The Adobe Acrobat PDF format has been wildly successful because it combines all the convenience of an electronic document with the familiarity of a paper printout. The latest version of Acrobat adds a host of new features that make PDFs more secure, easier to re-purpose, and more suitable for workgroup collaboration.

Pros and Cons Pros Workgroups can share, annotate, and edit PDFs online. Can save PDFs in rich-text format and export images in standard graphic file formats. Can define editing and printing privileges for readers. Acrobat forms are a powerful information-gathering mechanism. Improved proofing tool for graphics professionals. Cons Acrobat PDFMaker icons and menu items don't install automatically in Office XP. Powering a form with JavaScript requires you to write your own custom code. Advanced printing functions available only for PostScript devices.

Viewing a PDF file within a Web browser is nothing new. But with Acrobat 5.0, all of the annotation and mark-up tools are available in the browser window. In addition, Acrobat 5.0 can point to a data repository (such as a WebDAV server, an ODBC database, or a shared network folder) where members of a workgroup can upload and download their comments. Acrobat merges the Internet-based PDF file (which itself is never altered) with the annotations to display the work in progress. In our testing, which took advantage of a shared network folder, Acrobat performed flawlessly and allowed us to review and comment on a PDF document in a true collaborative environment.

If you disseminate sensitive information via PDF, you'll love Acrobat's new security features, which include 128-bit encryption and increased granularity for setting printing, editing, and annotation privileges. For example, you, as the author, can allow a reader to annotate but not change a file's content. The enhancements surrounding digital signatures are especially impressive. The ability to share public keys with colleagues via email from within Acrobat is a welcome convenience. More substantially, you can now use a public key to encrypt PDFs for specific persons, in effect making those documents "for their eyes only." You can even use public keys to assign different editing privileges for each recipient on your distribution list.

Although we tend to think of PDF as the final destination for published information, in the real world many users want to re-purpose the data contained in a PDF file. With Acrobat 5.0, you can now save a PDF file in rich-text format (RTF). Although the results can vary, depending upon the structure of the PDF format, in our tests the text and tables remained editable and were properly formatted. However, when generating RTF files, Acrobat does not preserve embedded images or multiple-column layouts. You can reuse images from a PDF file in other applications and even convert a PDF file (text and all) into a picture, but you'll have to use a separate function and export the images in JPEG, TIFF, or PNG format. Acrobat provides modest but useful controls over compression levels and resolution for the images that it generates. Acrobat can also pull double duty as an image viewer, thanks to its ability to open a wide range of graphics formats directly--including BMP, GIF, JPEG, HTML, PNG, and TIFF.

Many of Acrobat's existing features are even more powerful because they now support industry-standard protocols. This is especially true for PDF forms, which can now submit data in XML format or link directly to an ODBC-compliant database. Acrobat 5.0 forms are can be powered by JavaScript, so developers proficient with custom coding can make PDF forms more functional on the Web. All of this gives PDF forms the potential to act as a front end for e-commerce systems and back end databases.

The focus of this new release is clearly on the corporate user. However, there are a few new features targeted at the graphics community. The PDF file format now supports layered, transparent images. You can, for example, reposition a transparent object within Acrobat, with complete confidence that all of the overlapping colours will print correctly. Behind the scenes, Acrobat now uses the same colour engine as Photoshop and Illustrator, providing more consistent colour display and output across the applications.

There have also been substantial changes to the Print dialog box, where you can disable embedded instructions that may cause output problems at a service bureau (such as ICC Profiles, halftone screens, trapping instructions, and transfer functions). And for the adventurous graphics professional that uses PDFs as soft proofs, Acrobat now has the ability to display overprinting ink colours on screen. One of the most useful new features is the tile-printing function, which allows you to image an oversized document onto multiple sheets of standard-size paper. Our only gripe is that this feature is available only for PostScript devices.

Acrobat 5.0 can also create PDFs that are accessible to readers with disabilities. For example, you can create a PDF that is compatible with third-party, Windows-based screen readers. The only caveat here is that you must author the document in Word for Windows, because Acrobat relies upon Word's XML-based style sheets to generate appropriately tagged documents.

There are many other noteworthy features in Acrobat 5.0. Anyone who processes PDF files in volume will appreciate the new batch functions. You can change security settings, remove annotations, and crop and rotate multiple PDFs automatically. Acrobat has also been optimised for network implementation. IT specialists can deploy Acrobat over the network and customise the Acrobat installer to assign and limit features appropriately for different users. Acrobat is also more tightly integrated with Microsoft Office apps. In addition to the PDFMaker icons that appear on the toolbar, Acrobat now installs an entire menu into Word and Excel (97 and 2000 versions), making it possible to reconfigure 5.0 on the fly.

In our testing we experienced only one performance glitch. The Acrobat PDFMaker icons and menu items were not installed properly for Office XP. Adobe is currently working on a method to manually install the macros and will post instructions on its Web site as soon as they are available.

Anyone who is interested in merely consuming an Acrobat 5.0 document can download the latest version of the free reader from the Web. Acrobat Reader 5.0 supports 128-bit encryption, transparent objects, and accessibility features for readers with disabilities. But in order to take advantage of the latest creation and collaboration features, you'll have to purchase the full version of Acrobat 5.0. With a reasonable price and aggressive volume licensing, Acrobat is poised to become an indispensable business tool.

Luisa Simone owns a Web and print-design firm and is a frequent contributor of graphics and Web authoring reviews for ZDNet.

Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Company: Adobe Systems

Requirements:

• Windows ME, 2000, 95OSR2, 98 and NT 4.0 SP5 or higher    • Mac OS 8.6, 9.04 and 9.1

Price:

• Full version AU$599    • Upgrade AU$228

Phone: 1300 550 305

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