Overview

Adobe Acrobat is a commercial program used for creating, editing, and managing PDF (Portable Document Format) documents. In contrast to the free Adobe Reader program, Acrobat gives users the full capability to control the content of .PDF files. Acrobat also provides advanced capabilities to embed images, video, and audio content into a portfolio for use in various office, marketing, and presentation settings.

User Interface

The Acrobat user interface includes menu bar and toolbar options for compiling static, interactive, and multimedia content into a PDF document. Users may build documents manually or use the Acrobat document creation wizard to create documents from other files or scanned documents. As users build a PDF document, the document pane shows a developer preview of the current state of the document.

Capabilities

Acrobat is commonly used to create professional documents, such as employment applications, legal documents, and business forms. Digital PDF forms can be saved with editable fields, which can be filled out and saved in Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Acrobat can also create PDF Portfolios, which may contain multiple documents, 2D and 3D images, video, and maps. PDF Portfolios may be used for previewing and editing Web page mock-ups, displaying CAD image collections, or presenting scripted marketing materials.

Adobe's OCR technology enables accurate scanning, indexing, and searching of paper documents. Acrobat can scan and convert paper documents and forms into PDF files while appropriately detecting text, font, colors, and images. This allows users to reduce paper document storage as well as to search through personal or business information more quickly.

Acrobat is also deployed as a plug-in for other common desktop applications, including Microsoft Word. For example, the Acrobat plug-in for Microsoft Word adds an “Acrobat” menu for importing or exporting PDF content to and from Word documents. Acrobat integrates with all Microsoft Office 2010 applications as well as Microsoft SharePoint for collaborative file sharing.

In addition to publishing PDF documents, Acrobat can help with business process workflows. PDF files can be enabled for commenting and review with “stickies” and other document markups, which can be tracked and reviewed by document authors. Document modifications can be reviewed with revision control, a feature that displays colored highlights for items that have been inserted, replaced, deleted, or moved within the document. Acrobat's document control feature allows authors to lock and secure all or part of a PDF document. Saved files may be encrypted, password-protected, and digitally signed to protect the contents and verify the document's author.

User Community

Adobe Acrobat is used by professionals across all industries for creating digital documents. While the program is designed primarily for business use, some home users also use Acrobat for scanning documents and saving files in a standard format that can be shared with friends and family.

Screenshots:

Welcome	Supported File Types	PDF Portfolio
DWG to PDF	Form Design	Web Page to PDF
Action Wizard	Document Properties	Document Security

Features:

• Create and publish PDFs
• Secure, encrypt, and control PDFs
• Create editable PDF documents for Adobe Reader users
• Intelligently helps create business forms
• Integration with Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint, and other common desktop applications
• Multistep task automation with the Action Wizard
• Enable collaboration, tracking, and reviewing within business workflows
• Online file sharing through Adobe SendNow
• Advanced bundling of multimedia content

System Requirements:

Mac OS

• Mac OS X v10.5.8 or v10.6.4
• Intel processor
• 512MB RAM
• 1.2GB free disk space
• 1024x768 display
• DVD-ROM drive
• Safari 4 or 5 (Safari 5 requires Mac OS X v10.6.4)

Windows

• Windows XP w/ SP3, Server 2003/2008, Vista, or 7
• 1.3GHz processor
• 512MB RAM
• 1.9GB free disk space
• 1024x576 display
• DVD-ROM drive
• Internet Explorer 7 or 8, or Firefox 3.5 or 3.6