Editors' Rating
| Setup & interface |  |
8.0 |
| Service & support |  |
7.0 |
| Features | |
8.0 |
Published: 10 Nov 2006
Acrobat 8 Professional for Windows offers more intuitive software than Acrobat 7 to better bridge the gap between the online and print worlds. Whenever you download and print event registration forms, large reports, books or sleek brochures from the Web, you usually end up dealing with a file in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). Adobe Acrobat 8 is the standard-bearer for creating and editing complex PDF files. But why do you even need Acrobat when dozens of competing applications and free, Web-based services also can create PDF files?
Although the price remains the same from Acrobat 7, we think the £375 (ex. VAT) Acrobat Professional is unnecessary if you merely need to create small PDFs. However, version 8's enhancements make it richer than its predecessors if you require additional security and data-sharing that the low-end PDF makers can't provide. The additions to Acrobat 8 should appeal to those working in fields that deal with sensitive data -- especially legal, medical, and financial professionals.
The download took us about 10 minutes on Windows XP. We chose the Typical installation, but you can select individual features with Complete or Custom setup, too. During setup, Acrobat adds Create PDF buttons into other software you may have, including Microsoft Office applications from 2000 to 2003 -- although not to the pending Office 2007.
Once Acrobat 8 is running, the Getting Started screen presents big buttons for the major features: Create PDF, Combine Files, Export and so on. The Start Meeting and Review & Comment buttons take you to Adobe Connect, which replaces Macromedia Breeze for hosting virtual meeting spaces. Acrobat 8 Professional offers tighter ease of use, with wizards to take you through PDF creation and management step by step if you need some hand-holding. The drop-down menus from the refreshed toolbar are also pretty easy to work out, and you can customise the toolbars. Also, there's more control over redactions to keep your top-secret documents secure.
Finally, you can fill out Acrobat forms digitally instead of having to download a form from the free Acrobat Reader, print it, then turn it in by hand, via snail mail or by fax; this is long overdue. Now your company or block club can send out a questionnaire or a party invitation via email, collect the completed forms and pool the data paperlessly in one place. The Acrobat Professional 8 edition can detect form fields in a PDF document automatically, enabling you to convert those flat lines to live fields ready for data input.
The Combine Files wizard steps you through packaging varied file types, such as a Microsoft Word letter, an Excel spreadsheet and a variety of JPEG and GIF images to make one print-ready, PDF file. You can grab selected page ranges from within a Word document or pick individual worksheets from an XLS file, leaving the unnecessary stuff out of your final PDF. It's easy to optimise file sizes and to drag and drop the components to put them in the order you want. In about four minutes, we bundled more than five Word, Excel, JPEG and PDF files totaling 227KB into a nine-page PDF of 101KB. You can export your PDF files to JPEG, TIFF, HTML, XML, text and other formats.
What if your intelligence report contains the name of an undercover operative? In the past, people suffered when text they had blacked out in Microsoft Word was wrapped into a PDF file that unpeeled the highlighting and revealed sensitive sentences underneath. Now, Acrobat lets you black out text permanently, even letting you search for keywords to erase so that you won't miss one. Alas, as more people adopt this feature, it may not bode well for investigators and journalists hoping to dig up data that used to be sloppily buried.
After you Apply Redactions, Acrobat 8 forces you to inspect metadata, annotations and comments, bookmarks and so on for other elements you might want to keep under wraps. Once you're ready for other eyes to see your new PDF file, the Secure and Sign drop-downs from Acrobat 8's toolbar help you to add 128-bit encryption and a digital signature to protect your intellectual property.
Adobe provides many support resources at its Web site, such as Flash tutorials, user forums, FAQs and a searchable knowledge base. Acrobat's online resources are well-organised and thorough. However, Adobe's four support plans, from Bronze to Platinum, are costly. Installation help by phone is available only via a paid-for telephone number, for instance. You'll need to sign in to get help online.
So far, we find Acrobat 8 to be a more useful and intuitive tool than its predecessor. However, only those who really require the security features are likely to feel justified in paying the asking price.
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