD, etc. and convert them to PDF with Adobe Acrobat & send it to any recipient. The benefit you get in creating PDF from your original document is that you could be sure that the recipient sees the document exactly as you intended him to see it & print it if required. The integrity of the document is maintained. The recipient need not have the original application from which a document has been created. He just needs to have the freely available Adobe Reader.

The other major benefit of Adobe Acrobat is that it can be used extensively in a collaborative environment. You could do an email-based review of your document with another person or a group (or) upload the PDF document on your company server where everyone has access. Each person can review/comment on the document & also see the other people's comments.

You could certify & authenticate the documents with digital signatures with the intention to let the recipient know the document sent by you has not been tampered with.

With the Paper Capture feature, one could convert all the legacy paper documents into searchable, indexable PDF documents.

You can create PDF forms from scratch or convert the existing paper based forms into PDF forms to maintain the look & feel of the original form. These forms can be filled by anyone using the Adobe Reader too.

You can convert an entire Web site into PDF documents(s) for offline browsing. All the hyperlinks remain intact.

If you want to apply restrictions to the way a document should be used, you could apply Security Settings. For eg., if you want to restrict printing or want to restrict changes made to the document or copying of content.

With the Preflight feature, you can ensure that the document complies with certain printing press specifications. You could also proof colors used in your document & see how your separations are going to come out when printing for commercial purposes.

With the Tagged PDF feature, you could enable your document to be read on a handheld device & also enable visually impaired people to know the contents of your document with the Read Out aloud feature.

You could attach various multimedia elements like sound, movies to make your document feature-rich.

There are many more features which truly makes Adobe Acrobat really stand out as a user-friendly and productive application."

To Top

Janet Felton
Implementer
PMEX Co.
Chattanooga, TN

A: "Adobe Acrobat is a software product that allows complete integration with electronic paper for both text and image files. Adobe Acrobat is the backbone of the product PMEX has developed to allow users to efficiently store paper documents into electronic images. The application maintains control over the naming, scanning, filing and retrieving of the paper images to improve efficiency and reduce time. The user is provided with an 'electronic filing system' and given the full editing capabilities of Acrobat."

Shawn Meyer
VP of Digital Production
Sexton Printing
St. Paul, MN

A: "In my opinion, Acrobat is not that difficult of a program to learn, especially when you are using it for a particular function, such as creating a PDF for high-quality printing. With some guidance, we have been able to get high-quality PDF files from clients' applications that we support and ones that we do not have or care to support. And work with people who really are not creative professionals, but have a need for high quality printing. PDF has also allowed us to branch into different departments and businesses, such as administrative, legal and education. In addition, since putting in an all-PDF workflow (Prinergy) in September 1999, we have been able to cut turn-around times, become more efficient, streamline our workflow and reduce the amount of press downtime. Maybe the real problem is that everyone gets very comfortable with routine and doing things the same way, especially when it seems to work fine. The key word here is seems, when examining a workflow from beginning to end you can always find areas that need improvement. So when a new technology comes along that changes the way we work its a littler hard to except."

Ahmed Sajid
Supervisor-Technical Support
Deltagraphic Station
Hyderabad, India

A: "Adobe Acrobat is a very versatile tool for document management accepted by all platforms of Operating Systems. It has multilingual support from major languages of the world. A novice with a little brain and some commons sense can work wonders out of Acrobat. It is today the world standard software used by governments, corporates, institutions and individuals for creating forms (manual and interactive), invoicing, catalogs among hundreds of other uses.

The best thing about Acrobat is the compressed file size and the uniform layout of the document that gives a professional look. With Acrobat, you can download entire Web sites in PDF, interactive format without lifting a finger and store for future reference. The document builds itself. Scanning a book has never been easy when the page parameters are given and the job is done in batches never missing a single page.

You can index all PDF files on your local drive and find a file in a jiffy. It is backward-compatible; you can open a PDF with older version of Acrobat. I don't know what the world would have done without Acrobat. No other software comes near Acrobat. I love Acrobat!"

Jason Wadleigh
Director, Information Technology
D. Woods Solutions
Somerset, NJ

A: "Adobe Acrobat is the most powerful and popular application for creating, editing, and managing PDF files available on any platform. PDF files are critical in business because they are a file format which is available on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, UNIX, and other platforms. PDFs can also be viewed directly from the Internet (via a plugin available for most browsers). This universal accessibility is crucial in situations where a company is preparing a document to disseminate without knowing what kind of systems will be viewing/editing/saving the document."

Doug Alford
Technical Writer/Document Manager
Techneglas, Inc.
Columbus, OH

A: "Q. What is Acrobat?
A. Adobe Acrobat is to PDF what Microsoft FrontPage is to HTML. It is the top-of-the-line design and creation tool.

Q. What is PDF?
A. PDF is a computer file format that preserves everything that is good about printed documents. When you look at a PDF on the screen, it looks like a document. PDF files can be produced from any application that can print, and with Acrobat they can be made interactive, with forms, multimedia, and hyperlinks.

Q. How do you use Acrobat?
A. We use it to create and maintain a collection of documents and interactive forms that make up an ISO-certified Quality/Environmental Management System.

PDFs work. And Acrobat makes them work better. It's as simple as that."

Julian Reyes
Multimedia Designer
Jacobs Associates
San Francisco, CA

A: "I would use the term 'Portable Document Format' (PDF) to illustrate the benefits:

Portable: Anyone can email the files, which are compact and contain searchable information. Acrobat has different compression options which allow for flexibility in output: From low- to high-resolution. Web browsers support PDF, so the files are easy to view online.

Document: You can access and modify a variety of documents in Acrobat: drawings, legal documents, brochures, posters, graphics, books, and even use it for archiving large volumes of text as multi-page documents. My company saves out all desktop publishing work in PDF so it is convenient to deliver to the Printshop.

Format: It is a standard in the printing and online industry. PC- and MAC-friendly. Acrobat also allows for very specific control of color correction, links, and editing tools which are helpful for last-minute changes."

MORE INFO

To Top

• Planet PDF Forum (forum.planetpdf.com)

• PDF Store (www.pdfstore.com)

• Adobe Reader 6.0 - free downloads from the PDF Store

• ARTS PDF (www.artspdf.com) - Custom Adobe Acrobat & PDF software and solutions