Acrobatix! Goes Live

Acrobatix! - Acrobat Tips, Tricks & Training

I have officially launched my Adobe Acrobat Tips, Tricks & Training blog – Acrobatix! If you use Acrobat (and everyone either does, or will) – come check it out!

better living through photoshop… and acrobat too!

For the last several years, I have sent out holiday cards to friends & family that featured a photo of my family.  It’s always a nice shot.  Children are smiling, cooperative &  ‘just so’.  Mom & Dad are not aggravated, the their faces always reflect the warmth of the season…

with the help of Adobe Photoshop!  Yep – Photoshop is an indispensable tool if you want that perfect family (image-wise, that is).

2005 - Before Photoshop

2005 - Thanks to Photoshop

Pumpkin Patch Original - 2008

Pumpkin Patch After Photoshop

Emma with her violin...

...plus Peter with his cymbals...

... plus a beautiful concert hall in Vienna...

... makes our 2008 image!

Ever wish someone was in a group photo, but they were either not around or behind the camera?

Great friends gather, but 2 are missing the from the shot...

No problem!

Anyone might show up at your parties!

Our new neighbor Barry stopped by

Interested in taking a class in Photoshop?  I know some of the top Photoshop instructors in the country.    My favorite is Phil Cohen.  His work is amazing.  We both teach regularly at a training center in Houston – Connect Learning.  People fly in from around the globe to learn at this Adobe Certified Training Center.

My expertise is in Adobe Acrobat.  Folks from all around gather in my classroom in Houston to learn about the terrific new version of Acrobat.  Acrobat 9 offers some amazing interactive & multimedia tools, allowing for very ‘alive’ pdf files.  Check out my promotional video on the exciting ‘pdf portfolio’ technology introduced with the release of Acrobat 9.

Come on down to Houston!  I’ll show you some cool things about Acrobat & point you to some awesome BBQ and Tex/Mex cuisine!

holiday card 2009 – photoshop rocks!

Emma & Peter in Vienna

adobe acrobat 9 is here… and it’s cool!

I travel around the country teaching business folks how to use Adobe Acrobat in ways they may have never thought possible. I have watched Acrobat technology grow and mature over the past dozen or so years, and have enthusiastically spread the word to thousands of people.

Adobe has recently released Acrobat 9. I have been a user & technical trainer on Acrobat since 1996, but this release has something new, and log awaited. Recently, Adobe bought Macromedia – the company that created 2 very important web media tools; Dreamweaver and Flash. Few professionally designed web sites are created without these 2 application’s help. Dreamweaver has now replaced Adobe’s GoLive as their flagship web site creation tool, and Flash – well, Flash is the technology behind nearly everything that moves and reacts to your input on the web anymore.

Adobe has taken the flexibility, interactivity & multimedia craftiness of Flash…

and built it right into Acrobat 9!

Perhaps the most noticeable way this is implemented is in the brand new PDF Portfolio. This is a new way to combine files for sharing with others. It will play movies, preview MS Word docs, play MP3 files, and arrive in your email inbox as a single file… but it is actually a PDF container of any type of file you desire. It will dazzle you!

Here is Adobe’s own description of What’s New in Acrobat 9 :

PDF creation, editing, and searching

Unify a wide range of content into a PDF Portfolio

Combine documents, drawings, email, and spreadsheets into a single, compressed PDF Portfolio. Use professionally designed templates that can be branded with your logo and include descriptions to guide recipients through the contents.

Convert paper documents to PDF

New optical character recognition (OCR) technology and support for a broader range of scanners improves searchability and appearance of the scanned documents.

Convert web pages to PDF

Improved web capture allows you to convert complete web pages or just the portions you want, including or excluding rich and interactive media. PDF versions of web pages are easy to print, archive, mark up, and share.

Compare PDF documents

Acrobat automatically highlights the differences between two versions of a PDF document, including text and images, so you can quickly and easily identify what has changed. See

Search across multiple PDFs

Enhanced functionality enables you to search multiple PDF files in the same folder to help you quickly find the information you need.

Collaboration

Use Acrobat.com for shared reviews

Participants download the file from Acrobat.com, and add comments or data using Acrobat or Adobe Reader. When finished, participants publish comments or submit responses to Acrobat.com. When using Acrobat.com for shared reviews, you can also allow reviewers to open and share the PDF in a live chat session.

Collaborating in online meetings

Use Adobe ConnectNow, a personal web-conference tool, to conduct real-time meetings on your desktop. Attendees join the meeting by logging into a web-based meeting space from their own computers. In a ConnectNow online meeting, you can share your desktop, use live chat, share online whiteboards, and use many other collaboration features.

Use Acrobat.com to upload and share large documents

From Acrobat or Reader, you can create your own user account on Acrobat.com. Use Acrobat.com to upload and share most document types, and to share PDFs or your desktop in online meetings.

Synchronize document views

Ensure colleagues, clients, and partners are on the same page at the same time with the ability to co-navigate documents. Use Collaborate Live to provide clarity, enhance discussion, and walk recipients through a document in real time.

Forms

Easily create and edit electronic forms

(Windows) Use the new Forms Wizard to convert Microsoft® Word and Excel documents or scanned paper into PDF forms. Form fields are automatically recognized and converted to fillable fields. Quickly add, edit, and name form fields. Use the Tracker to see when forms have been completed and who has completed them.

Collect and export form data

Easily collect user data and export the data to a spreadsheet for analysis and reporting.

Track forms

Use the Tracker to see when forms have been completed and who has completed them.

Use QuickBooks data in forms

(Windows English only) Import and export Intuit QuickBooks data using custom templates.

Multimedia and 3D models

Include Flash content in PDFs

Add Flash® videos and animations to your PDF documents. Native support for Flash enables reliable cross-platform playback. No additional media player is necessary.

Add comments to videos

Add comments to a video as you are watching it. Each comment is attached to a specific frame, so that when you view the comments, they appear in the context in which they were made. You can also enable Acrobat Standard and Adobe Reader users to add comments to videos.

Create interactive presentations

Use Adobe Presenter to liven up your slides with video, voice-over, demos, and interactive quizzes, then convert to PDF for easy sharing.

Expanded 3D features

Use the new Adobe 3D Reviewer to combine multiple CAD formats into one assembly, compare a revised design to an earlier version, measure and section on precise geometry, and create exploded views, animations, and balloons. Export your work to 2D vector or raster files, or save as PDF.

View and interact with PDF maps

Import, measure, and mark up geospatially enabled PDF maps. Discover the longitude and latitude by placing your cursor over a location. Measure PDF maps in kilometers or miles. Navigate 3D PDF map content in 3D with the Fly tool for better relational map viewing. Georegister PDF maps.

Legal

Search and redact

Search and redact a list of words or phrases or a specific text pattern (for example, phone numbers, credit card numbers, email addresses, or dates).

Bates numbering for PDF Portfolios

When designating documents for Bates numbering, you can add PDFs, PDF Portfolios, and any non-PDF files that can be converted to PDF. The process converts non-PDF file types to PDF, and then adds Bates numbers to the resulting PDF. If you add Bates numbering to a PDF Portfolio, any non-PDF files in the PDF Portfolio are replaced with the converted and numbered PDFs.

Creative professional

Output preview enhancements

Use the Object Inspector to quickly inspect content in a document. The information displayed is for all content that is directly underneath where the cursor is clicked.

Preflight enhancements

Validate PDF/E compliance and save documents as PDF/E. Run checks and fixups on selected objects. View improved reports.

Color conversion enhancements

Set the transparency blending space. Remap spot colors using the Pantone library. Easily convert colors using the new design.

acrobat week – no safety net needed

One of my many ‘things that I do’ is to consult, create and teach people how to use Adobe Acrobat. This unbelievably flexible and dynamic technology has entered into yet another phase of its life recently. Acrobat Professional 8 is widely available now, and many of my clients are gearing up for their classes to be run on version 8. Before this happens, however, I need to learn the courseware backwards & forwards. That’s the task at hand this week. Software is loaded. Lesson files are copied. Highlighters are putting in for overtime. The new features are really cool, and I’m looking forward to sharing this with others!

 

 

New features in Acrobat 8 Professional:

Combine multiple files into a searchable, sortable PDF package that maintains the individual security settings and digital signatures of each included PDF document.
Auto-recognize form fields

Automatically locate form fields in static PDF documents and convert them to interactive fields that can be filled electronically by anyone using Adobe Reader software*. (Windows® only)

Manage shared reviews

Easily conduct shared reviews—without IT assistance—that allow review participants to see one another’s comments and track the status of the review.

Enable advanced features in Adobe Reader

Enable anyone using free Adobe Reader software* to participate in document reviews, fill and save electronic forms offline†, and digitally sign documents.

Permanently remove sensitive information

Permanently remove metadata, hidden layers, and other concealed information, and use redaction tools to permanently delete sensitive text, illustrations, or other content.

Archive Microsoft Outlook e-mail in PDF

Configure Acrobat 8 Professional to automatically archive e-mail in Microsoft Outlook for easy search and retrieval. (Windows only)

Archive Lotus Notes e-mail

Convert e-mail in Lotus Notes to Adobe PDF to facilitate searching, archiving, and retrieval. (Windows only)
Save in Microsoft Word

Take advantage of improved functionality for saving Adobe PDF files as Microsoft Word documents, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting, and tables.

Enjoy improved performance and support for AutoCAD

More rapidly convert AutoCAD® drawing files into compact, accurate PDF documents, without the need for the native desktop application.

Take advantage of a new, intuitive user interface

Complete tasks more quickly with a streamlined user interface, new customizable toolbars, and a “Getting Started” page to visually direct you to commonly used features.