Adobe Acrobat For Dummies

by Greg Harvey

Adobe

Acrobat

6 PDF

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

Adobe



Acrobat



6 PDF For Dummies



Published by

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About the Author

Greg Harvey, the author of more than 50 computer books, has had a long

career of teaching business people in the use of IBM PC, Windows, and

Macintosh software application programs. From 1983 to 1988, he conducted

hands-on computer software training for corporate business users with a

variety of training companies (including his own, PC Teach). From 1988 to

1992, he taught university classes in Lotus 1-2-3 and Introduction to Database

Management Technology (using dBASE) in the Department of Information

Systems at Golden State University in San Francisco.

In mid-1993, Greg started a new multimedia publishing venture called mind

over media. As a multimedia developer, he hopes to enliven his future com-

puter books by making them into true interactive learning experiences that

will vastly enrich and improve the training of users of all skill levels. You can

send him e-mail at

gharvey@mindovermedia.com and visit his Web site at

www.mindovermedia.com.

In 1999, Greg began graduate school at the California Institute of Integral

Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. In the summer of 2000, he received his master’s

degree in philosophy and religion in the area of Asian and Comparative Studies.

Currently, he has finished all his coursework in the Ph.D. program at CIIS and is

getting ready to begin work on his dissertation in the area of Chinese and

Tibetan end-of-life religious beliefs.

Dedication

To Chris for his unflagging support and encouragement

Author’s Acknowledgments

Let me take this opportunity to thank all the people, both at Wiley Publishing,

Inc., and at Mind over Media, Inc., whose dedication and talent combined to

get this book out and into your hands in such great shape.

At Wiley Publishing, Inc., I want to thank Steve Hayes and Tiffany Franklin for

their considerable help in getting this project underway, Christine Berman

for her tremendous expertise as project editor, and Jean Rogers for her great

skill as the copy editor, for making sure that the project stayed on course and

made it into production so that all the talented folks on the Production team

could create this great final product.

At Mind over Media, I want to give a special thanks to Michael Bryant, the

person primarily responsible for the updating and reorganizing all the mater-

ial for this 6.0 version of the software covered in this new edition of the book

(fantastic job, Michael!).

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form

located at

www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media

Development

Project Editor: Christine Berman

Acquisitions Editor: Tiffany Franklin

Copy Editor: Jean Rogers

Technical Editor: Gordon Kent

Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron

Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle

Media Development Supervisor: Richard Graves

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Cartoons: Rich Tennant,

www.the5thwave.com

Production

Project Coordinators: Nancee Reeves,

Regina Snyder

Layout and Graphics: Seth Conley,

Carrie Foster, LeAndra Hosier,

Michael Kruzil, Janet Seib

Proofreaders: Laura Albert, Angel Perez,

Carl Pierce, Kathy Simpson,

Techbooks Production Services

Indexer: Techbooks Production Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents at a Glance

Introduction .................................................................1

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files .......................7

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files .......................................................................9

Chapter 2: Accessing PDF Files ......................................................................................21

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6 ............................................................53

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files ......79

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files ........................................................................................81

Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents .................................................107

Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents .....................................................................121

Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages .................................................................................133

Chapter 8: Printing PDF Files .......................................................................................147

Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs ........159

Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review ..............................................................161

Chapter 10: Editing PDF Files .......................................................................................203

Chapter 11: Securing PDF Files ....................................................................................239

Chapter 12: Extracting Text and Graphics from PDF Files .......................................263

Chapter 13: Cataloging and Distributing PDF Files ...................................................275

Part IV: PDFs as Electronic Documents ......................291

Chapter 14: Creating Interactive Forms ......................................................................293

Chapter 15: Building and Publishing eBooks .............................................................327

Chapter 16: Making PDFs into Multimedia Presentations ........................................355

Part V: The Part of Tens ...........................................377

Chapter 17: Top Ten Third-Party Acrobat Plug-Ins ...................................................379

Chapter 18: Top Ten Online Resources ......................................................................383

Index .......................................................................387

Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................1

About This Book ..............................................................................................1

How to Use This Book ....................................................................................2

What You Can Safely Ignore ...........................................................................2

Foolish Assumptions ......................................................................................3

How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files ............................................3

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files ............................4

Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs .................................4

Part IV: PDFs as Electronic Documents ..............................................4

Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................5

Conventions Used in This Book ....................................................................5

Keyboard and mouse ............................................................................5

Special icons ..........................................................................................6

Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files .......................7

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

The Purpose of PDF Files ...............................................................................9

Benefits of Using PDF Files ...........................................................................11

What you designed is what they see ................................................12

PDF files in the review cycle ..............................................................12

Providing forms, both paper and electronic ....................................12

Document archiving ............................................................................15

PDF in the prepress workflow ............................................................16

Quick and easy Web site retrieval .....................................................16

PDF files as slide shows and multimedia presentations ................17

The Different Types of PDF Files .................................................................18

Chapter 2: Accessing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Perusing PDF Files in Adobe Reader ...........................................................21

Downloading and launching Adobe Reader 6 ..................................23

The Adobe Reader window ................................................................26

Navigating PDF documents ................................................................37

Perusing PDF Files in Acrobat 6 ..................................................................42

Reading eBooks with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 6 .................................43

I want my DRM .....................................................................................43

Using the Adobe DRM Activator ........................................................44

Dusting Off My Bookshelf ...................................................................45

Browsing PDF Files in a Web Browser ........................................................50

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

Launching Acrobat 6 .....................................................................................53

Opening PDF files for viewing or editing ..........................................54

Arranging open PDF files in the Acrobat window ...........................55

Closing open PDF files ........................................................................56

Getting Comfy with the Acrobat 6 Interface ..............................................57

What’s good on the Acrobat 6 menus today? ..................................57

Tons o’ toolbars! ..................................................................................68

Getting all the help you need .............................................................73

Viewing the How To window ..............................................................74

Making quick use of keyboard shortcuts .........................................75

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files .......79

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Common Ways to Create PDF Files .............................................................81

Put away that PDFWriter! ...................................................................82

Using Create PDF in Acrobat 6 ...........................................................82

Using the Acrobat 6 Distiller ........................................................................84

To every PDF there is a purpose . . . .................................................86

Automatically displaying your distilled file in Acrobat ..................88

Making Adobe PDF settings of your very own .................................89

Selecting security settings for the new PDF file ............................101

Automated PDF files — would you watch this folder for me? .....102

Making Acrobat Distiller your printer ............................................104

PDF Files Courtesy of Adobe PDF Online .................................................105

Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

Using PDFMaker in Microsoft Office for Windows ..................................108

Automatically viewing the converted PDF in Acrobat ..................109

Converting and e-mailing PDF files .................................................110

Customizing the PDF conversion settings ......................................111

Converting Office documents to PDF and sending

them for review ..............................................................................117

Converting Office X files on the Mac ..............................................118

Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Scanning Paper Documents in Acrobat 6 .................................................121

Making scanned documents searchable and editable ..................125

Correcting Paper Capture boo-boos ...............................................127

Importing Previously Scanned Documents into Acrobat .......................129

Using the Paper Capture Online Service ..................................................130

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

viii

Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

Opening Web Pages as PDF Files ...............................................................134

Browsing captured Web pages in Acrobat or Adobe Reader ......136

Modifying the Web capture preferences ........................................140

Modifying the Web capture conversion settings ...........................141

Adding Web Pages to a PDF File ................................................................143

Adding linked pages to a PDF file ....................................................143

Refreshing updated content .............................................................144

Chapter 8: Printing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Printing PDF Files ........................................................................................147

Printing document layers .................................................................150

Printing selected pages ....................................................................152

Printing oversized documents .........................................................154

Using the prepress printing settings ...............................................155

Troubleshooting Printing Problems .........................................................155

Using PrintMe Internet Printing ................................................................156

Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs .........159

Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Sending Out PDF Files for Review in Windows ........................................161

Initiating an e-mail-based review .....................................................162

Participating in an e-mail-based review ..........................................164

Setting up a browser-based review .................................................164

Managing reviews with the Review Tracker ..................................169

The Ins and Outs of Bookmarks ................................................................171

Generating automated bookmarks ..................................................171

Creating manual bookmarks ............................................................173

Editing bookmarks ............................................................................174

Inserting Document Comments with the Commenting Toolbar ...........176

Using the Note tool ...........................................................................177

Using the Stamp tool .........................................................................180

Hitting the highlights ........................................................................184

Inserting Document Comments with the Advanced

Commenting Toolbar ..............................................................................186

Using the Text Box tool .....................................................................186

Using the Attach Sound tool ............................................................188

Using the File Attachment tool ........................................................190

Mark it well .........................................................................................191

Spelling it out .....................................................................................193

Table of Contents

Viewing Comments in a PDF Document ...................................................195

Summing up .......................................................................................195

Showing and hiding comments ........................................................196

Finding comments .............................................................................198

Removing all comments ...................................................................201

Chapter 10: Editing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Touching Up the Text and Graphics .........................................................204

Using the TouchUp Text tool to edit text .......................................204

Editing text from the context menu ................................................206

Modifying text attributes ..................................................................207

Touching up your graphic images ...................................................208

Page-Editing Practices ................................................................................212

Rotating pages ...................................................................................212

Cropping pages ..................................................................................213

Replacing pages from other PDF files .............................................215

Inserting and deleting pages ............................................................217

Reordering the pages ........................................................................219

Renumbering the thumbnail pages .................................................219

Adding Headers and Footers to a PDF Document ...................................221

Adding Watermarks and Backgrounds to PDF Documents ....................223

Adding Articles to a PDF Document .........................................................225

Defining articles .................................................................................226

Checking the flow of a new article ..................................................228

Editing Document Layers in a PDF File .....................................................229

Flattening PDF layers ........................................................................230

Merging PDF layers ............................................................................231

Batch Processing to the Rescue ................................................................232

Editing batch sequences ..................................................................233

Creating new batch sequences ........................................................233

Chapter 11: Securing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Protecting PDF Files ....................................................................................239

Checking a document’s security settings .......................................240

Securing files with low or high encryption ....................................241

Signing Off Digital Style ..............................................................................244

Setting up your profile ......................................................................245

Modifying the user settings in a profile ..........................................246

Signing a PDF document ...................................................................250

Validating digital signatures .............................................................255

Comparing signed documents .........................................................259

Encrypting PDF Files ...................................................................................261

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

Chapter 12: Extracting Text and Graphics from PDF Files . . . . . . . .263

Extracting Blocks of Text ...........................................................................264

Using drag-and-drop to copy text ....................................................265

Selecting columns of text .................................................................266

Selecting tables and formatted text ................................................268

Selecting and Copying Graphic Images ....................................................270

Exporting Images in Various Graphics Formats ......................................271

Saving Entire PDF Files in a New File Format ...........................................272

Saving PDF files as text files .............................................................272

Saving PDF files as HTML files .........................................................273

Chapter 13: Cataloging and Distributing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

Cataloging 101 .............................................................................................275

Creating the PDF document collection ...........................................276

Building an index for your collection .............................................278

Rebuilding an index ...........................................................................281

Searching a Collection ................................................................................283

Viewing the search results ...............................................................286

Refining your search .........................................................................287

Adding document information (metadata) and date

filtering to your searches ..............................................................288

Distributing PDF Document Collections ...................................................289

Part IV: PDFs as Electronic Documents ......................291

Chapter 14: Creating Interactive Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293

Introducing Form Fields .............................................................................293

Adding Fields to Forms ...............................................................................294

Move those fields! .............................................................................297

Duplicating form fields .....................................................................298

Getting Acquainted with Form Field Tools ..............................................299

Selecting Form Field Options .....................................................................300

Jawing about General tab options ...................................................300

Applying Appearance tab options ...................................................301

Understanding the Options tab .......................................................303

Interacting with the Actions tab ......................................................306

Getting familiar with the Format tab ...............................................314

Viewing the Validate tab ...................................................................315

Cruising the Calculate tab ................................................................316

Sizing up the Selection Change tab .................................................317

Singling out the Signed tab ...............................................................318

Looking at the Layout Grid ..............................................................319

What to do with all these fields? .....................................................323

Table of Contents

Chapter 15: Building and Publishing eBooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .327

But First, a Little eBook History . . . ..........................................................327

Designing eBooks for Different Devices ...................................................329

Turning Out Tagged PDF Files ...................................................................331

Perfecting your eBook in PageMaker ..............................................331

What about other layout programs? ...............................................340

Designing Library and Cover Graphics ....................................................343

Adding a cover graphic to your PDF eBook ...................................344

Adding a library thumbnail graphic to your PDF eBook ..............346

Links ..............................................................................................................348

Adding an internal link .....................................................................348

Using Link Properties options .........................................................350

Adding an external link .....................................................................350

Controlling the Way Text Flows .................................................................351

Distributing Your eBooks ...........................................................................353

Chapter 16: Making PDFs into Multimedia Presentations . . . . . . . .355

Converting a Presentation to PDF .............................................................356

Building Your Own PDF Presentation .......................................................357

Having Fun with Photoshop .......................................................................358

Using Multimedia Objects in a Presentation ...........................................361

Inserting a movie in a presentation ................................................362

Inserting a sound in a presentation ................................................366

Making Your Presentation Interactive ......................................................366

Viewing a Presentation Full Screen ...........................................................368

Selecting Full Screen Mode Preferences ...................................................368

Using the Image Viewer and Picture Tasks Plug-ins ...............................371

Viewing slideshows with the Image Viewer plug-in ......................371

Exporting images with the Picture Tasks plug-in ..........................372

Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................377

Chapter 17: Top Ten Third-Party Acrobat Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379

Chapter 18: Top Ten Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383

Index........................................................................387

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

xii

Introduction

dobe PDF (Portable Document Format) is just now starting to fulfill its

promise as a truly transportable file format that enables people to share

sophisticated electronic documents across a wide array of otherwise incom-

patible computer platforms without requiring access to either the software

that generated the documents or the fonts used in the documents. Part of

the proof of this statement is evidenced in the ever-growing presence of PDF

documents, especially on the World Wide Web.

Nowadays, you can hardly browse the Web without encountering sites that

present some of their online information as PDF files. In fact, so many sites

offer their standard reports, registration and feedback forms, and industry

white papers as downloadable PDF files that few seasoned business users

remain unfamiliar with the PDF format (even if they’re not exactly sure what

it is) or the free Adobe Reader software used to open, read, and print docu-

ments saved in it.

Beyond the popularity of PDF for information-sharing on the Internet, PDF is

also becoming increasingly popular as the format to use for prepress docu-

ments, eBook publishing, document review, and document archiving. To ready

PDF files for these additional roles, you naturally graduate from the world of

the free Adobe Reader and Acrobat eBook Reader to that of Acrobat 6.

Acrobat 6 (which, unlike the free Adobe Reader, you must purchase) is Adobe’s

latest version of its all-in-one utility for editing, annotating, and managing docu-

ments saved in PDF.

As the name Acrobat implies, this utility enables you to juggle the many roles

it can assign PDF files with relative ease. All that’s required of you is a keen

sense of the role or roles you want your PDF document to fulfill along with a

careful reading of the pertinent sections of this book.

About This Book

This book is your complete introductory reference to the reading, writing,

and managing of PDF files for any and all of their many purposes, from

preparing prepress documents for printing on sophisticated imagesetters to

publishing your life story as an eBook for sale on the bevy of online book-

stores. Because the way you make, prepare, and sometimes even read a PDF

file varies according to the purpose you have in mind for it, you will find that

this book’s information emphasizes more the purpose you ultimately have in

mind for the PDF file than the features used to accomplish this purpose in the

various programs such as Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and the Acrobat eBook

Reader.

As a result, this book is not meant to be read from cover to cover. Each discus-

sion of a topic briefly addresses the question of how a particular feature enables

you to accomplish your purpose before launching into how to use it. In Acrobat,

as with most other sophisticated programs, there is usually more than one way

to do a task. For the sake of your sanity, I have purposely limited the choices,

usually by giving you only the most efficient ways to do a particular task. Later

on, if you’re so tempted, you can experiment with alternative ways of doing a

task. For now, just concentrate on performing the task as described.

As much as possible, I’ve tried to make it unnecessary for you to remember

anything covered in another section of the book. From time to time, however,

you come across a cross-reference to another section or chapter in the book.

For the most part, such cross-references are meant to help you get more com-

plete information on a subject, should you have the time and interest. If you

have neither, no problem; just ignore the cross-references as if they never

existed.

How to Use This Book

As a reference to all things PDF, you should start out by looking up the topic

you need information on (either in the Table of Contents or the Index) and

then refer directly to the section of interest. Most topics are explained con-

versationally. Many times, however, my regiment-commander mentality takes

over, and I list the steps you need to take to accomplish a particular task in a

particular section.

What You Can Safely Ignore

When you come across a section that contains the steps you take to get some-

thing done, you can safely ignore all text accompanying the steps (the text that

isn’t in bold) if you have neither the time nor the inclination to wade through

more material.

Whenever possible, I have also tried to separate background or footnote-type

information from the essential facts by exiling this kind of junk to a sidebar.

These sections are often flagged with icons that let you know what type of

information you will encounter there. You can easily disregard text marked

this way. (I discuss the icons used in this book a little later.)

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

Foolish Assumptions

I’m going to make only two assumptions about you (let’s see how close I get):

You have a need to create and use PDF files in your work, and you have access

to Acrobat 6. Some of you are working on PCs running some version of Windows

or Windows NT. Others of you are working on Macintosh computers running

one of the later versions of the Mac operating system. Note that there are rather

specific system requirements for Acrobat 6 whether you use a Windows or

Macintosh computer. These requirements are covered in Chapter 1.

Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess what brings you to Acrobat and PDF. Some of

you need to know how to convert all your paper documents into PDF files.

Some of you need to know how to save your graphics files as PDFs. Others of

you need to know how to create PDF form files in which users can submit

important data. Still others of you need to know how to create and publish

PDF files as eBooks for sale and distribution on the World Wide Web.

Regardless of your needs, you will be able to find the information you require

somewhere in the pages of this book.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into five parts, the first four of which cover all the

basics of reading, making, and managing PDF files. The fifth part, the indispens-

able Part of Tens, recaps important Acrobat and PDF enhancements and

resources. You should not, however, get too hung up about following along

with the structure of the book; ultimately, it doesn’t matter at all if you find out

how to use Paper Capture to convert printed documents to PDF before you find

out how to use PDFMaker 6.0 to convert your Word documents, or if you figure

out how to archive your PDF documents in a searchable collection before you

discover how to create interactive forms for collecting data online. The impor-

tant thing is that you find the information — and understand it when you find

it — when you need to do what needs getting done.

In case you’re interested, here’s a synopsis of what you find in each part of

this book.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Part I looks at what makes PDF files tick and the most common ways of

accessing their information. Chapter 1 covers the many purposes of PDF

documents in today’s business world. Chapter 2 lays out essential informa-

tion about using the different Adobe programs that enable you to read and

Introduction

print PDF documents. Chapter 3 acquaints you with the interface of Acrobat 6,

Adobe’s utility for preparing and editing PDF documents.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways

for Creating PDF Files

Part II looks at the many ways of making PDF files. Chapter 4 gives you vital

information on how to use and customize the Acrobat Distiller to create the

PDF document suited to just the purpose you have in mind. Chapter 5 covers

the ins and outs of converting Microsoft Office documents (specifically those

created with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) to PDF. Chapter 6 covers captur-

ing paper documents as PDF files primarily by scanning them directly into

Acrobat 6. Chapter 7 tells you how to capture Web pages as PDF files.

Chapter 8 covers the printing of all or part of your PDF files on printers

you have in-house.

Part III: Reviewing, Editing,

and Securing PDFs

Part III covers a mixture of techniques for reviewing, editing, and protecting

your PDF files. Chapter 9 introduces you to the many ways for annotating the

PDF documents that you send out for online review and introduces the new

e-mail-based and browser-based review features in Acrobat 6. Chapter 10

covers editing PDF files in Acrobat 6. Chapter 11 tells you how to secure your

PDF documents and protect them from further changes. Chapter 12 acquaints

you with the different ways you can extract contents in your PDF files for

repurposing with the other software programs you use. Chapter 13 gives you

the ins and outs of cataloging your PDF files by creating searchable collec-

tions that you can distribute across networks or on CD-ROM.

Part IV: PDFs as Electronic Documents

Part IV covers the different roles of electronic PDF files. Chapter 14 covers the

creation and usage of PDF documents as interactive forms that you can fill out

and whose data you can extract. Chapter 15 acquaints you with creating and

preparing PDF files as eBooks for sale and distribution on the World Wide Web.

Chapter 16 gives you information on how you can turn PDF documents into

online presentations by adding multimedia elements, including audio and

video clips.

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

Part V: The Part of Tens

As is the tradition in these For Dummies books, the last part contains lists

of the top ten most useful facts, tips, and suggestions. Chapter 17 gives you a

list of my top ten third-party (that is, not developed by Adobe Systems) add-in

programs for augmenting and enhancing the program’s already considerable

features. Chapter 18 gives you a list of my top ten online resources for discov-

ering even more about Acrobat and PDF files!

Conventions Used in This Book

The following information gives you the lowdown on how things look in this

book — publishers call these the book’s conventions (no campaigning, flag-

waving, name-calling, or finger-pointing is involved, however).

Keyboard and mouse

Although most of the keyboard and mouse instructions given in the text are

self-explanatory, there are a few important differences between the typical

Windows and Macintosh keyboards and mice that are worth noting here. For

example, keystroke shortcuts in Acrobat 6 and Adobe Reader 6 in Windows

often use the Ctrl key in combination with one or more letter keys. The

Macintosh, however, substitutes its Ô key (called the Command key, the one

with the apple and the cloverleaf icon) for the Windows Ctrl key (rather than

using its Control key). Also, because the Macintosh keyboard has no Alt key,

its Option key is routinely substituted in all shortcuts using the Alt key.

Regarding the mouse, Windows favors a two-button (left- and right-button)

mouse, whereas Macintosh favors a single-button mouse. As a result, while you

access shortcut (or context) menus in Acrobat in Windows by clicking the right

mouse button (a technique commonly known as right-clicking), you hold down

the Control (not the Ô) key as you click the mouse on the Macintosh (a tech-

nique commonly known as Control+clicking). Note that if you do have a two

button mouse on the Macintosh, the right-clicking technique applies.

Other than these common keyboard and mice anomalies, it’s pretty much the

same whether you are working with PDFs in Acrobat and Adobe Reader on a

Windows or Macintosh machine. In the few cases where there are differences

in Acrobat’s capabilities across the platforms, I have duly noted them in the

text, usually in the form of a tip or warning (described in the next section).

Introduction

Special icons

The following icons are strategically placed in the margins to point out stuff

you may or may not want to read.

This icon alerts you to nerdy discussions that you may well want to skip (or

read when no one else is around).

This icon alerts you to shortcuts or other valuable hints related to the topic

at hand.

This icon alerts you to information to keep in mind if you want to meet with a

modicum of success.

This icon alerts you to information to keep in mind if you want to avert com-

plete disaster.

Where to Go from Here

If you’ve never had any prior experience with PDF files, I suggest that, right

after getting your chuckles with the cartoons, you go first to Chapter 1 and find

out what you’re dealing with. If you’re already familiar with the ins and outs of

PDF files, but don’t know anything about how you go about creating them,

jump to Chapter 4, where you find out how to get started using Acrobat’s

Create PDF features and using the Acrobat Distiller. Then, as specific needs

arise (like “How do I annotate PDF documents in Acrobat 6?” or “How do I

protect PDF files from further changes?”), you can go to the Table of Contents

or the Index to find the appropriate section and go right to that section for

answers.

Adobe Acrobat 6 PDF For Dummies

Part I

Presenting

Acrobat and PDF

Files

In this part . . .

dobe’s PDF (Portable Document Format) is charac-

terized as a truly universal ﬁle format that preserves

all the original document’s formatting — including its

fonts, graphics, and layout — across a wide array of

different computer platforms. This part of the book is

where you ﬁnd out how PDF came to warrant this lofty

characterization.

In Chapter 1, you discover the many platforms that support

documents saved as PDFs, the many uses for PDF docu-

ments in your work, the different classes of PDF ﬁles that

you will be dealing with, along with a general overview of

the process you follow in saving documents as PDF ﬁles. In

Chapter 2, you get the lowdown on how to use the various

PDF reader software programs offered by Adobe Systems,

including Acrobat 6, Adobe Reader, and Acrobat eBook

Reader. Chapter 3 rounds out Part I by introducing you to

the interface of Acrobat 6, the Adobe program that not

only enables you to view and print PDF ﬁles but edit them

as well.

Chapter 1

The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

In This Chapter

 What is a PDF file?

 The benefits of using PDF files

 Where PDF files come from

 The different flavors of PDF files

’m so enthusiastic about Adobe PDF files that I think the abbreviation PDF

should stand for Pretty Darn Fantastic instead of the more mundane

Portable Document Format. In PDF files, you not only see the first inklings of

a truly paperless office (or as close as we’re likely to get), but also the deliv-

ery of a truly universal file format; that is, one truly capable of being opened

and used on any of the many computer operating systems currently in use.

In this chapter, you get introduced to what makes PDF files so special and

how they can be used to your advantage, especially in office environments

that mix and match different computer platforms. As part of this process, you

also get acquainted with the different versions of PDF files and how they can

be tailored to fit the particular needs of those who use the documents.

The Purpose of PDF Files

PDF, as the name Portable Document Format implies, was developed by

Adobe Systems as a means for digital file exchange. The main idea behind the

file format is to enable all computer users to be able to open, review, and print

the documents saved in it. This means that users who work on computers

that don’t have the software with which the files were originally created can

still see the document as it was originally designed and laid out, including all

its fonts and graphics.

The key to this digital file interchange is the nifty little software program

known as Acrobat (although Adobe originally named it Carousel when it first

appeared in 1993). A free form of this software, known as the Adobe Reader, is

available from Adobe Systems for all the major personal computing devices

and most versions of all the operating systems known to humankind. As of

this writing, these forms include:

 Microsoft Windows machines with the following versions: Windows 3.1,

Windows 95 (OSR 2.0), Windows 98 SE, Windows Millennium Edition,

Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 5), Windows 2000, or Windows XP

 Macintosh computers with version 7.5.3, 8.1–8.6, 9.1–9.2, or OS X of the

Macintosh operating system

 Palm handhelds with OS 3.0 or later

 Pocket PC computers with Windows CE or Windows 2002

 IBM AIX workstations with IBM AIX 4.2.1

 HP 9000 Series workstations (model 700 or higher) with HP-UX 9.0.3

 SGI workstations with Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.3

 DEC workstations with DEC OSF/1, version 4

 Sun Solaris SPARCStations with Sun OpenWindows 3.0 or later, Motif

1.2.3 or later, OpenLook 3.0, or CDE 1.0 or later

 Computers running versions of Linux including Red Hat Linux 5.1 or

Slackware Linux 2.0

Acrobat 6 and Adobe Reader are both major upgrades to the Acrobat software

family. Consequently, backward-compatibility with older operating systems is

limited. In order to run Acrobat 6 on Windows you must use one of the follow-

ing operating systems: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows NT

Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 6, Windows 2000 Professional with Service

Pack 2, Windows XP Professional or Home Edition, or Windows XP Tablet PC

Edition. Macintosh users must use OS X versions 10.2.2–10.2.6.

All you have to do to get the appropriate version of Adobe Reader for your

current operating system is point your Web browser to the following page on

the Adobe Systems Web site at

www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

and in the Step 1 of 2 area of the Adobe Reader download page choose your

language, your connection speed (dial-up or broadband), and your computer

platform. After you choose your computer platform, the Step 2 of 2 area

appears. Note that the selections you make in Step 1 determine the version of

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Adobe Reader best suited for your computer system. If your current system

is compatible with Adobe Reader, you are offered two choices: either the

Basic or Full versions if you chose dial-up as your connection speed, or Full if

you chose broadband. The Basic version is 8.7MB and can typically take up

to 30 minutes or more to download with a 56K modem. The Full version of

Adobe Reader has enhanced features that are described in the Step 2 of 2

dialog box and weighs in at a hefty 15.3MB — not a big deal if you have

broadband Internet access but worth the consideration if you use a modem

to connect to the Web. After choosing your desired version of Adobe Reader,

click the Download button. After downloading the Adobe Reader to the desk-

top of your computer platform, double-click the icon representing the com-

pressed version of the program to unpack and install it on your computer.

After you install the Adobe Reader on your computer, you can then open,

review, and print any PDF file that you get, regardless of what application pro-

grams were used in generating its text and graphics, and regardless of the

computer platform on which these programs ran. (See Chapter 2 for details

on how to access and review PDF files with the Adobe Reader.)

Adobe Reader comes in two versions with very different feature sets that you

can compare during the process of downloading the program. Adobe also cre-

ated not two, but three different versions of Acrobat 6: Professional, Standard,

and Elements. In order to compare the different features of these products,

Adobe provides an Acrobat family features matrix page on their Web site. Go

to the following page on Adobe’s Web site to view this important information:

www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html

Benefits of Using PDF Files

The most important benefit derived from the use of PDF files is that anyone

whose computer is equipped with Adobe Reader can open, read, and print

them. This essentially enables you to concentrate on the software tools that

you have at hand and feel are best suited for producing the document with-

out having to worry about whether or not your client or coworker has the

same software available to them. As you’ll soon see, this is only one of the

many important uses to which you can put your PDF files with Acrobat 6.

Keep in mind that the availability of many features described in the following

sections depend on which version of Adobe Reader or Acrobat 6 you are

using. For that reason, it’s a good idea to go to the Acrobat family features

page described in the previous section to familiarize yourself with all of

Adobe’s new Acrobat products.

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

What you designed is what they see

Because you are assured that your PDF files will essentially appear on-screen

and print as you originally designed them, no matter the computer on which

they’re opened or the printing device to which they’re output, you don’t have

to hold back on your design, avoiding the use of certain more decorative

fonts and/or complex layouts. Figures 1-1 and 1-2 illustrate this situation. In

Figure 1-1, you see a PDF file as it appears when opened with Adobe Reader

on a computer running Windows. Figure 1-2 shows the same PDF file as it

appears when opened on a Macintosh computer. As you can see, they are

both comparable in terms of the appearance of their fonts and their layout.

PDF files in the review cycle

While PDF debuted as a universal file format for viewing and printing docu-

ments on various types of computers and printers, thanks to advances to the

Acrobat software (and here I’m referring to the full-fledged Acrobat program

that you must pay for rather than the freebie Adobe Reader available for

download), you can now make PDF files an integral part of your design review

process. After converting a document to PDF, you can disseminate copies of

it to each of the people from whom you need feedback or approval before

you put it into use. Each of these people can then add their feedback by

adding comments or actually marking up the PDF document in Acrobat 6.

You can then collect their feedback and make the necessary changes either

to the PDF version of the file in Acrobat 6 or to the original document (prior

to PDF conversion) in the program used in its creation. If managers, cowork-

ers, or clients are required to sign off on the document (either in its original

or revised form), they can indicate their approval by stamping the document

with their approval or by digitally signing off on it, as shown in Figure 1-3.

(See Chapter 9 for details on how to use PDF files in a review cycle and

Chapter 11 for details on how to use digital signatures.)

Providing forms, both paper and electronic

With the widespread reliance on the World Wide Web for getting and submit-

ting crucial information, PDF files have taken on another important use, that

of providing forms to fill in both online and after printing. Acrobat 6 makes

form creation about as easy as it can be.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Figure 1-2:

The same

PDF

document

as it

appears in

the Adobe

Reader 6

on a Mac

computer.

Figure 1-1:

A PDF

document

as it

appears in

the Adobe

Reader 6 on

a computer

running

Windows.

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

If you need to make certain paper forms available on your company’s intranet

or your public Web site so that users can download, print, and then fill them

in by hand, you can use Acrobat 6 to scan the paper forms and immediately

convert their digital images into PDF files (see Figure 1-4). If you need to be

able to search and edit the text in the electronic versions of these forms, you

can use the Paper Capture feature — Acrobat’s version of OCR (Optical

Character Recognition) software — to convert the text image into searchable

and editable fonts. (See Chapter 6 for details on scanning paper forms and

converting them into PDF files with Acrobat 6.)

If you need to get feedback or process informational or order forms directly

from your company’s intranet or its public Web site, you can use Acrobat 6 to

design the electronic forms. Acrobat 6 makes it possible to add all types of

interactive fields, including text boxes, combo boxes (also known as drop-

down list boxes), check boxes, radio buttons, and command buttons (that

users can select to do things such as submit their information or clear the

form). With the addition of a simple CGI (Common Gateway Interface) script

(courtesy of your friendly IT personnel or Internet service provider), you can

store the data submitted by way of your PDF forms in text files that your

favorite database or spreadsheet program can read and store. (See Chapter 14

for details on creating interactive PDF forms for use online.)

Figure 1-3:

With

Acrobat 6,

you can add

comments

and mark up

text that

needs

revising, as

well as give

your stamp

of approval.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

You don’t have to use the World Wide Web or a company intranet to be able

to fill in electronic PDF forms that you create with Acrobat 6. Users who have

Acrobat 4 or later installed on their computers can open and fill in these elec-

tronic forms using this version or later of Acrobat.

Document archiving

Let’s face it: Paper archives are not just bulky and heavy, but they also

degrade quickly and are a veritable nightmare to search. For this reason

alone, out of all the possible uses for Adobe’s Portable Document Format,

archiving your documents as PDF files may prove to be the most important

to you. Imagine all your paper contracts, correspondence, company reports,

and the like stored as collections on CD-ROMs, from which you can retrieve

individual files through searches for keywords or for vital statistics such as

author name, client name, or job number.

You can use the Paper Capture feature in Acrobat 6 on the Windows or

Macintosh platform to scan and convert such paper documents into search-

able PDF files. After you do that, Acrobat makes it easy for you to organize

Figure 1-4:

Acrobat 6

makes it

easy to scan

and convert

paper forms

to PDFs,

which can

then be

distributed

for

download

from your

Web site.

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

these files into collections (known officially as catalogs), which you can index

for truly speedy retrieval using the Acrobat 6 search feature. (See Chapter 6

for details on converting paper documents to PDF and Chapter 13 for details

on cataloging and indexing your files prior to storing them on various media.)

The Paper Capture feature in Acrobat 6 for Windows restricts you to scanning

and converting paper documents of no more than 50 pages in length. If you

know that you must scan and convert documents longer than 50 pages on

the Windows platform, you need to purchase the standalone module,

Acrobat Capture 3 for Windows NT, 2000, or XP or Acrobat Capture 2.0 for

Windows 95/98.

PDF in the prepress workflow

One of the most obvious uses for PDF files is in the prepress workflow, during

which documents that require professional printing are checked for potential

printing errors and readied for conversion from electronic images to the film

or plates used in the final printing of the document using high-end imageset-

ters (a process known in the industry as preflight). Acrobat 6 (Professional

version only) contains a number of prepress-related printing options, along

with an overprinting preview and an on-screen color correction feature.

These specialized print options and error-checking features in Acrobat 6 are

designed to help professional graphic artists and service bureau personnel in

finding and eliminating potentially costly printing problems. Most users not

directly involved in this end of the business will have no reason to fool with

these printing options or use these specialized preview features. (If, for some

unknown reason, you are interested in knowing more about these prepress

features, refer to Chapter 8.)

Always check with your service bureau personnel to find out what, if any,

prepress options they want you to use prior to sending them your PDF files

for preflight. Some houses definitely prefer that you not use any of these pre-

press options, so it’s always good to check it out ahead of time.

Quick and easy Web site retrieval

If you are involved with your company’s Web design or you are a Web freak

who travels frequently and is therefore bereft of a way to stay connected to

the Net, you can use the Acrobat 6 Web Capture feature to copy and convert

to PDF specific Web pages or even entire Web sites that are of interest to you

(see Figure 1-5). After you’ve converted a set of Web pages or an entire Web

site into PDF files, you can then browse them from your hard drive with

Acrobat or Adobe Reader without being connected to the Internet.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

As both a road warrior and Web enthusiast, you can use this feature to keep

up on the latest online information right from the comfort of your portable

computer at those times when you’re traveling or just waiting to travel.

If you work as a Web designer, the Web Capture feature provides a perfect

means for distributing your Web pages for approval to your client or cowork-

ers. If they have Adobe Reader or Acrobat 6 on their computers, they can even

annotate the pages with their suggestions in the form of notes and markups or

even give you that final nod of approval using the stamp feature. (See Chapter 7

for details on retrieving and converting Web pages to PDF.)

PDF files as slide shows and

multimedia presentations

Another application for PDF files is to use them to create and distribute slide

shows and multimedia presentations (see Figure 1-6). Acrobat 6 enables you

to add interactivity to your slides in the form of hyperlinks, buttons, and

slide transitions. You can also use the program to add sound and/or digital

movie files to the slides that your users can play back for a true multimedia

experience. Note that Acrobat 6 now supports slide shows and greeting

eCards created in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 and Photoshop Album 1.0.

Figure 1-5:

Acrobat 6

makes it a

snap to

capture

Web pages

as PDF files.

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

To enhance the online slide show or multimedia presentation, Acrobat 6 sup-

ports a full-screen mode that the user can invoke with none of the screen

clutter normally associated with using Acrobat and Adobe Reader (full-screen

mode hides the menus, toolbars, scroll bars, status bar, and in Windows,

even the omnipresent Task bar). When a user views your slide show or pre-

sentation in full-screen mode, you can set it up so that Acrobat automatically

advances through each page after a set time interval, using a slide transition

of your choice.

If you normally use Microsoft PowerPoint to create your slide shows, you can

convert them into PDF files at the touch of a button. You can then use

Acrobat 6 to add any extra interactivity and then distribute them for play-

back on any computer on which the free Adobe Reader 6 is installed.

The Different Types of PDF Files

In addition to the many different uses for the Adobe Portable Document

Format described in this chapter, PDF files also give you a great deal of flexi-

bility when you want to reuse their content for other purposes. For example,

Figure 1-6:

You can play

slide shows

saved as

PDF files in

full-screen

mode.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

you can use various PDF formats to distribute a graphically rich report with

lots of tables and pictures for printing or viewing on a computer monitor, and

then “repurpose” that same content for viewing in a Web page or on a hand-

held device where such graphics are prohibitive. This fabulous chameleon

act is possible because Adobe PDF files support three basic document struc-

ture types: unstructured, structured, and tagged. PDF documents that are cre-

ated from these types of documents create the following PDF files:

 Unstructured PDF: These PDFs have no logical structure tree to define or

further describe the author’s content. All document information is treated

as a single unit with just the author’s text and paragraph structure recog-

nized. Basic text formatting, tables, and lists are not recognized.

 Structured PDF: These PDFs recognize the author’s text and paragraph

structure but also have a logical structure tree that defines basic text

formatting, such as font attributes. Tables and lists are not recognized.

 Tagged PDF: These PDFs have a logical structure tree that includes all the

attributes of structured PDFs and also includes definitions such as docu-

ment styles and stories (this allows tables and lists to be recognized) and

dependencies among various document elements that allow the text to be

reflowed. (For more information on reflowing text, see Chapter 15.)

To understand document structure types, you need to look under the hood

of your favorite word processor or page layout program. As you create your

document, these programs can provide a logical structure tree and tags that

define how your document appears when printed or viewed on-screen. I say

can provide because programs such as Notepad in Windows and Macintosh,

which are simple text editing programs with no formatting ability, don’t pro-

vide for a logical structure tree and so create unstructured documents. You can

get an idea of how a document structure tree works using the Document Map

feature in Microsoft Word. Open a document and choose View➪Document Map.

The program displays the document’s structure tree as hierarchies of head-

ings, paragraphs, and so on. Word then adds tags to this tree that define para-

graph styles, font types, font attributes, and allow you to use this structure

tree to navigate the document by clicking different structure elements.

The support of document structure types enables you to create unstruc-

tured, structured, and tagged PDF files with Acrobat 6. The subsequent result

is that the more structured your original document, the more you can reli-

ably reuse your content for other purposes using Adobe PDF. To find out

more about PDF file types, see “Understanding how structure types affect

flexibility” in the online Acrobat help module. To access the online help

guide, choose Help➪Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help or choose Complete Acrobat

6.0 Help on the How To Window.

Chapter 1: The Ins and Outs of PDF Files

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Chapter 2

Accessing PDF Files

In This Chapter

 Viewing PDF files with Adobe Reader 6

 Viewing PDF files with Acrobat 6

 Reading PDF files with Acrobat eBook Reader

 Browsing PDF files in your Web browser

s this chapter proves, there’s more than one way to open and read a

PDF file. You have a choice between using Adobe Reader, which comes

in two flavors; Basic and Standard (both of which are free), or if you’ve pur-

chased the full-blown Acrobat 6 (which also comes in two versions; Standard

or Professional) for creating and editing PDF files, you can, of course, use it

as well. In addition, Adobe also introduced a new product this year for the

enterprise sector called Acrobat Elements. The program allows you to view

and create, but not edit, PDF documents and must be bulk purchased in lots

of 1000. See Chapter 5 for more information on creating PDF documents with

Acrobat Elements. As if these weren’t enough browsing choices, you can also

open and view your PDF files in common Web browsers, such as Internet

Explorer and Netscape Navigator on all Windows operating systems and

Macintosh OS 9.2.2 and earlier. Note that as of this writing, in order to use the

Windows version of Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader for in-browser viewing of PDF

documents, you must have Internet Explorer 5 or later. In-browser viewing of

PDF files is also not supported in Mac OS X. As of this writing, Adobe plans to

add that functionality in the near future for Mac OS X users. In the meantime,

you can configure Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader as Helper applications in OS X

versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

Perusing PDF Files in Adobe Reader

The most common way to view PDF files is by using Adobe Reader (formerly

called Acrobat Reader). Adobe Systems offers this program as a free down-

load for a wide number of different computer platforms. As of this writing, the

most current version of Adobe Reader is version 6.0. Adobe Reader coincides

with the release of Acrobat 6 and utilizes many of the same feature enhance-

ments and improvements to the User Interface (UI) that characterize the latest

version of the full-blown product. If you’re using Windows XP or Mac OS X,

Adobe Reader is automatically selected when you specify your operating

system on the Adobe download page. Note that the Macintosh version of

Adobe Reader (and also Acrobat 6 Standard and Professional versions) only

runs on the Jaguar version of Mac OS X, because the minimum system require-

ment for the Macintosh version is 10.2.2.

Adobe Reader can open and read all PDF files created with earlier versions of

Acrobat. Be aware, however, that earlier versions of Acrobat Reader cannot

open and read PDF files created with the later versions of Adobe Acrobat

unless you specify compatibility with earlier versions when you create a PDF.

Consequently, you also lose newer Acrobat functionalities when you create

backward compatible PDF files. See Chapter 4 for more information on creat-

ing PDF documents. As Table 2-1 indicates, each version of Adobe Acrobat

creates its own version of PDF files. Later versions of Acrobat can read files

created in earlier versions, but not vice versa.

Table 2-1 Versions of Acrobat and Their PDF Files

Acrobat Version PDF File Version Created Year Released

Acrobat 1.0 PDF 1.0 1993

Acrobat 2.0 PDF 1.1 1994

Acrobat 3.0 PDF 1.2 1996

Acrobat 4.0 PDF 1.3 1999

Acrobat 5.0 PDF 1.4 2001

Acrobat 6.0 PDF 1.5 2003

As you can see in Table 2-1, you can tell which version of Acrobat produced a

particular PDF file version because the sum of the digits in the PDF file version

equals the number of the Adobe Acrobat version that created it. For example,

you know that a PDF file in version 1.3 was likely created with Acrobat 4

because the sum of its file version numbers, 1 and 3, is 4.

When you’re viewing PDF files in Acrobat on a Windows computer, you can

tell what version of PDF file you’re dealing with by choosing File➪Document

Properties to open the Document Properties dialog box. Select Description in

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

the list box in the PDF Information area of the Description palette and you

find the PDF version. Note that the file version listed will not always tally with

the version of Acrobat that created the file because engineering a PDF for

backward compatibility is possible.

When creating a PDF file with the Acrobat Distiller in Acrobat 6, you can make

it possible for viewers using earlier versions of Acrobat Reader to open your

files by selecting a Compatibility setting in the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box

for an earlier version of Acrobat. This setting provides compatibility with

Acrobat versions 3.0 through 6.0 and their corresponding PDF versions,

which ensures that your files will reach a wider audience.

Downloading and launching

Adobe Reader 6

Adobe Reader 6 (formerly Acrobat Reader) is available in two flavors: Basic

and Full. The Full version gives you the added functionality of local, network,

or Internet PDF searches, Accessibility features, eBook support, and

Multimedia enhancements.

All you have to do to get the appropriate version of Adobe Reader for your

current operating system is point your Web browser to the following page on

the Adobe Systems Web site:

www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

This URL takes you to the Download Adobe Reader page, where all you have

to do is make a selection from each of three drop-down lists provided in the

Step 1 of 2 dialog box:

1. Select the Language of the Adobe Reader (English in most cases).

2. Select the Platform (or operating system) that your computer uses

(that is, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000/XP, Mac 8.6,

Mac 9.x, OS X, and so on).

3. Choose a Connection speed that you use to access the Internet (dial-up

or broadband).

Note that the selections you make in Steps 2 and 3 above determine the

version of Adobe Reader best suited for your computer system. After you

choose your Connection speed, the Step 2 of 2 dialog box appears and dis-

plays the result of your Platform and Connection speed choices. If your

Chapter 2: Accessing PDF Files

current operating system is compatible with Adobe Reader 6 and you chose

dial-up as your connection speed, you are offered two choices: either the

Basic or Full version. If you chose broadband as your connection speed, only

the Full version is offered. Earlier platform/operating system choices that are

not compatible with Adobe Reader provide the appropriate version of the

older Acrobat Reader program for download.

The Basic version of Adobe Reader is 8.7MB in size and can typically take up

to 30 minutes or more to download with a 56K modem. The Full version of

Adobe Reader has enhanced features described in the Step 2 of 2 dialog box

and weighs in at a hefty 15.3MB (20.9MB for the Mac version). Downloading

the Full version is not a big deal if you have broadband Internet access, but it

may be worth considering the Basic version if you use a modem to download

from the Web.

After choosing your desired version of Adobe Reader, click the Download

button, select a download location in the Browse for Folder dialog box, and

wait until the Adobe Reader file is downloaded on your computer. Then

double-click its installer icon to decompress the Reader files and install them

on your hard drive (on the Mac, the Adobe Reader Installer actually down-

loads the Reader files and installs them when you double-click the Adobe

Reader Installer icon).

After installing Adobe Reader on your hard drive, you can launch the Reader

with or without also opening a PDF file. To launch the program without also

opening a PDF on the Windows platform, choose Start➪Programs➪Adobe

Reader (Start➪All Programs➪Adobe Reader in Windows XP).

To launch Adobe Reader on the Macintosh in OS X, follow these steps:

1. Click the Finder icon on the Dock to open the Finder and click the

Applications button on the Finder toolbar.

2. Double-click the Adobe Reader file icon in the Applications folder.

After you launch Adobe Reader , you can then open PDF files for viewing and

printing by choosing File➪Open and selecting the PDF file to open in its Open

dialog box.

In addition to simply double-clicking a PDF file icon you can also launch

Adobe Reader and open a PDF file for viewing by dragging a PDF file icon

onto an Adobe Reader shortcut on the Windows or Macintosh desktop. Note

that when you install Adobe Reader on a Windows machine, the installer

automatically creates a desktop shortcut called Adobe Reader 6.0.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

To create such a desktop shortcut on the Macintosh (where it’s called an

alias), click to select the Adobe Reader icon (located in the Applications

folder on your hard drive), press Ô+M to create an Adobe Reader 6.0 alias,

and then drag this alias icon onto the Macintosh desktop.

Figure 2-1 shows you how the Adobe Reader window appears on a Windows

computer when you launch the Reader and simultaneously open a PDF file

within it. Note that in this particular case, the PDF file that opens takes up the

full width of the program window up to the Navigation pane, which displays

the bookmarks in this document.

You can have more than one PDF file open at a time in Adobe Reader 6. To

open multiple files when launching Adobe Reader 6, Ctrl+click individual PDF

file icons or lasso a group of them and then drag the entire selection onto the

Adobe Reader desktop shortcut (alias). To do this from the Open dialog box,

Ctrl+click or lasso the group before you click the Open button.

Figure 2-1:

The Adobe

Reader

window

with the

open PDF

file used to

launch it.

Chapter 2: Accessing PDF Files

The Adobe Reader window

As you can see in Figure 2-2, the Adobe Reader window is divided into three

areas:

 Menu and toolbars at the top of the screen

 Document pane with scroll bars to the right and bottom and a status bar

to immediate left at the bottom

 Navigation pane with tabs for its four palettes: Bookmarks, Signatures,

Layers, and Pages.

Menu bar

Navigation pane

Toolbars

Document pane

Figure 2-2:

The Adobe

Reader

window is

divided into

three areas:

menu and

toolbars

above;

Document

and

Navigation

panes

below.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

The menu bar contains standard application menus: File through Help. To

select a menu and display its items, you click the menu name (or you can

press the Alt key plus the underlined letter in the menu name, the so-called

hot key, in the Windows version). To select a menu item, you drag down to

highlight it and then press Enter, or you click it (in the Windows version, you

can also select an item by typing its hot key). Menus on the Macintosh ver-

sion display hot keys with the cloverleaf symbol that represents the

Command key. You can select these commands simply by holding down the

Command key plus the appropriate hot key without opening the menu.

The Adobe Reader toolbars

Directly beneath the menu bar, you see a long toolbar with an almost solid

row of buttons. The toolbar may appear on two rows, depending on your

screen resolution, when you install and open Adobe Reader for the first time.

As Figure 2-3 indicates, this toolbar is actually five separate toolbars, File

through Tasks. Note the Tasks toolbar is a single button with a pop-up menu

for acquiring, opening, or accessing help on eBooks. This is one example (and

the only one you see in Adobe Reader 6) of several new single-button Tasks

toolbars. The rest are covered in the section about toolbars in Chapter 3.

The File toolbar, shown in Figure 2-3, displays buttons and labels. You can

gain more space on the upper toolbar area by hiding the File Toolbar labels.

To do so, right-click the toolbar area and choose Tool Button Labels to

remove the checkmark from the context menu.

Four of the buttons shown in the toolbars in this figure sport downward-

pointing shaded triangles. These downward-pointing triangles (formerly

titled More Tools in previous versions of Acrobat) are buttons that, when

clicked, display a pop-up menu with additional related tools or commands. In

Adobe Reader, these buttons, from left to right, are as follows:

File toolbar

Rotate View toolbar

Basic toolbar Zoom toolbar

Tasks toolbar

Figure 2-3:

The space

below the

menu bar of

the Adobe

Reader

window

contains

five toolbars

side by side.

Chapter 2: Accessing PDF Files

 The Select Text tool: Right next to the Hand tool in the Basic toolbar, its

pop-up menu button enables you to choose either Text or Image and

also the Expand This Button option to add both menu items as buttons

on the toolbar.

 The Zoom In tool: The first button in the Zoom toolbar. Its pop-up menu

button enables you to select the Zoom In tool if you’re using one of the

other Zoom tools, the Zoom Out tool (Shift+Z) for zooming out on an

area, or a new Dynamic Zoom tool that enables you to dynamically

(without incremental changes) zoom in and out by clicking on a viewing

area and dragging the mouse up or down.

 The Viewing button: Shows the current page magnification setting as a

percentage in the Zoom toolbar.

 The Read an eBook tool: The only button on the Tasks toolbar. Its pop-

up menu lets you open an eBook in your library (called My Bookshelf)

and display an online guide to reading eBooks in the How To window.

Another similar option you may encounter on these pop-up menus is the

Show (insert name) Toolbar command that displays, by default, all the menu

commands in a floating toolbar window that can be docked anywhere in the

toolbar area. To hide this floating toolbar, click its Close button. If the toolbar

has been docked, uncheck the Show Toolbar command on the original tool-

bar button pop-up menu to hide it. The next time you select this command,

the toolbar will appear in its last displayed state, either floating or docked.

Users of Acrobat Reader 5 or earlier may notice that Adobe has consolidated

the Find and Search tools into a single Search tool button on the File Toolbar.

I find this most gratifying, because I can never remember the difference

between a Find and a Search. The Acrobat 6 Search feature is very clear. It

enables you to do fast text searches in either the current PDF document, a

PDF file on your computer or local network, and even on the Internet when

you’re using the Full version of Adobe Reader. Clicking the button opens the

Search PDF pane in the How To window, where you specify search criteria

and then click the Search button. Search results are then displayed in the

Search PDF pane. See the “Adobe Reader Document pane” section, later in

this chapter, to find out more on the new How To window.

Table 2-2 lists the buttons on each of these toolbars and describes their

functions.

Table 2-2 The Toolbars of Adobe Reader 6

Toolbar Icon Name Use It To . . .

File Open Display the Open dialog box.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Toolbar Icon Name Use It To . . .

Save a Copy Display the Save a Copy dialog box.

Print Open the Print dialog box.

E-mail Open your e-mail client and attach the

current PDF to a new e-mail.

Search Open the Search PDF pane in the How

To window.

Basic Hand tool (H) Move the PDF document to different

areas of the viewing window or of the

document itself, depending on your

zoom setting; the Hand tool changes to

an arrow over menus and buttons, and

to a pointing finger over hyperlinks.

Select Text tool (V) Select text or images in the document

for copying to the Clipboard.

Snapshot tool Select text or graphics in the docu-

ment for copying to the Clipboard

by drawing a marquee around your

selection.

Zoom Zoom In tool (Z) Zoom in on the area that you point to

with the magnifying glass icon.

Actual Size Resize the zoom magnification setting

to 100%.

Fit in Window Resize the zoom magnification setting

so that you see the entire document.

Fit Width Resize the zoom magnification setting

so that the width of the document fills

the entire Document pane.

Zoom Out Decrease the magnification (to see

more on creating interactive PDF forms.

 JavaScript: Lets you access Acrobat’s JavaScript editor, where you can

view, create, edit, and debug JavaScript actions for your PDF forms. See

Chapter 14 for more on using JavaScript actions in interactive PDF forms.

 Links: Use the Create from URLs in Document command to convert all

the decipherable URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) to active hyper-

links. Use the Remove All Links from Document command to do just

that. See Chapter 7 for more on creating links in a PDF document.

 Manage Digital IDs: Use the commands on this menu to view and edit

your personal Digital ID, as well as those of others who are referred to in

Acrobat as Trusted Identities. See Chapter 11 to discover the ins and

outs of securing PDF documents.

 PDF Optimizer: Choose PDF Optimizer to open the PDF Optimizer dialog

box, where you can choose from a comprehensive array of options to

compress images, embed or remove fonts, and compress, discard, or

remove various PDF document features that bulk up its size in order to

reduce the size of a PDF document to optimum levels. You can find out

all about the PDF Optimizer by clicking Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help in the

How To window or by choosing Help➪Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help to

open the Acrobat 6.0 online help guide. In the Contents tab window,

choose Publishing in Electronic Formats and then select Optimizing

Adobe PDF Files.

 Web Capture: Use this command to convert Web pages from the

Internet into PDF documents. See Chapter 7 for more on this excellent

Acrobat feature.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

Well, that’s all the alphabetizing fun I have for you courtesy of Adobe.

The bottom sections of the Advanced menu contains these unalphabetized

commands:

 Use Local Fonts: This command is turned on by default. When fonts

aren’t embedded in a PDF file, Acrobat uses font substitutions based on

your computer’s system fonts. To see how your PDF document will look

on a computer that doesn’t have your fonts, turn off this feature by click-

ing the command to remove the check mark. You can then preview how

substituted fonts will appear and decide which fonts to embed.

 Proof Setup: This command and its associated commands (Proof Colors,

Overprint Preview, Separation Preview, and Transparency Flattener

Preview) in the last section of the Advanced menu allow you to setup,

proof, and preview color separations and overprints on your computer

screen for high-end commercial print output as opposed to printing out

hard copy proofs. Keep in mind that the reliability of these features

depends on the quality of your monitor, use of ICC profiles for color

management, and the ambient lighting of your work environment. If

you’re a printing business professional, this will all make sense. If not,

leave it up to the professionals to develop proofs of your printed PDF

document. The Transparency Flattener Preview command lets you pre-

view how transparent graphic object layers will appear when flattened.

Note that you must have a Postscript printer to use this option.

Figure 3-7:

Aiming

at the

Advanced

menu in

Acrobat 6.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Wonders on the Window menu

The Window menu (shown in Figure 3-8) contains the items you need for

arranging and selecting document windows for the PDF files you’re editing. See

the “Arranging open PDF files in the Acrobat window” section earlier in this

chapter for more information. It also contains the Split command that allows

you to view the same PDF document in two viewing panes, the Clipboard

Viewer for displaying items you’ve copied to the Clipboard, and Full Screen

View for displaying the current document so that it fills your entire monitor

and hides all menus, tools, display windows, and navigation control. You can

toggle Full Screen View on and off by pressing Ctrl+L (Ô+L on the Mac).

Happiness on the Help menu

The Help menu (shown in Figure 3-9) shows the various options for getting

online help with Acrobat 6. The first Help menu item, How To, lets you display

the new Acrobat 6 How To window. This help panel, which opens up on the

right side of the Acrobat window, is similar to the Microsoft Office Help

window. The default set provides links to important help topics, such as

Create PDF, Review & Comment, Secure, Sign, and so on. Clicking a link dis-

plays the corresponding help topics. You can also access the Complete

Acrobat 6.0 Help database and choose whether or not the How To window

is displayed when you start Acrobat 6.

The About Adobe Acrobat 6.0 item displays the program splash screen that

shows your version number, along with your license information, including

your serial number. (You need to click the splash screen to get rid of it, by

the way.) The About Adobe Plug-ins command lets you view the presence and

status of all plug-ins available in your current Acrobat 6 installation. The

About Third-Party Plug-Ins option displays a submenu showing all the third-

party (that is, not made by Adobe Systems) plug-ins installed for your copy

of Acrobat 6. (Two third-party plug-ins, Preflight and PrintMe Internet

Printing, are installed when you first install Acrobat 6 on your computer.)

Figure 3-8:

Walking

through the

Window

menu in

Acrobat 6.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

The System Info command creates a report of your current computer system

and Acrobat 6 installation, opens your e-mail client, and attaches the report to

an e-mail for sending to Adobe Tech Support. The Online Support, Updates,

Registration, and Adobe Online commands all launch your Web browser and

connect you to the appropriate pages on the Adobe Systems Web site. Choose

the Online Registration option to register your copy of Acrobat 6 (of course,

you need to do this only once, right after you first install Acrobat 6 on your

computer). The Detect and Repair feature starts a Windows or Macintosh

diagnostic routine that optimizes Acrobat’s performance.

Tons o’ toolbars!

Acrobat 6 contains all the toolbars found in Adobe Reader 6 plus seven more:

Advanced Commenting, Advanced Editing, Commenting, Edit, How To,

Measuring, and Tasks. Figure 3-10 shows these extra toolbars in a custom dis-

play without the Acrobat 6 default toolbars. I’ve docked the extra toolbars in

the order they appear on the Toolbars menu for clarity. To see this menu,

choose View➪Toolbars. The seventh toolbar found in Acrobat 6 and not

Adobe Reader 6 is the Properties toolbar, which is also shown in Figure 3-10,

though not activated. (The Properties toolbar comes alive when you select

certain editing tools and allows quick access to that tool’s functions.) For a

complete rundown on the toolbars and buttons that both Acrobat and Adobe

Reader share, see Chapter 2). The buttons on these extra toolbars are

designed to give you quick access to every editing tool in Acrobat 6 (which

are totally absent from Adobe Reader), and you will undoubtedly make much

use of them as you work in the program. Table 3-1 gives a brief description of

the function of each of these tools.

Figure 3-9:

Helping

yourself to

the Help

menu in

Acrobat 6.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Table 3-1 The Complete Set of Editing Toolbars in Acrobat 6

Toolbar Icon Tool Name Use This Tool To . . .

Advanced Drawing Draw rectangles, ovals, clouds,

Commenting Markup and polygons, as well as lines and

arrows. You can also attach notes

to these markups.

Text Box Mark up your PDF document with

comments written in a text box.

Pencil Markup Draw freehand markups in your

PDF document.

Attachments Attach images, sounds, and

movies as comments in your PDF

document.

Advanced Select Object Select objects, such as links, com-

Editing ments, and form fields, in your PDF

document.

Article Create articles in the document

that designate the order in which

portions of the text are to be read

by using the Article palette in

Adobe Reader 6.

(continued)

Advanced Commenting

Edit

Advanced Editing Commenting Show menu

Measuring Tasks Properties

Figure 3-10:

A custom

display of

the toolbars

used for

editing and

commenting

in Acrobat 6

that don’t

appear in

Adobe

Reader 6.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

Table 3-1 (continued)

Toolbar Icon Tool Name Use This Tool To . . .

Crop Crop pages in the PDF document.

Link Create a hyperlink in the PDF

document.

Button Add form fields and form objects,

such as check boxes and buttons,

to your PDF document.

Movie Insert a digital movie for playback in

the PDF document.

TouchUp Edit portions of the PDF document.

Text Its More Tools button accesses the

TouchUp Text, TouchUp Object, and

TouchUp Order tools.

Commenting Note Annotate text in the PDF document.

Its More Tools button accesses the

Note, FreeText, Sound Attachment,

and File Attachment tools.

Indicate Mark up text in the PDF document.

Text Edits Use the commands on the pop-up

menu to insert, replace, highlight,

cross out, or underline text, or to add

a note to selected text.

Stamp Apply an electronic rubber stamp;

Approved, Confidential, Received,

and many other stamps in various

visual styles are available.

Highlight Mark up your PDF document with

Text an electronic colored marker. Choose

Highlight, Cross-out, or Underline

from the button’s pop-up menu.

Show View comments and change their

display. Use the pop-up menu to sort

by type, reviewer, and so on. Display

or hide pop-up comments and con-

nector lines, and change the align-

ment of pop-up comments.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Toolbar Icon Tool Name Use This Tool To . . .

Edit Spell Check Spell check comments and form

Comments and fields that you add to a PDF

Form Fields document.

Undo/Redo Click these two buttons when you

want to undo or redo a change

you’ve made to your PDF document.

Copy Copy a selection in the current PDF

document to the Clipboard.

How To How To Display all the items that appear on

the How To window on the pop-up

menu on the How To button.

Measuring Distance Accurately measure the distance

between two points. Click the first

point, move the mouse pointer to the

second point, and click again.

Distance is displayed in the

Properties toolbar.

Perimeter Accurately measure the distance

between multiple points by clicking

each point you want to measure and

double-clicking the last point.

Perimeter distance is displayed in the

Properties toolbar.

Area Accurately measure the area

between line segments that you

draw. Click at least two points and

then click the first point again. The

measurements (shown in square

inches) are displayed in the

Properties toolbar.

Tasks eBooks Open eBook topics in the How To

window, go online to purchase

eBooks, or display My Bookshelf by

choosing an option from this button’s

pop-up menu.

(continued)

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

Table 3-1 (continued)

Toolbar Icon Tool Name Use This Tool To . . .

Create PDF Open the Create PDF topics in the

How To window or actually create a

PDF from a file, multiple files, a Web

page, a clipboard image, or a scan-

ner by choosing an option from this

button’s pop-up menu.

Review and Open the Review and Comment

Comment topics in the How To window or use

reviewing tools on a PDF document

already in a review cycle by choos-

ing an option from this button’s pop-

up menu.

Secure Open the Security Topics in the How

To window or Restrict and Encrypt a

PDF document or view current secu-

rity settings by choosing an option

from this button’s pop-up menu.

Sign Open the Signature Topic in the How

To window or digitally Sign, Validate,

or Create a Blank Signature Field in a

PDF document by choosing an option

from this button’s pop-up menu.

Advanced Open the Advanced Editing Topics

Editing in the How To window or Hide or

Display the Advanced Editing toolbar

by choosing an option from this

button’s pop-up menu.

Properties Current Tool Edit properties of certain tools or

Bar objects, such as links, media clips,

measuring tools, and bookmarks.

Choose View➪Toolbars➪Properties

Bar to display the floating toolbar.

Zoom Loupe Displays the Loupe Tool window

where you view specific areas of

a PDF document under high magnifi-

cation using the mouse pointer to

navigate.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Getting all the help you need

The Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help guide, as it’s now called, is an interactive

hypertext application filled with pages and pages of information (it is called

complete, after all) that you can read online or print out for later and

repeated reference. To open the Adobe Acrobat 6 Help file, choose Help➪

Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help. If you have the How To window open, you can

also click the Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help link there.

As shown in Figure 3-11, when the Complete Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Help file

opens, it displays a Help splash page in a large document viewing area on the

right side of the window and a navigation pane on the left. The navigation

pane has three tabs at the top: Contents, Search, and Index. The Contents tab

is selected by default and contains a scrolling list of hyperlinked topics high-

lighted with blue arrows. Clicking one of these headings displays that topics

subheadings in the viewing window. Each topic also has an Expand button

(plus sign on Windows, triangle on Mac). Clicking the Expand button next to

a Contents topic expands the list to display subtopics that you can click to

display the topic information in the viewing window.

Figure 3-11:

The

Complete

Acrobat 6.0

Help

application

provides

online help

in Acrobat 6

and Adobe

Reader 6.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

The Search tab enables you to enter search criteria in the Find Pages

Containing text box. Enter your text and click the Search button. Result are

displayed in the scrolling list; you can then click a topic to display its infor-

mation in the viewing window.

Clicking the Index tab displays each letter, A through Z, with an Expand button

next to each letter. To find a help topic by name in the index, click the Expand

button in front of the first letter in your help topic to display all the topics in

the Help guide that start with that letter. For example, to find information on

using the Find command in Acrobat 6, click the Expand button next to the

letter F, and then locate the topic you want in the alphabetical list under F. You

can also use the Show drop-down list to choose one letter and display all the

topics for that one letter in the navigation pane. Clicking any of these links dis-

plays their information in the viewing window. Note that many of the articles

in the Help guide contain links that, when clicked, take you to related topics.

Viewing the How To window

Adobe Acrobat 6 and Adobe Reader 6 provide a new feature, called the How

To window, that supplements the Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help guide. The How

To window appears by default in Acrobat 6 on the right side of the screen,

but you have to manually open it in Adobe Reader 6 by choosing View➪

How To Window or by pressing F4.

The How To window, shown in Figure 3-12, gives you quick access to a number

of everyday tasks you might perform in Acrobat 6. For example, clicking the

Create PDF heading displays a list of links to every method of creating a PDF

file in Acrobat 6. The articles give you quick step-by-step procedures, and

related information links appear with many of the articles. At the top of the

window is a Home button that takes you back to the How To Homepage

(shown in the figure), Back and Forward buttons, and a Hide button to close

the display, thus giving you all the navigational tools you need to easily

browse the How To database.

You can change where the How To window appears on the screen by right-

clicking the How To title bar and choosing Docked Left, Docked Right, or

Hide. If you don’t want to see the How To window every time you launch

Acrobat 6, at the bottom of the How To window, deselect the Show How To

Window at Startup check box.

Every button on the Task toolbar (see the “Tons o’ toolbars!” section, earlier

in this chapter) has a How To topic on its pop-up menu that corresponds to

that task. If you’re in the middle of one of these tasks and need a quick refer-

ence guide, choose the How To command on the Task button pop-up menu to

open the How To window and get some quick help.

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Making quick use of keyboard shortcuts

Acrobat 6 is chock-full of keyboard shortcuts, which is great for a person

like me who likes having access to commands directly from the keyboard

(it really bugs me to have to keep taking my hand off the keyboard in order

to click menu commands and toolbar buttons). The Cheat Sheet card at the

front of this book is full of what I consider to be the most important keyboard

shortcuts when you use Acrobat 6 on a steady basis. Of course, the Cheat

Sheet is designed to tear out of the book so that you can put it up on your

bulletin board or keep it close by your keyboard as you work. In this section,

I want to say only a few words specifically about using the shortcut keys to

select the various tools from the Basic Tools, Zoom, Commenting, Advanced

Commenting, Advanced Editing, and Measuring toolbars, which you use

extensively in your routine editing of PDF files.

Someone at Adobe decided that the keystrokes documented in the following

table were confusing to new users, so the keyboard shortcuts are not activated

by default in Acrobat 6 (much to the chagrin of seasoned users, who might

think Adobe did away with this valuable feature when they first launch the new

Figure 3-12:

The How To

window

gives you

quick

access to

help with

everyday

tasks.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

program). To make these keystrokes work, choose Edit➪Preferences or press

Ctrl+K (Acrobat➪Preferences or Ô+K on Mac) to open the Preferences dialog

box. Choose General on the scroll list to display those options in the dialog

box, and in the Miscellaneous area, select the Use Single-Key Accelerators to

Access Tools check box, and then click OK. Note that when the feature is acti-

vated, the ToolTips that appear when you hover the mouse pointer over a

button tool show not only the tool’s name but its keystroke shortcut, or single-

key accelerators, as Adobe likes to call them. What’ll they think of next?

This section makes a lot more sense if you turn on single-key accelerators, as

described in the preceding paragraph. Table 3-2 shows you the shortcut key-

strokes for all the tools in Acrobat 6 that use this feature. Note how all the

shortcuts are single letters of the alphabet, used alone, without the usual com-

bination key like Ctrl, Alt, or Ô on Mac. Note, too, that not all of these letters

are mnemonic. (How’d they get N for the Pencil tool and S for the Note tool?)

Table 3-2 Shortcut Keys for Selecting Acrobat 6 Tools

Toolbar Tool Shortcut Key

Basic Tools Hand H

Select Text V

Snapshot G

Zoom Zoom In Z

Commenting Note S

Indicate Text Edits E

Stamp K

Highlight Text U

Advanced Commenting Rectangle D

Text Box X

Pencil N

Attach File J

Advanced Editing Select Object R

Article A

Crop C

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Toolbar Tool Shortcut Key

Link L

Form F

Movie M

TouchUp Text T

Measuring Distance B

To select any of the tools on these toolbars, type the letter of its shortcut key.

Acrobat then selects the tool on the toolbar (indicated by highlighting the

button as though it were depressed), and the mouse pointer changes to the

shape associated with the tool you selected. For example, the pointer changes

to a magnifying glass when you select the Zoom In or Zoom Out tool, and it

changes to an I-beam when you select the TouchUp Text tool.

Many of the Acrobat toolbar buttons have hidden tools that you can view and

select by clicking on their associated pop-up menus. When the single-key

accelerators feature is turned on, you can cycle through and select these dif-

ferent tools by holding down the Shift key and pressing the keystroke shortcut

for the primary (unhidden) tool. For example, the Select Text tool also has the

hidden tools Select Table and Select Image. Press V to choose the Select Text

tool or hold down the Shift key and tap the letter V to toggle through all three

tools in the order that they appear on the pop-up menu. As you cycle through

the menu list, each tool icon is highlighted on the toolbar button to indicate

that tool is selected.

Chapter 3: Getting Acquainted with Acrobat 6

Part I: Presenting Acrobat and PDF Files

Part II

The Wealth of

Ways for Creating

PDF Files

In this part . . .

iven the universal nature of the Adobe PDF (Portable

Document Format), it should come as little surprise

to ﬁnd out that there are many ways to turn the docu-

ments created with the various software programs you

use into PDF ﬁles. This part of the book introduces you to

all the major ways to convert both your electronic and

paper documents to PDF ﬁles.

In Chapter 4, you encounter the most common ways to

turn your electronic documents into PDF ﬁles. This chap-

ter includes vital information on the most common ways

to convert to PDF, how to customize the settings used in

making these conversions, as well as how to automate

the conversion process. In Chapter 5, you ﬁnd out how to

turn Microsoft Ofﬁce documents into PDF ﬁles using the

PDFMaker 6.0 utility (automatically installed in Word,

Excel, and PowerPoint when you install Acrobat 6 on your

computer). In Chapter 6, you discover how to convert

paper documents into PDF ﬁles by scanning them into

Acrobat 6. In Chapter 7, you ﬁnd out how to capture Web

pages on your company’s intranet or the Internet and

save them as PDF ﬁles (for later viewing and printing in

Acrobat or Adobe Reader). Finally, in Chapter 8, you ﬁnd

out how to print all or part of the PDF ﬁles that you make

using these many methods.

Chapter 4

Distilling PDF Files

In This Chapter

 Understanding the common ways to create PDF files

 Creating PDF files that fill a variety of functions

 Manually distilling PDF files in Acrobat 6

 Customizing the Distiller settings

 Automating the distilling of PDF files

 Using the Adobe PDF Online service to create PDF files

DF files don’t grow on trees, but oftentimes it does seem as though they

are produced by every piece of software that you use. The first problem

is understanding how exactly to go about producing PDF versions of your

files, given the software you’re using. (See Chapter 5 for details on producing

PDFs with Microsoft Office programs and Chapter 10 for details on Acrobat

6’s new ability to convert AutoCAD and Microsoft Visio files to PDF.) Then,

after you do understand the software’s procedure, you still have to under-

stand what settings to apply in the Acrobat Distiller utility to produce exactly

the type of PDF file you want.

In this chapter, you find out how to use the Acrobat Distiller (the Distiller util-

ity is included as part of the Acrobat 6 program) to produce the type of PDF

files you need. You also discover how to customize the basic settings and

automate the PDF distillation process.

Common Ways to Create PDF Files

With the advent of Acrobat 6, Adobe Systems has significantly simplified the

process of creating PDF files. In the good old days of PDF production (in other

words, when Acrobat 3 was the latest version), you had little choice but to

print a PostScript file from whatever application program you were using to

create the file to be converted to PDF. You then had to run this file through the

Acrobat Distiller.

Of course, you can still perform this two-part process with Acrobat 6 (which is

generally referred to as manually distilling the PDF file), and, in fact, the rest of

this chapter is devoted to giving you the information you need to create PDF

files using this good old-fashioned way. You need to know how to do manual

PDF distilling primarily because it gives you the most freedom over the settings

that produce exactly the type of PDF file you need. Also, in understanding how

to customize the settings in the Acrobat Distiller, you almost always under-

stand how to customize the distilling settings available in your native applica-

tion software in order to produce precisely the PDF file you require.

Put away that PDFWriter!

Up through version 4 of Acrobat, Adobe distributed a utility called PDFWriter

(no longer automatically installed in Acrobat 6) that enabled you to create

PDF files from popular application software such as Word, Excel, and

PowerPoint in Office 97. Be aware that the PDF files created with the

PDFWriter are PDF 1.2 files, meaning that they lack all the current quality and

security features offered in the PDF 1.4 (generated by Acrobat 5) and 1.5 files

(generated by Acrobat 6).

The PDFWriter is suitable only for the creation of the simplest, text-only PDF

documents, completely lacking in interactivity, and please don’t use it to pro-

duce prepress PDF documents because its 1.2 file format provides no support

for embedded EPS graphics (which can really mess up your workflow).

Instead, use either the Acrobat Distiller described in this chapter or, if you’re

converting Microsoft Office documents, the PDFMaker utility that’s automati-

cally installed with Acrobat 6 (described in Chapter 5).

Using Create PDF in Acrobat 6

Acrobat 6 includes a File menu command, Create PDF, that you can use to open

files saved in the HTML file format (that is, as Web pages) and simple text files,

as well as a number of common graphics file formats including bitmap (

*.bmp

or *.rle), CompuServe GIF (*.gif), JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg, or *.jpe), PCX

(

*.pcx), PNG (*.png), and TIFF files (*.tif). Note that Acrobat 6 can now

open Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, MS Visio, and MS Project files using the Create

PDF command as well.

To open one of these file types as a PDF file, follow these steps:

1. Launch Acrobat 6 and then choose File➪Create PDF➪From File.

The Open dialog box appears.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

2. Browse to the folder that contains the text, HTML, or graphics file or

files that you want to open as PDF files in Acrobat 6, and then click

their file icons.

To restrict the file listing in a folder to just files of the type you want to

open in Acrobat, click the file type in the Files of Type drop-down list.

To select multiple files in the folder you open in the Open dialog box,

Ctrl+click each one or, if they’re listed sequentially in the list, click the

first one and then Shift+click the last one.

3. Click the Open button in the Open dialog box.

As soon as you click the Open button, Acrobat opens the selected files as PDF

files (indicated by the appearance of the

.pdf extension after the original file-

name in the Acrobat title bar). To save a file opened as a PDF in its new format,

choose File➪Save to open the Save As dialog box, and then click the Save

button. To change the folder where the file is saved, select the new folder on

the Save In drop-down list. To save the file with a new filename, select the File

Name text box and edit the original filename (leaving the

.pdf file extension)

before you click the Save button.

In Windows, you can convert any of the file types listed at the beginning of this

section to PDF from the desktop, a folder window, or Explorer by simply right-

clicking the file and choosing Convert to Adobe PDF on the context menu.

Options for converting the file and e-mailing it to someone or combining a

group of selected files in Acrobat are also provided on the context menu.

Acrobat 6 enables you to open and convert multiple files to PDF using the

Create PDF commands on the File menu. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Choose File➪Create PDF➪From Multiple Files to open the Create PDF

from Multiple Documents dialog box.

2. Click the Browse button in the Add Files area, choose the file(s) you

want to combine in a new PDF document in the Open dialog box that

appears, and then click the Add button.

Files can be selected individually or grouped in the Open dialog box.

When you click the Add button, selected files appear in the Files to

Combine list box on the right side of the Create PDF from Multiple

Documents dialog box.

3. Select a file(s) in the Files to Combine list box and use the Remove,

Move Up, or Move Down buttons in the Arrange Files area to specify the

order in which selected files appear in the converted PDF document.

4. To append all open PDF documents to your multiple files selection in

a new PDF document, select the Include All Open PDF Documents

check box.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

5. To append the recent PDF files listed on the File menu to your multi-

ple files selection in a new PDF document, select the Include Most

Recent List of Files to Combine check box.

6. Click OK to create a new multiple document PDF file.

Converting graphics files to PDFs by choosing File➪Create PDF➪From File

does not produce the same quality PDF graphics files as distilling them from

their native application or manually distilling them with the Acrobat Distiller.

Reserve this method for Windows graphics that you can’t convert into

PostScript files or that you intend to use only in online PDF documents or

files that will be printed only on in-house printers. Never use this quick-and-

dirty method to produce PDF files that you intend to send out for profes-

sional printing; they lack the encoded PostScript necessary to produce the

quality that prepress demands.

Using the Acrobat 6 Distiller

You use the PDF file Distiller that launches from within Acrobat 6 to convert

only two kinds of files: Those saved as PostScript files (usually printed to

PostScript using the application’s Print command) or those saved in the EPS

(Encapsulated PostScript) file format. This means that before you can use the

Acrobat Distiller, you must have the files you want to convert saved in one of

these two file formats.

Assuming that you have your files readied in these formats, you perform the

following general steps to turn them into PDFs:

1. Launch the Acrobat 6 program.

2. Choose Advanced➪Acrobat Distiller to launch the Acrobat Distiller.

The Acrobat Distiller program window appears, as shown in Figure 4-1.

3. In the Adobe PDF Settings section, select the name of the job option

that uses the desired distilling settings from the Default Settings drop-

down list.

(See the following sections, “To every PDF there is a purpose . . .” for

details on the default Adobe PDF settings, and “Making Adobe PDF set-

tings of your very own” for details on creating customized Adobe PDF

settings.)

4. Choose File➪Open from the Acrobat Distiller menus or press Ctrl+O

(

ÔÔ

+O on the Mac).

The Acrobat Distiller - Open PostScript File dialog box opens.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

5. In the Acrobat Distiller - Open PostScript File dialog box, browse to

the folder that contains the PostScript or EPS file that you want to con-

vert to PDF, click the file icon, and then click the Open button.

If you’re distilling an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file rather than a

plain old PostScript file, don’t forget to select EPS files rather than the

default PostScript files in the Files of Type (Show on the Mac) drop-

down list.

As soon as you click the Open button in the Open PostScript File dialog box,

the Acrobat Distiller begins distilling the selected PostScript file. The pro-

gram displays the progress of the file distillation in the Progress bar in the

middle of the Acrobat Distiller window. If you discover that you’re distilling

the wrong file, click the Cancel Job button. If, for any reason, you need to

pause the distilling job, click the Pause button in the Acrobat Distiller. When

you’re ready to complete the job, click the Resume button (which replaces

Pause as soon as you pause the job).

After the Acrobat Distiller finishes the job, it displays the destination of the

resulting PDF file, the name of the source PostScript file, and the time it took

to do this distillation job in a list box at the bottom of the Acrobat Distiller

window (see Figure 4-2). Distiller automatically saves the new PDF file using

the same name and location as the PostScript source file.

If you want Distiller to prompt you for a new name and destination folder for

your newly converted PDF file, you can specify that in the Acrobat Distiller

Preferences dialog box. Choose File➪Preferences on the Acrobat Distiller

menus or press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac). In the Acrobat Distiller Preferences

dialog box, select the Ask for PDF File Destination check box, and then click

Figure 4-1:

The Acrobat

Distiller

program

window as it

appears

when you

launch it in

Acrobat 6.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

OK. After selecting this check box, upon the completion of each PDF distilla-

tion you perform with the Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat will automatically open

the Specify PDF File Name dialog box so that you can edit the filename in the

File Name text box and navigate to a new destination folder if so desired.

Upon completion of a distilling job, the Acrobat Distiller window remains open

so that you can repeat this process and distill more PostScript files if you wish.

When you’re finished distilling files, close the Acrobat Distiller by clicking its

Close button or by choosing the File➪Exit (Quit on the Mac) command from its

menus. After closing the Acrobat Distiller, you can open the distilled PDF file

and check out the results in Acrobat 6 by choosing File➪Open.

If you don’t already have an authoring program that creates EPS or PostScript

files, such as Adobe Illustrator, installed on your computer, you can simply

double-click an EPS or PostScript file to open Acrobat Distiller and automati-

cally convert a file to PDF. The conversion occurs in a single instance so the

default settings in Acrobat Distiller are automatically applied. If you have a

bunch of PostScript files to convert, you can easily batch process them by

selecting all the files you want to distill in a folder and double-clicking them.

Note that if you do have Illustrator or similar program installed, you just

open all the selected files in that program.

To every PDF there is a purpose . . .

The six preset Adobe PDF settings in the Acrobat Distiller represent what

Adobe considers to be the optimal distilling settings for creating the basic

types of PDF files:

Figure 4-2:

Statistics

on the

completed

distilling job

appear in

the list box

at the

bottom of

the Acrobat

Distiller

program

window.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

 Standard: This is the default preset job option that is automatically used

in distilling your file unless you select one of the other preset options or

a custom setting of your own design. Use this job option to generate PDF

files for business documents that will be printed and read. This job option

converts all colors to sRGB, downsamples images to 150 dpi, and provides

Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4 file) compatibility.

 High Quality: Use this job option to generate PDF files with higher

image resolution for improved printing quality. For example, use the

High Quality setting for a document containing photographic images (as

opposed to clipart) that you want to print on an in-house laser printer or

archive on CD-ROM. This job option leaves all colors unchanged, down-

samples images to 300 dpi but provides high-quality JPEG compression,

and embeds all fonts used in the source document. This job option (as

well as PDF/X1a, PDF/X3, and Press Quality) produces PDF files of the

largest file size. When converting especially large and graphically com-

plex documents, you may end up generating enormous PDF files that are

impossible to deliver to your service bureau (in such cases, you have to

split the document up into smaller, separate files that, once distilled,

you can successfully send).

 PDF/X1a: Use this job option to generate a PDF that’s destined for a pro-

fessional prepress work flow and that has the same settings as High

Quality. PDF/X1a is an ISO (International Organization for Standardization)

standard for digital graphic content exchange used in the printing indus-

try. This setting creates a report and produces a PDF file only if it is com-

pliant with the PDF/X1a standard. You can get more information about this

feature by choosing Help➪Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help to open the help

guide, clicking the Search tab, and typing About PDF/X in the Find Pages

Containing text box.

 PDF/X3: Use this job option to generate a PDF that’s destined for a pro-

fessional prepress work flow and that has the same settings as High

Quality. PDF/X3 is an ISO standard for digital graphic content exchange

used in the printing industry. This setting creates a report and produces

a PDF file only if it is compliant with the PDF/X3 standard. You can get

more information about this feature by choosing Help➪Complete

Acrobat 6.0 Help to open the help guide, clicking the Search tab, and

typing About PDF/X in the Find Pages Containing text box.

 Press Quality: Use this job option to generate prepress PDF files are

intended for high-end printing by a professional printer or service

bureau. This job option leaves all colors unchanged and downsamples

images to 300 dpi, but provides high-quality JPEG compression and

embeds all fonts used in the source document.

 Smallest File Size: Use this job option to generate PDF files to be posted

on your online Web site on the Internet, a corporate intranet, or a net-

work server for online reading or for quick downloading. This job option

converts all colors to RGB, downsamples images to 100 dpi, and does

not allow font embedding. Of the six presets, this job option produces

PDF files of the smallest file size.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

You can use any of these six default Adobe PDF settings as is or as the start-

ing point for creating customized Adobe PDF settings that take into consider-

ation special online display or printing parameters that you need to meet.

The Acrobat Distiller retains the distilling settings last used even after you

close the program so that they are in effect the next time you use the Acrobat

Distiller. This means that if, for example, you distill a file using the Press

Quality job option, Press Quality will be selected as the new default preset

(instead of the original Standard default). This makes it imperative that you

check the Adobe PDF Settings field each time you open the Acrobat Distiller

before you set about distilling files with it. Otherwise, you may end up wast-

ing time distilling a huge file ready for professional printing with the Press

Quality preset when you only needed to generate a smaller, compact file for

your Web site with the Smallest File Size preset.

Automatically displaying your

distilled file in Acrobat

Normally, when you manually distill a PDF file with the Acrobat Distiller, the

program does not automatically display the new PDF file in Acrobat 6. If you

want to automatically check out the results of each distillation you perform

with Acrobat Distiller, you need to select the View PDF When Using Distiller

check box in the Acrobat Distiller - Preferences dialog box.

To open this dialog box, shown in Figure 4-3, choose File➪Preferences from

the Acrobat Distiller menu or press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac). Then select the

View PDF When Using Distiller check box and click OK. After selecting this

check box, upon the completion of each PDF distillation you perform with the

Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat automatically closes the Acrobat Distiller window

and displays the newly distilled PDF in the Acrobat 6 Document window.

Figure 4-3:

Changing

the Output

options in

the Acrobat

Distiller -

Preferences

dialog box.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

As you see in Figure 4-3, the Output Options section in the Acrobat Distiller -

Preferences dialog box also includes an option called Ask to Replace Existing

PDF File. Select this option to make sure that the Acrobat Distiller always

prompts you if you are about to inadvertently replace an existing PDF file

with the one you’ve just distilled with the Acrobat Distiller. Note that the

Distiller program won’t allow you to select both the Ask for PDF File

Destination and the Ask to Replace Existing PDF File check boxes in the

Acrobat Distiller - Preferences dialog box. When you click the Ask for PDF File

Destination check box, the program immediately grays out the Ask to

Replace Existing PDF File check box. The assumption is that if you have the

Acrobat Distiller prompt you for the destination of the new PDF, you will

notice any filename conflict in the process of selecting the file’s destination

folder.

Making Adobe PDF settings

of your very own

The best way to go about creating your own Adobe PDF settings for distilling

PDF files is to select the preset job option with the settings closest to the

ones you want to customize in the Acrobat Distiller, and then make appropri-

ate changes to individual settings. For example, to create a custom job option

for distilling PDF files for pamphlets with a special trim size and binding that

will be professionally printed by a service bureau using a particular type-

setter, you would start by selecting Press Quality in the Default Settings drop-

down list under the Adobe PDF Settings area in the Acrobat Distiller window.

Then you would open the Press Quality- Adobe PDF Settings dialog box by

choosing Settings➪Edit Adobe PDF Settings on the Acrobat Distiller menus or

by pressing Ctrl+E (Ô+E on the Mac).

Changing the General options

When you first open the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box in the Acrobat

Distiller, the dialog box opens with the General tab selected, as shown in

Figure 4-4. Note that the particular settings selected on the General tab (and

the four other tabs in the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box, for that matter)

reflect the optimal values assigned to whatever preset job option is selected

at the time you open the dialog box (this being the Press Quality job option

in the example shown in Figure 4-4).

You then begin customizing the values for whatever settings need changing in

your custom job option. On the General tab, these settings include:

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

 Description: Use this text box to type a description of your custom dis-

tiller settings. The entered description is displayed in the Acrobat Distiller

dialog box when you select your custom setting from the Default Settings

drop-down list.

 Compatibility: Specifies the PDF file version for the final distilled docu-

ment and thereby its level of Adobe Reader compatibility. You have a

choice between Acrobat 6.0 (PDF 1.5), Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4), Acrobat 4.0

(PDF 1.3), and Acrobat 3.0 (PDF 1.2). When creating a job option for dis-

tilling prepress PDFs, stay with the default value of Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4)

unless your service bureau specifically tells you that it can handle PDF

1.5 files, or if you need the highest level of file encryption (PDF 1.4 and

1.5 files support 128-bit file encryption — the highest level of security

available). Don’t select Acrobat 3.0 (PDF 1.2) unless you are creating a

custom job option for online files that requires Acrobat Reader 3.0 com-

patibility to reach the widest possible audience.

 Object Level Compression: Specifies that small objects in a PDF files,

such as tags, be consolidated so that they can be efficiently compressed.

Choose Off to not compress a document’s structural information. The

resulting PDF file will retain accessibility features and the ability to navi-

gate and interact with bookmarks using Acrobat 5 and later. Choose Tags

Only to compress the document’s structural information. The resulting

PDF can be viewed and printed using Adobe 5, but accessibility, naviga-

tion, and bookmarks are visible only in Acrobat 6.

Figure 4-4:

The options

on the

General tab

of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

 Auto-Rotate Pages: When selected, automatically rotates the pages of

the distilled PDF file to match the orientation of the text. You can choose

to apply the Individually to Pages or the Collectively by File setting.

 Binding: Specifies how pages and thumbnails are displayed in the Adobe

Reader when the two-page and continuous page viewing options are

selected. This setting has no effect on the printed binding edge. You have

a choice between the Left option (the default) used for all European lan-

guages, and the Right option for this setting.

 Resolution: Specifies the print resolution to be used in the distilled PDF

file when this setting is not specified by PostScript commands in the

source file. Most of the time, you can leave the default 600 dpi (dots per

inch) setting as is. If you change the value to match that of the printer

with which the PDF file will be printed, you must enter a value in its text

box that is between 72 and 4000 dpi.

 Page Range: Specifies the range of pages in the source document to be

distilled in the final PDF file. The default setting is the All radio button.

To set a range of pages, select the From radio button and then enter

starting and ending page values in the From and To text boxes.

 Embed Thumbnails: Creates thumbnail images and embeds them as part

of the distilled file for use in navigating the file’s text in Adobe Reader.

Note that Adobe Reader 6 automatically creates thumbnails whether or

not this option is selected. Users of earlier versions of Adobe Reader will

not have them unless this option is selected. Be aware, however, that

embedding thumbnails does increase the PDF file size, especially for

documents with many pages.

 Default Page Size: Specifies the size of the pages in the final PDF docu-

ment when this information is not specified by the PostScript commands

in the source file. By default, the Width and Height values for the Default

Page Size setting are displayed in points. When modifying the page size

values in the Width and Height text boxes, be sure to select the appro-

priate units (Picas, Inches, or Centimeters) in the Units drop-down list.

Changing the Images options

The settings on the Images tab of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box, shown in

Figure 4-5, determine in large part both the quality and the size of the distilled

PDF file. As you can see in Figure 4-5, the Images settings for a job option fall

into three broad categories: Color Images, Grayscale Images, and Monochrome

Images.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

Note that when modifying the Color Images, Grayscale Images, and Mono-

chrome Images settings, you have the ability to change the type of down-

sampling and the rate, as well as the type of compression (and in terms of

color and grayscale images, the quality as well). Downsampling refers to a

process of applying a mathematical algorithm to a bunch of pixels in the

images to determine how to combine them into fewer (but larger) pixels at a

new resolution; in other words, changing the resolution (in pixels per inch) of

an image to make the file size smaller and the print quality lower. Compression

refers to the applying of a mathematical algorithm to the pixels in your

images in order to eliminate redundant pixels. There are two types of com-

pression: Lossless, which results in no loss of image integrity, and lossy, which

removes pixels from the image that can’t be retrieved, and thus results in

some degradation of the image quality. In Acrobat, you apply compression

and downsampling to bitmap images such as photos. If you are converting

text and line art (vector graphics), you use only compression.

In terms of the type of downsampling applied to bitmap images, you have the

following choices:

 Bicubic Downsampling To: This is the default option, and it uses a

weighted average to come up with a new pixel color value at a new reso-

lution. This type of downsampling takes the longest but gives the best

results for high-end images with fine color gradations.

Figure 4-5:

The options

on the

Images tab

of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

 Average Downsampling To: This option averages the color pixel

values in a particular area to replace them with a new color value at

a new resolution.

 Subsampling To: This option uses the color pixel value of a pixel at the

center of a particular region as the replacement value for the pixels in

that region.

When using any of these types, you must specify a threshold value that tells

the Acrobat Distiller which images to downsample and gives the lowest

image resolution to which they can be resampled.

In terms of the type of compression for color and grayscale images, you have

a choice among the following options:

 Automatic: This is the default option, and it leaves the decision as to

which type of compression (JPEG or ZIP) to apply to the images in the

distilled file to Acrobat Distiller. This is the best setting in cases where

you have documents that are a mixture of bitmap and vector graphics.

 JPEG: This option is a lossy compression scheme best used for photos

in which image data is analyzed in 8 x 8 pixel blocks and redundant

pixels are permanently removed.

 ZIP: This option is a lossless compression best used on text and line art

or vector graphics in which the image size is reduced while the image

integrity is preserved.

When you choose the Automatic or JPEG option for compression, you can set

the Quality setting to Maximum (the default), High, Medium, Low, or Minimum.

Note that the higher the setting on this list (with Maximum at the top), the

better the image quality, the less the compression, and the larger the final file

size. The lower the setting on this list (with Minimum at the bottom), the lower

the image quality, the higher the compression, and the smaller the file size.

When you choose ZIP compression, you can choose between 8-bit (the default)

and 4-bit. Always select the type that is equal to or greater than the bit depth of

your images, or you will lose image integrity (note that 4-bit images have 16

colors or shades of gray and 8-bit images have 256 or more colors or shades

of gray).

For monochrome (that is, black and white) images in the source file, you can

choose between ZIP (the default), two types of CCITT (Consulting Committee

on International Telephony and Telegraph) developed for compressing FAX

transmissions, and Run Length (or RLE for Run-Length Encoding) developed

for compressing images with large separate areas of black and white. All of

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

these Monochrome compression settings are of the lossless type and are

pretty comparable in terms of size and quality, so in most cases, you can stay

with the ZIP default.

The last setting that you can change in the Monochrome Images area is the

Anti-Alias to Gray setting. Select this check box to have the Acrobat Distiller

smooth jagged lines (also known as jaggies) on text and black-and-white

images. When you check this option, Acrobat Distiller lets you select the bit

depth for the anti-aliasing (that is, the levels of gray to be generated): 4-bit

(the default) for 2 levels, 8-bit for 4 levels, or 8-bit for 256 levels of gray.

Changing the Fonts options

The options on the Fonts tab of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box (shown in

Figure 4-6) enable you to determine which fonts are embedded in the distilled

PDF file. By default, all presets (except for the Smallest File Size preset) auto-

matically check the Embed All Fonts check box. When this option is checked,

Acrobat Distiller includes all the fonts used in the source document as part

of the final PDF file. This is essential when creating a custom job option for

distilling prepress PDF files, because nothing can mess up your artwork or

upset your service bureau more than delivering PDF files without the neces-

sary fonts.

To help cut down on the bloat caused by embedding fonts in the final PDF file,

the Fonts tab has the Subset Embedded Fonts When Percent of Characters Is

Figure 4-6:

The options

on the Fonts

tab of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Less Than check box that, when checked, tells Acrobat Distiller to embed only

the characters in a font that are actually used in the source document. This

means that if your source document uses only 15 characters in Bodoni Bold,

only the PostScript commands for generating those 15 characters, and not for

the entire character set, are included in the final PDF file.

The percentage field to the immediate right of this Subset Embedded Fonts

check box enables you to set the threshold percentage at which the entire

character set is embedded. The 100% default setting means that the only time

that all the characters are embedded is when they are all needed (and you

should leave this percentage at 100% whenever you use the Subset

Embedded Fonts option).

Directly beneath the Embed All Fonts and the Subset Embedded Fonts check

boxes, you find a When Embedding Fails drop-down list box that tells Acrobat

Distiller what warning to display or action to take if, for some reason, font

embedding fails while distilling a PDF file (usually because the font is not

installed on the computer on which the job option is being used).

If you intend to create prepress PDF files with the custom job option you’re

building, be sure to select Cancel Job on the When Embedding Fails drop-

down list so that no prepress PDF file can be created without the necessary

fonts. If you don’t mind that Acrobat or Adobe Reader does some font substi-

tution in the final file, you can select the Ignore option. If you want to be

informed each time font embedding fails during a distilling job, select the

Warn and Continue option instead.

If you prefer to handpick which fonts are to be embedded during the PDF file

distilling and which are not, you use the Embedding section of the Fonts tab

instead of the Embed All Fonts option. To indicate which fonts to embed,

select the location of the fonts in the Font Source drop-down list (by default,

this is set to

C:\Windows\Fonts\, which displays all the fonts installed on

your computer). Click the name of each font you want to specify in the list

box on the left to select it, and then click either the Add button to the left of

the Always Embed list box to add the font there, or click the Add button to

the left of the Never Embed list box to put the selected font there.

To ensure that font embedding doesn’t fail when distilling a file with your

custom job option, make sure to list all the possible locations where fonts are

installed on your system (including networked drives if fonts are stored on a

special volume). To do this, choose Settings➪Font Locations on the Acrobat

Distiller menu (upon closing the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box) or press

Ctrl+L (Ô+L on the Mac), and then use the Add button in the Acrobat Distiller -

Font Locations dialog box (see Figure 4-7) to select and add all the font folders

on your computer system that should be used in font embedding.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

Not all fonts you install on your computer give you the license (that is, the

legal right) to embed them in the PDF files you distill. For example, Adobe lets

you embed the fonts you license from it with impunity. Agfa/Monotype, on the

other hand, does not. You need to check the license that came with the fonts

you installed. Also, when you intend to send the PDF file out to a service

bureau or professional printer, check with those folks, because they may have

special standing licenses that cover the fonts you’re using in a document

they’re printing so that you can embed the fonts without violating the law!

You may be wondering how you can tell which fonts have been embedded

and which, if any, have been substituted when viewing a PDF file in Acrobat 6.

To check on which fonts are embedded in the PDF document you’re viewing,

open the Document Fonts dialog box by choosing File➪Document Properties

Figure 4-7:

Specifying

all the font

folders

on the

computer

system to

aid in font

embedding.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Font substitution 101

If you don’t embed certain fonts in the final PDF

document, then the Acrobat Distiller does the

best it can at font substitution using what’s

known as the Multiple Master typeface. In font

substitution, Acrobat Distiller matches serif fonts

with serif fonts and sans-serif with sans-serif

fonts and tries to pick available substitute fonts

whose use have little or no impact on the line and

page layout of the final document. It does

an okay job with substituting straightforward,

non-decorative fonts and a less-than-stellar job

with substituting those highly decorative or

script-type fonts with which you just love to

embellish your documents. So if your document

uses simpler fonts, you can get away with not

embedding the fonts. But if you’re using decora-

tive or script-type fonts, you should embed the

fonts to guarantee the best results in the final

PDF document.

or by pressing Ctrl+D (Ô+D on the Mac). When you select this command, the

Document Properties dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 4-8. Click Fonts in

the scroll box on the left to display a listing of all fonts that are embedded in

the file in the viewing window on the right.

The easiest way to spot substitute fonts in the file you’re viewing in Acrobat

is to toggle off the Advanced➪Use Local Fonts command (press Ctrl+Shift+Y

on Windows or Ô+Shift+Y on the Mac). When you turn this setting off,

Acrobat Distiller ignores the local fonts on your computer and then displays

the substitute fonts. Any fonts that the program can’t substitute are indicated

with bullets, and, of course, if all the fonts are embedded in the file, the PDF

document is not affected by turning this setting off.

Changing the Color options

The Color tab on the Press - Adobe PDF Settings dialog box (shown in

Figure 4-9) enables you to specify how colors are managed in the distilling

process and, most importantly, whether or not you want the colors in the

source document converted into what graphic designers call another color

space (that is, converted to the sRGB — or Red, Green, Blue — model used

by computer monitors to display colors).

Figure 4-8:

Examining

the

embedded

fonts in a

PDF file that

you’re

viewing in

Acrobat 6.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

As you would expect, when building a custom job option using either the

Standard or Smallest File Size preset, the Acrobat Distiller automatically

selects Convert All Colors to sRGB in the Color Management drop-down list.

This is because both of these presets are optimized for on-screen viewing

instead of printing. When you build a custom job option using the Press

Quality preset, the Leave Color Unchanged option is automatically selected

so that no CMYK colors are changed during file distillation.

Figure 4-9:

The options

on the Color

tab of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Color 101

Color and color management are about the most

obtuse of topics (they must give Ph.D.s in the

field). In a nutshell, monitors produce colors

additively using the RGB, or Red, Green, and

Blue, model (just like your color TV), and color

printing produces colors subtractively using the

CMYK model that combines Cyan, Magenta,

Yellow, and BlacK inks. The problem lies in recti-

fying the large gamut of colors in the RGB model

with the more limited and quite different range of

the CMYK model. Enter ICC (International Color

Consortium) color management, which profiles

the range of colors that every device involved in

the displaying and printing of colors can produce

so that colors are displayed or printed consis-

tently across all devices. To discover more about

the wonderful world of color and color manage-

ment, go to

http://studio.adobe.com/

learn/tips/phstamecmb/main.html

and

then follow the links to the articles on color and

color management. Note that you may need to fill

out a simple registration form to access Adobe’s

Expert Center, but it’s well worth the effort.

The rest of the options on the Color tab of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box

should be approached with great caution. Always check with your service

bureau partners before making modifications to these settings, such as

selecting a color management settings file from the Settings File drop-down

list (None is the default setting for all six presets), selecting one of the tag

options in the Color Management drop-down list (Tag Everything for Color

Management or Tag Only Images for Color Management), or, for heaven’s

sake, fooling with any of the Device Dependent options.

Changing the Advanced options

As the name implies, the Advanced tab of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box

(shown in Figure 4-10) contains a bunch of check box options, most of which,

I’m happy to report, you won’t ever have to monkey with. In case you’re the

least bit curious,

Prologue.ps and Epilogue.ps, just as their names imply,

are the beginning and ending files in between which is sandwiched the file with

the PostScript codes that actually produce the text and images in your docu-

ment. DSC, by the way, is an acronym for Document Structuring Conventions

files. These are the types of files created by QuarkXPress, and they must be

converted into a PostScript or EPS file before distilling, or else the Acrobat

Distiller will burp something silly.

Changing the PDF/X options

The PDF/X tab options of the Adobe PDF Setting dialog box, shown in Figure

4-11, are even more arcane than the Advanced tab options to those (like me)

who don’t jump up and down for joy that Adobe has finally provided this

Figure 4-10:

The options

on the

Advanced

tab of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

functionality in Acrobat 6. Suffice it to say that these options enable you to

specify criteria that Distiller uses when checking to see if your PDF file is

compliant with PDF/X1a or PDF/X3 standards. If your PDF is not destined for

high-resolution print production, fagetaboudit! On the other hand, if this sub-

ject makes you tingle all over, you can get more information about this fea-

ture by choosing Help➪Complete Acrobat 6.0 Help to open the help guide,

clicking the Search tab, and then typing About PDF/X in the Find Pages

Containing text box.

Saving your custom job option

When you finish making your modifications on the various tabs of the Adobe

PDF Settings dialog box, you are ready to save your custom job option. Click

the Save As button on the bottom left of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box and

then edit the default filename in the Save Adobe PDF Settings As dialog box. Be

careful not to modify the

.joboptions file extension in Acrobat Distiller for

Windows (you may not see file extensions if you’re using Windows XP) and

don’t change the folder where it’s saved (it needs to be in the Settings folder;

otherwise, the Acrobat Distiller won’t know where to find it).

After editing the filename, click the Save button and then click the Close

button in the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box to close it and return to the

Acrobat Distiller window. The name of the custom job option you just defined

now appears in the Default Settings drop-down list, along with the six presets,

so that you can select it anytime you need to in distilling your PDF files.

Figure 4-11:

The options

on the

PDF/X tab

of the

Standard -

Adobe PDF

Settings

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

To access a custom option that you need to delete, copy, or share with a

coworker, go to your computer’s operating system and open the Settings

folder found inside the Distiller (it’s misspelled as Distillr on Windows) folder

within the Acrobat 6.0 folder and find the Adobe PDF settings file there. You

can also Add or Delete custom job option settings by choosing the appropri-

ate command on the Settings menu in Acrobat Distiller.

Selecting security settings

for the new PDF file

Whenever you create a PDF file with the Acrobat Distiller, you can restrict

access to its contents by assigning a password to it, and, further, you can

control what other Acrobat and Adobe Reader users can and cannot do with

it by restricting the file permissions. To add these kinds of securities to a file

in Acrobat Distiller, choose Settings➪Security on the Acrobat Distiller menus

or press Ctrl+S (Ô+S on the Mac) to open the Acrobat Distiller - Security

dialog box, as shown in Figure 4-12. You do this after you designate which

Adobe PDF settings to use but before you specify which source file to distill.

To prevent anyone who doesn’t know the secret password from even being

able to open the final PDF document, select the Requires a Password to Open

Document check box and then enter the password in the Document Open

Password text box. To prevent anyone who has the password for opening the

document from changing the password and/or the permissions you set for

Figure 4-12:

Modifying

the options

in the

Acrobat

Distiller -

Security

dialog box.

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Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

the file, select the Use a Password to Restrict Printing and Editing of the

Document and Its Security Settings check box and enter a password in the

Permissions Password text box (make sure you don’t assign the same pass-

word here that you assigned for opening the PDF file).

When setting the permissions for the file, you have the following choices on

the drop-down lists:

 Printing Allowed: Select None to prevent users from printing any part of

the PDF document in either Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6. Choose Low

Resolution to enable users to print a lower quality PDF that prevents

reproduction of the PDF with different security settings. Note that this

setting is available only for PDF files compatible with PDF versions 1.4

or 1.5 where 128 bit encryption is supported. Choose High Resolution

to allow printing at any resolution, including high output commercial

printers.

 Changes Allowed: Choose None to prevent any changes in a PDF file or

any of the following self-explanatory allowed changes: inserting, delet-

ing, and rotation of pages, fill in of form fields and signing, commenting,

or any except extracting of pages.

Automated PDF files — would you

watch this folder for me?

Acrobat 6 makes it easy to automate the distilling of PostScript files (the print-

to-disk kind and the EPS kind). All you do is set up folders in your operating

system and then tell the Acrobat Distiller to keep an eye on them (such fold-

ers are thereafter known as watched folders). Whenever you copy a PostScript

file into the In subfolder (automatically created along with an Out subfolder)

within one these watched folders, the Acrobat Distiller utility automatically

distills the PostScript file into PDF as soon as the program looks at the con-

tents of the watched folder and determines the file’s ready for distilling.

When setting up watched folders, you determine which Adobe PDF settings

to use in distilling the PostScript files you place there. This means that you

can set up a Standard watched folder to which you assign the Standard job

option or one of your custom Adobe PDF settings based on its settings, as

well as a Press Quality watched folder to which you assign the Press Quality

PDF Setting or one of its variants. Then, to distill a PDF file using the Standard

settings, you just drop the PostScript file into the Standard watched folder.

To distill a PDF file using the Press Quality settings, you drop it into the Press

Quality watched folder.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

To set up watched folders on your hard drive, follow these steps:

1. In your operating system, create and name the folder you want watched.

2. Launch Acrobat 6, and then launch the Acrobat Distiller by choosing

Advanced➪Acrobat Distiller.

3. Choose Settings➪Watched Folders on the Acrobat Distiller menus or

press Ctrl+F (

ÔÔ

+F on the Mac).

The Watched Folders dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4-13.

4. Click the Add Folder button, and then in the Browse for Folder dialog

box that opens, select the folder that you created and click OK.

After the Browse for Folder dialog box closes, the folder you selected is

displayed in the list box of the Watched Folders dialog box. (Windows

XP displays the directory path of the watched folder.)

5. Click the folder you created to select it.

6. Click the Load Settings button to display the Load Adobe PDF Settings

dialog box. Click the name of the Adobe PDF Setting to be applied to

the files distilled in this folder, and then click the Open button.

Skip this step if you want to use the current Adobe PDF Setting specified

in Distiller.

Figure 4-13:

Setting up

watched

folders in

the Acrobat

Distiller -

Watched

Folders

dialog box.

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Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

7. If you want to modify any of the settings in the job option you selected

for the watched folder, click the Edit Settings button and modify the

settings as desired.

8. If you want to assign a password to the file or change the file permis-

sions, click the Edit Security button and assign these settings in the

Security dialog box.

(See the “Selecting security settings for the new PDF file” section, earlier

in this chapter, for details, and be sure to jot down your password and

store it in a safe place.)

9. To add another watched folder, click the Add Folder button again and

then repeat Steps 5 through 8.

10. By default, the Acrobat Distiller checks the watched folders you

define every ten seconds to see whether or not they contain a new

file to distill. To modify this interval (usually to lengthen it), click

inside the Check Watched Folders Every text box and enter the

number of seconds there.

11. By default, the Acrobat Distiller automatically moves all PostScript

files that it distills in your watched folders into a folder marked Out

(the PDF versions, however, remain in the watched folder). To have

the PostScript files deleted after they’re distilled, select the Deleted

option from the PostScript File Is drop-down list.

12. To have the Acrobat Distiller automatically clear processed files in the

watched folders that are so many days old, select the Delete Output

Files Older Than check box and then enter the number of days (10 by

default) in the Days text box.

13. After you finish adding watched folders and setting up their param-

eters, click OK.

The Watched Folders dialog box closes.

Note that watched folders are not designed to serve as the clearing house for

all of your PDF distilling across the entire corporate network. If your com-

pany needs to set up just such a clearing house, look into purchasing Adobe’s

Acrobat Distiller Server that is made for just that kind of bulk processing

using watched folders.

Making Acrobat Distiller your printer

You don’t have to launch the Acrobat Distiller in order to use it and its Adobe

PDF settings (including the custom Adobe PDF settings described earlier in

the “Making Adobe PDF settings of your very own” section) to distill your

PDF files. In fact, with certain application software, you don’t even need to

create a print-to-file PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript file in order to do

the distilling. All you have to do is select the Acrobat Distiller as your printer

in the program’s Print dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Figure 4-14 illustrates this process using Microsoft Word 2002 in Windows.

Select Adobe PDF as the printer from the Name drop-down list in the Word

Print dialog box. To select the type Adobe PDF settings (called Conversion

Settings in Microsoft programs), click the Properties button in the Print dialog

box and then click the Adobe PDF Settings tab in the Adobe PDF Document

Properties dialog box. Here, you can change the Adobe PDF settings to use

(Standard in this example) in the Default Settings drop-down list and even edit

these Adobe PDF settings by clicking the Edit button — see Chapter 5 for

details.

After selecting the Adobe PDF settings/conversion settings to use and clicking

the OK button to close the Adobe PDF Document Properties dialog box, you

have only to click the OK button in the Print dialog box to run the Acrobat

Distiller. Prior to distilling the file, the Acrobat Distiller opens a Save PDF File

As dialog box that enables you to rename and to relocate the new PDF file if

you wish (otherwise, the new file carries the same filename as the original

Word file with a

.pdf extension and is automatically saved on the desktop of

your computer). Then, after you click the Save button, the Acrobat Distiller

completes the distilling, finally opening the converted PDF file in Acrobat 6.0.

PDF Files Courtesy of Adobe PDF Online

Adobe Systems offers a subscription service available worldwide called

Create Adobe PDF Online that you can use to distill your source files. This

subscription service costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for creating an

unlimited number of PDF files (you can also sign up for a trial subscription to

this service that lets you create up to five PDF files for free).

Figure 4-14:

Making the

Acrobat

Distiller the

printer in

a program

like Word

causes the

Acrobat

Distiller

utility to run

in the

background

as it creates

the PDF file.

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Chapter 4: Distilling PDF Files

You can submit a wide variety of different file formats to be converted to PDF,

including HTML pages, Microsoft Office files, AutoCAD, Corel WordPerfect, and a

whole bunch of graphics formats, including all those created by Adobe’s many

graphics and page layout programs (basically all the file formats supported by

Acrobat 6). Note, however, that you can’t submit native QuarkXPress files for

converting (you need to convert them to PostScript files as you do with any

other unsupported file format). You can get a complete list of all the file formats

supported by the Create Adobe PDF Online service by visiting its Web site.

To sign up for this service or try it out free, go the following Web address:

http://createpdf.adobe.com

Note that for subscribers of this online service, there is a size limit of 100

pages per PDF file that you can upload for distilling, and these files must take

no longer than 15 minutes to convert. There are, however, no limits on the

amount of conversions that you can request. When submitting a file for dis-

tilling at the Create Adobe PDF Online Web site, shown in Figure 4-15, you can

select any of the six preset Adobe PDF settings (Standard, High Quality, Press

Quality, PDFX1a, PDFX3, or Smallest File Size), and you can also specify file

permissions (although you can’t customize the settings of the presets or

assign password protection to the file). When submitting a file for distilling,

you can also specify whether to have the final PDF file e-mailed to you or dis-

played in your Web browser.

Figure 4-15:

Using the

Create

Adobe PDF

Online

subscription

service to

create PDF

files.

106

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Chapter 5

Converting Microsoft Office

Documents

In This Chapter

 One-touch PDF files using the PDFMaker for Windows and Macintosh

 Automatically viewing converted PDF files in Acrobat

 E-mailing PDF files as soon as you make them

 Customizing the PDFMaker distilling settings

 Sending converted PDF documents for review

crobat 6 makes it a snap to convert Microsoft Office documents created

and saved in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file formats to PDF files so

that they can partake of all the benefits offered by this universal file format.

When you install Acrobat 6 on a Windows or Macintosh computer on which

these Microsoft Office applications (Office 2000 and XP on Windows and

Office X on Macintosh) have already been installed, Acrobat 6 enhances the

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint interface by adding three one-touch buttons

(the Convert to Adobe PDF, Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail, and Convert to

Adobe PDF and Send for Review buttons) to the Office toolbars, as well as an

Acrobat menu to the Office menus. Note that on Office X for Macintosh, you

don’t get the PDF reviewing features.

As you discover in this chapter, you can use the Convert to Adobe PDF but-

tons and the additional Acrobat menu to convert your native Microsoft Office

documents into PDF documents in a flash. The best thing about this enhanced

PDF conversion functionality is that you retain the ability to use any of the

preset Adobe PDF Settings (Standard, Press Quality, High Quality, PDF/X1a,

PDF/X3, and Smallest File Size) for distilling, as well as all the custom Adobe

PDF Settings you create. Even more importantly, you can have the paragraph

styles used in your Word documents automatically converted into bookmarks

in the resulting PDF documents, and on the Windows platform, you can have

your Word documents automatically converted into tagged PDF documents so

that their text can reflow when viewed in Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6.

Using PDFMaker in Microsoft

Office for Windows

With the release of Acrobat 6, gone are the days of having to select the

Acrobat Distiller as the name of your printer in the Print dialog box in Word,

Excel, or PowerPoint in order to convert the native Office document file

format into PDF (although you can still make perfectly good PDF files that

way). Figure 5-1 shows the two sets of controls that are automatically added

to the Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2000 and 2002 interfaces when

you install Acrobat 6 on your computer.

Convert to Adobe PDF

Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail

Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for Review

Figure 5-1:

Examining

the Acrobat

menu and

PDFMaker

6.0 toolbar

in Word

2002.

108

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

All you have to do in order to convert the current document open in Word,

Excel, or PowerPoint into a PDF document is follow these three simple steps:

1. Choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF in the Office application or

click the Convert to Adobe PDF button on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar.

An Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears, telling you that

PDFMaker needs to save the document before continuing and asking

whether or not you’d like to save the document and continue. Click Yes.

The Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box appears.

2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and

select the folder on your hard drive in which to save it.

If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same

name as its Office counterpart but with the

.pdf filename extension.

Note that by default, filename extensions aren’t displayed in Windows XP.

3. Click the Save button.

PDFMaker does the rest. As it converts the open document in the Office

application to PDF, an Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears to keep

you informed of the progress in converting the document’s text and graphics

in a progress bar. As soon as PDFMaker finishes the document conversion

indicated on the progress bar, this Acrobat alert dialog box disappears.

To view the PDF document you just converted, launch Acrobat 6, and then

choose File➪Open and select the newly converted PDF file (or better yet, open

the PDF file’s folder in the My Documents or the My Computer window and

then just drag its file icon onto the Acrobat 6.0 desktop shortcut). Figure 5-2

shows the Word document (that first made its appearance in the background

of Figure 5-1) as it looks in Acrobat 6 after its conversion to PDF.

Automatically viewing the converted

PDF in Acrobat

If you’d like to view the converted PDF file automatically in Acrobat 6 as soon

as the PDFMaker completes the Office-to-PDF file conversion in your Office

application, select the View Result in Acrobat option before you invoke the

Convert to Adobe PDF button or select the Convert to Adobe PDF item on the

Acrobat menu. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Change

Conversion Settings to open the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Select the

View Adobe PDF Result check box on the Settings tab and click OK.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

When the View Result in Acrobat option is turned on, PDFMaker converts the

current Office document, displays the Save PDF File As dialog box, and then

automatically launches Acrobat 6 (if it’s not already running in the back-

ground) and displays the converted PDF file as the current document in the

Acrobat Document window.

Converting and e-mailing PDF files

When converting an Office document to PDF, the PDFMaker offers you the

option to automatically send the converted file as an attachment to a new

e-mail message. You can use this option to quickly send a PDF version of an

important Office document to a coworker or client who needs the informa-

tion delivered in the cross-platform PDF format.

To convert the document currently open in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint into a

PDF document and immediately send it off attached to a new e-mail message,

follow these steps:

Figure 5-2:

The PDF

version of

a Word

document

converted

PDFMaker

as it opens

in Acrobat 6.

110

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

1. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF

and E-mail or click the Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail button (the

second button) on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar.

If you haven’t saved your Office document, Acrobat PDFMaker will

prompt you to do so. After clicking Yes to save the current Office docu-

ment, the Save PDF File As dialog box appears.

2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and

select the folder in which to save it on your hard drive.

If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same

name as its Office counterpart but with the

.pdf filename extension. If

you’re using Office XP, the filename extension may not be displayed along

with your title in the File Name text box, but PDF Files is automatically

selected in the Save as Type list box below.

3. Click the Save button to convert the file and then launch your e-mail

program.

4. Fill in the e-mail addresses of the recipient(s) in the To and Cc text

boxes, as required, and then describe the contents of the message in

the Subject text box in the message header before writing a memo to

the recipient(s) in the body of the message.

5. Click the Send button to send the e-mail message to the designated

recipient(s), complete with the attached PDF document, and then

return to your Microsoft Office program.

Customizing the PDF conversion settings

PDFMaker enables you to change and customize the distilling settings used in

any of your Office-to-PDF file conversions. To customize the distilling set-

tings, you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings from the Office

application program’s menu bar to open the Adobe PDFMaker.

Figure 5-3 shows this dialog box as it appears in Microsoft Word with its four

tabs: Settings, Security, Word, and Bookmarks. Note that the Adobe PDFMaker

dialog box that opens when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion

Settings from the Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint menus has only the two tabs:

Settings and Security. A separate Bookmarks tab is unique to Microsoft Word

and provides the ability to select specific headings and paragraph styles in

your Word document that can be converted into bookmarks in the resulting

PDF file. In addition, you won’t find an application-specific tab (like the Word

tab in Figure 5-3) when using Excel or PowerPoint. Application-specific options

in those programs are either minimal enough to include in the Application

Setting area of the Settings tab (as is the case with PowerPoint) or as a new

menu option (as is the case with Excel) when using PDFMaker 6.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

The Settings tab

The Settings tab of the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box enables you to change

the Adobe PDF settings (now called conversion settings in PDFMaker). As

when using Acrobat Distiller to create your PDFs, the default preset job

option is Standard when you first open the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box. You

can use the Conversion Settings drop-down list to select one of the other

preset Adobe PDF Settings (PDFX1a, PDFX3, Press Quality, Smallest File Size,

or Standard) or to select any of the custom Adobe PDF Settings that you

create. In addition to being able to select different settings in the Conversion

Settings drop-down list, you have a number of check boxes in the PDFMaker

Settings and Application Settings areas on the Settings tab. The following

gives a rundown on the options that appear whether you’re using Microsoft

Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:

 PDFMaker Settings: Select the View Adobe PDF Result check box to

immediately view your converted PDF in Acrobat after distilling. Select

the Prompt for Adobe PDF File Name check box to have the Save Adobe

PDF File As dialog box open prior to converting your Word document. To

convert the document-specific information (such as the Title, Subject,

Author, and Keywords information found on the Summary tab of the

document’s Properties dialog box) to metadata in the new PDF file that

can be indexed and searched (see Chapter 13 for information on search-

ing), select the Convert Document Information check box. Note that the

PDFMaker Settings area also includes an Advanced Settings button.

Figure 5-3:

Opening the

Adobe

PDFMaker

dialog box in

Microsoft

Word.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Clicking this button opens the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box in Acrobat

6 where you create customized Adobe Distiller conversion settings. This

process is covered in detail in Chapter 4.

 Application Settings: Select the Attach Source File to Adobe PDF check

box if you want to attach the Office source file as a comment in your con-

verted PDF document. Select the Add Links to Adobe PDF check box to

convert the hyperlinks in your Word document to Adobe PDF links. Select

the Add Bookmarks to Adobe PDF check box to convert the headings and

paragraph styles in a Word document to bookmarks in a PDF document.

The Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged PDF check box lets you

create tagged PDF documents from the Word document structure.

To customize one of the preset Adobe PDF Settings and thereby create a new

custom job option, select the preset that uses settings closest to the ones

you want in the custom job option in the Conversion Settings drop-down list

and then click the Advanced Settings button to open the Adobe PDF Settings

dialog box for the selected preset.

The Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that PDFMaker opens in your Microsoft

Office program contain the same tabs (General, Images, Fonts, Color, and

PDF/X) with the same options as the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that the

Acrobat Distiller opens when you select its Settings➪Edit Adobe PDF Settings

menu command. As is true in the Acrobat Distiller, the particular values and

settings that are selected on the individual tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings

dialog box depend upon which preset you select when you open the dialog

box with the PDFMaker’s Advanced Settings button (refer to Chapter 4 for

detailed information on how to modify these settings).

After customizing the settings on the tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog

box, you save these settings by clicking the Save As button and then naming

the custom Conversion Settings. As with the Acrobat Distiller, any custom

Conversion Settings you save are automatically added to the PDFMaker’s

Conversion Settings drop-down list as soon as you close the Adobe PDF

Settings dialog box.

The Security tab

The Security tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains options that

enable you to password-protect the converted PDF file (so that only the

people you give the password can open the file) and set the file permissions

(which control how the document can be edited and whether or not it can be

printed). The options on this tab are identical to the ones found in the Adobe

PDF - Security dialog box (refer to Chapter 4 for details on how to go about

setting the password and file permission options). Note that the Security tab

options are exactly the same whether you are converting a Microsoft Word,

Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

The Word tab

The Word tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains a bunch of check

box options that enable you to control what Word-specific information is car-

ried over to the new PDF documents you’ll be generating. Figure 5-4 shows

the Word tab as it appears when you open the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box in

Microsoft Word.

The Word Features area on the Word tab contains the following settings for

converting very specific word processing features into PDF equivalents:

 Convert Comments to Notes: Converts all comments added to the Word

document into notes in the resulting PDF document.

 Convert Linked Text Boxes to Article Threads: Convert all notations

made in the text boxes found in the Word document into articles that

control the way the text is read in Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6 (see

Chapter 2 for more information).

 Convert Cross-References and Table of Contents to Links: Changes all

cross-references and any table of contents found in the Word document

into active hyperlinks in the resulting PDF document.

 Convert Footnote and Endnote Links: Converts all footnotes and end-

notes in the Word document into active hyperlinks in the resulting PDF

document.

The Comments area of the Word tab displays all the comments in the

current Word document and lets you choose how they will be displayed in

Figure 5-4:

Examining

the Word

tab in the

Adobe

PDFMaker

dialog box

when using

Microsoft

Word.

114

Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

the converted PDF document. You can choose whether or not to include the

comments, whether they appear open, and also specify a background color.

The Bookmarks tab

The Bookmarks tab (shown in Figure 5-5) is unique to the Word version of the

Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Its options enable you to convert the headings

and paragraph styles found in the original Word document into bookmarks in

the resulting PDF document.

The Bookmarks tab contains the following options:

 Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks: This option automatically con-

verts all Word Heading styles used in the original document to book-

marks in the final PDF document. When this check box is selected (as it

is by default), all Heading styles used in the document are selected in

the list box below. To restrict bookmark conversion to just particular

heading levels, deselect the check boxes for all the Heading styles you

don’t want used in this list.

 Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks: This option automatically converts

all styles (not just the heading styles) used in the original Word docu-

ment to bookmarks in the final PDF document. When you select this

check box, the check boxes for all the styles used in your document are

selected in list box below. To restrict bookmark conversion to just par-

ticular paragraph styles, deselect the check boxes for all the individual

styles you don’t want used in this list.

Figure 5-5:

Examining

the

Bookmarks

tab in the

Word

version of

the Adobe

PDFMaker

dialog box.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

While there are no Excel-specific options on the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog

box when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings in Microsoft

Excel, there is an important new command on the Adobe PDF menu —

Convert Entire Workbook. The default PDF conversion setting for an Excel

document converts only the active worksheet. If you want to convert all the

worksheets in your Excel workbook to Adobe PDF, choose this command.

The PowerPoint-specific application settings

The following PowerPoint-only options appear in the Settings tab on the

Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box (shown in Figure 5-6) when you choose Adobe

PDF➪Change Conversion Settings in Microsoft PowerPoint:

 Save Slide Transitions in Adobe PDF: Ensures that the animated transi-

tions setup in a PowerPoint presentation are carried over in the converted

PDF file.

 Convert Multimedia to PDF Multimedia: Ensures that all multimedia

elements in a PowerPoint presentation are converted to Adobe

Multimedia in a PowerPoint-generated PDF file. Adobe Multimedia

format adds interactive features to graphics, sounds, and movies that

enhance their appearance in PDF documents. See Chapter 16 for more

on this subject.

 PDF Layout Based on PowerPoint Printer Settings: Ensures that page

layout in a PowerPoint-generated PDF file mirrors the printer settings

specified in the PowerPoint presentation.

Figure 5-6:

Examining

the

Application

Settings for

PowerPoint

in the

Acrobat

PDFMaker

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Converting Office documents to PDF

and sending them for review

The third option for creating a PDF file with PDFMaker enables you to create

a PDF from an Office document and use the resulting PDF file to initiate a

review cycle by sending it out to reviewers. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for Review in

the Office application or click the Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for

Review button on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar.

If you haven’t saved your document, an Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog

box prompts you to do so. Click Yes. The Save Adobe PDF File As dialog

box appears.

2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and

select the folder in which to save it on your hard drive.

If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same

name as its Office counterpart but with the

.pdf filename extension. Note

that by default, filename extensions aren’t displayed in Windows XP.

3. Click the Save button to close the Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box

and start the conversion process.

When the PDFMaker finishes distilling your Office document, it opens

the Send by E-mail for Review dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-7. Note

that if you haven’t entered a return e-mail address in Acrobat

Preferences, you will be prompted to enter one prior to seeing the dialog

box shown in Figure 5-7.

4. Enter e-mail addresses of those you wish to send the PDF file to for

review, a subject, and message in the appropriate text boxes.

The standard e-mail address text boxes (To, Cc, and Bcc) are provided.

The Subject and Message to Reviewers text boxes have default entries

that you can use or edit.

5. Click the Send button to close the Send by E-mail for Review dialog box.

An alert from your e-mail client program appears, asking you to verify

that you want to send an e-mail with the attached PDF file.

6. Click the Send button (again) to send out the attached PDF file for

review.

The Send for Review dialog box, shown in Figure 5-7, also appears in Acrobat

6 when you choose File➪Send by E-mail for Review. For a complete rundown

on commenting and reviewing features in Acrobat 6 as well as the Acrobat

Comments menu that appears in Microsoft Word, see Chapter 9.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

You can add to the notes, links, and bookmarks that are carried over from the

original Word document in the converted PDF document using the annotation

features in Acrobat 6 — see Chapter 9 for details.

Converting Office X files on the Mac

If you’re using Microsoft Office X for Mac OS X (and you have to because

Acrobat 6 runs only on OS X), you have access to both the Convert to Adobe

PDF and the Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail buttons on the PDFMaker 6.0

toolbar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint after you install Acrobat 6.0 on your

computer. Note that although PDFMaker 6 does not support the review and

commenting features found in the Windows version, you can use these but-

tons to convert Office documents to PDF files and e-mail them as you would

using Office for Windows. You do not, however, have access to an Adobe PDF

menu as you do in the Windows version of Office. This means that you have

no way to change the conversion settings as described previously in this

chapter. Mac users (I can hear you screaming at Adobe for Acrobat feature

parity with your Windows brethren) can, however, choose Acrobat Distiller 6

preset Conversion Settings or any custom conversion settings you’ve created

in the Print dialog box of your Office X program. To do so, follow these steps:

1. With your Office X document open, choose File➪Print or press

ÔÔ

to open the Print dialog box.

2. Select Adobe PDF on the Printer drop-down list.

Figure 5-7:

Examining

the Send by

E-mail for

Review

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

3. Select PDF Options on the drop-down list labeled Pages and Copies.

The PDF Options command is added to the list when you choose Adobe

PDF as your printer. After selecting PDF Options, the Print dialog box

changes to the one shown in Figure 5-8.

4. Click the Adobe PDF Setting drop-down list to select a preset Distiller

Conversion Setting or one you’ve customized.

As shown in Figure 5-8, if you hover the mouse pointer over a conver-

sion setting in this list, a screen tip displays the directory path for that

conversion setting’s location on your hard drive. You also have the

option to choose Launch Nothing or Acrobat on the After PDF Creation

drop-down list to specify whether or not you want to view your con-

verted Office document PDF in Acrobat.

5. Click either the Save as PDF or Print button to open the Save to File

dialog box.

If you want to see how your converted Office document is displayed in

Acrobat, click the Preview button.

6. Type a filename in the Save As text box, choose a location for the fin-

ished PDF file (the default is your desktop), and click the Save button

to convert your Office Document to PDF.

PDF files that are created from Office X documents do not retain their docu-

ment structure tags. This means that those PDF files will not have the capa-

bility of being reflowed in Acrobat or Adobe Reader. For more on reflowing

document text see, Chapter 2.

Figure 5-8:

Selecting a

preset or

custom

conversion

setting

when

creating

PDF files in

Office X for

Max OS X.

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Chapter 5: Converting Microsoft Office Documents

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Chapter 6

Capturing Paper Documents

In This Chapter

 Scanning paper documents into Acrobat 6

 Making scanned PDF documents editable and searchable

 Finding and correcting scanner foul-ups

 Converting previously scanned documents to PDF

 Using the Paper Capture Online service

crobat 6 makes it easy to turn your paper documents into PDF files

that you can share with clients and coworkers via e-mail or post for

viewing on your company’s intranet or Web site on the Internet. Capturing

paper documents as PDF files also provides a perfect way for you to electron-

ically archive important documents such as contracts, reports, and financial

statements.

Then, after you’ve scanned these documents in as PDF files, if you’re a

Windows user, you can use Acrobat’s Paper Capture feature within Acrobat to

turn them from graphic files to fully searchable text (if you’re a Mac user, you

do this using Adobe’s free [for you] Paper Capture Online service). That way,

even after you catalog the documents and store them on media, such as

CD-ROM or removable disk media, you still retain the ability to search their

text. As you find out in this chapter, all you need to turn almost any of your

paper documents into PDF documents is a scanner connected to your com-

puter and a little know-how about using the Acrobat 6 Paper Capture feature.

Scanning Paper Documents in Acrobat 6

To capture paper documents as PDF files, you first scan them using the import

scan feature in Acrobat 6. The steps for doing this are quite straightforward:

1. Turn on your scanner and position the first sheet of the document

correctly on its glass.

2. Launch Acrobat 6, and if you want to add the pages you’re about to

scan to a particular PDF document, open that document in Acrobat.

3. Choose File➪Create PDF➪From Scanner or click the pop-up menu on

the Create PDF Task button and select From Scanner.

The Create PDF From Scanner dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 6-1.

4. In the Scanner area of the dialog box, select the name of your scanner

and the driver it uses (if the device listed is not the one you want to use,

select its name and driver in the Device drop-down list) and indicate

whether the device should scan one side (the default) or both sides of

the paper.

Select Double-sided in the Format drop-down list if you need to scan

both the front and back of the pages.

5. If you have a PDF document open in Acrobat at the time you choose

File➪Create PDF➪From Scanner, you have a choice in the Destination

area of the Create PDF From Scanner dialog box between the Open New

PDF Document option and the Append to Current Document option.

Note that if you have no PDF document currently open, the Append to

Current Document radio button is grayed out. If a PDF document is cur-

rently open, Acrobat selects the Append to Current Document radio

button by default, and you must remember to select the Open New PDF

Document radio button if you want to avoid adding the scanned pages

to the end of the current document.

6. Click the Scan button.

Figure 6-1:

Select the

scanner,

page format,

and

destination

in the

Create PDF

From

Scanner

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

When you click the Scan button in the Create PDF From Scanner dialog box,

the scanning software used by your particular brand of scanner opens its

own window in which you can select the scanning settings and often preview

the scanned page. Figure 6-2 shows the controls in the ScanWise window

used by my Agfa scanner that opens when I click the Scan button in the

Create PDF From Scanner dialog box.

When choosing the scanning settings, you want to select the lowest resolution

quality for the type of document that stills gives you an acceptable image in

the final PDF file. The reason for this is the higher the resolution, especially

when dealing with color images, the larger the file, and at high resolutions

with lots of colors, you can end up with an enormous document.

When selecting the scanning settings, keep these tips in mind:

 When scanning black-and-white images and text-only documents, you

must set the resolution between 200 and 600 dpi (dots per inch). When

scanning color images and text, you must select a range between 200

and 400 dpi. This is because the Paper Capture plug-in that recognizes

the text in a scanned document and converts it to searchable and

editable text can only process documents scanned in these ranges.

Figure 6-2:

Select the

scanning

settings

with the

software

installed for

your type of

scanner.

123

Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents

 For most documents, scanning at a resolution of 300 dpi produces the

best paper captures. If, when using the Paper Capture plug-in, you find

that the document contains many unrecognized words, or if the docu-

ment has a lot of very small text (9 points or smaller), try scanning at a

higher resolution (up to 600 dpi).

 Scan in black and white whenever possible.

 When scanning color or grayscale pages containing large type, try scan-

ning at a resolution of 200 dpi for faster processing with Paper Capture.

 Avoid using dithering or halftone scanner settings. These improve the

appearance of photographic images but make it difficult for the Paper

Capture plug-in to recognize text.

 When scanning text printed on colored paper, increase the brightness

and contrast by approximately 10 percent. If your scanner supports color

filtering capability, select a filter that drops out the background color.

 If your scanner has a manual brightness control, use it to get the letters

as clean as possible. If some of the thicker characters in the document

are touching when scanned, try using a higher brightness setting and

scanning again. If some of the thinner characters are too separated in

the scan, try a lower brightness setting next time.

After selecting your scanning settings in your scan software (and previewing

the page if your scan software offers this feature), start scanning the page by

clicking the Scan button (or its equivalent). When your scanner finishes scan-

ning the page, Acrobat displays an Acrobat Scan Plug-In dialog box (similar to

the one shown in Figure 6-3) that prompts you to get the next page ready for

scanning or to signal that you’re done scanning.

When this dialog box appears, you take one of the following three actions,

depending upon what type of document you’re scanning:

 If you’re scanning a single-page document, click the Done button in this

Acrobat Scan Plug-In dialog box.

Figure 6-3:

Click the

Next button

to scan the

in the

document.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

 If you’re scanning a double-sided document, turn the paper over in the

scanner and then click the Next button.

 If you’re scanning single-sided pages but your paper document contains

multiple pages, replace the first page on the scanner with the second

page and then click the Next button.

When you click the Done button, Acrobat closes the Acrobat Scan Plug-In

dialog box and displays the page you just scanned in the Acrobat Document

window. When you click the Next button, Acrobat closes the Acrobat Scan

Plug-In dialog box and returns you to your scanning software, where you can

start scanning the backside of the page or the next page by clicking its Scan

button.

For a multipage document, you continue the process of clicking the Next

button in the Acrobat Scan Plug-In dialog box, replacing the current page with

the next page on the scanner, and then clicking the Scan button in your scan-

ner software. When you finish scanning the last page in your document, click

the Done button in the Acrobat Scan Plug-In dialog box to see the first page of

your new PDF document displayed in Acrobat.

Making scanned documents

searchable and editable

When you scan a document directly into a PDF file (as described in the preced-

ing section), Acrobat captures all the text and graphics on each page as though

they were all just one big graphic image. This is fine as far as it goes, except

that it doesn’t go very far because you can neither edit nor search the PDF doc-

ument. (As far as Acrobat is concerned, the document doesn’t contain any text

to edit or search — it’s just one humongous graphic). That’s where the Paper

Capture plug-in in Acrobat 6 for Windows comes into play: You can use it to

make a scanned document into a PDF that you can either just search or both

search and edit.

To use Paper Capture, all you have to do is choose Document➪Paper Capture

to open the Paper Capture dialog box (shown in Figure 6-4), select the page or

pages to be processed (All Pages, Current Page, or From Page x to y), and then

click the OK button; the Paper Capture utility does the rest. As it processes

the page or pages in the document that you designated, a Paper Capture Plug-

In alert dialog box keeps you informed of its progress in preparing and per-

forming the page recognition. When Paper Capture finishes doing the page

recognition, this alert dialog box disappears, and you can then save the

changes to your PDF document with the File➪Save command.

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Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents

When doing the page recognition in a PDF document, the Paper Capture plug-

in offers you a choice between the following three Output Style options:

 Searchable Image (Exact): Select this option to make the text in the PDF

document searchable but not editable (this is the default setting). This

setting is the one to choose if you’re processing a document that needs to

be searchable but should never be edited in any way, such as an executed

contract.

 Searchable Image (Compact): Select this option to make the text in the

PDF document searchable but not editable and to compress its graphics.

Use this setting if you’re processing a document whose text requires

searching without editing and that also contains a fair number of graphic

images that need compressing. When you select this setting, Paper

Capture applies JPEG compression to color images and ZIP compression

to black-and-white images.

 Formatted Text & Graphics: Select this option to make the text in the

PDF document both editable and searchable. Pick this setting if you not

only want to be able to find text in the document but also possibly make

editing changes to it.

To select a different output style setting, click the Edit button in the Paper

Capture dialog box to open the Paper Capture Settings dialog box (as shown in

Figure 6-5). This dialog box not only enables you to select a new output style in

the PDF Output Style drop-down list, but also enables you to designate the pri-

mary language used in the text in the Primary OCR Language drop-down list

(OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, which is the kind of software

that Paper Capture uses to recognize and convert text captured as a graphic

into text that can be searched and edited).

Figure 6-4:

Selecting

the pages to

process in

the Paper

Capture

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

If your PDF document contains graphic images, you can tell Paper Capture how

much to compress the images by selecting the maximum resolution in the

Downsample Images drop-down list. This menu offers you three options in addi-

tion to None (for no compression): Low (300 dpi), Medium (150 dpi), and High

(72 dpi). The Low, Medium, and High options refer to the amount of compres-

sion applied to the images, and the values 300, 150, and 72 dpi (dots per inch)

refer to their resolution and thus their quality. As always, the higher the amount

of compression, the smaller the file size and the lower the image quality.

After processing the pages of your PDF document with the Paper Capture

plug-in, use the Search feature (Ctrl+F on Windows and Ô+F on the Mac) to

search for words or phrases in the text to verify that it can be searched. If

you used the Formatted Text & Graphics output style in doing the page recog-

nition, you can select the TouchUp Text Tool by clicking its button on the

Advanced Editing toolbar or by typing T, and then click the I-beam pointer in

a line of text to select the line with a bounding box (see Chapter 10 for more

on editing with this tool) to verify that you can edit the text as well. Always

remember to choose File➪Save to save the changes made to your document

by processing with Paper Capture.

Correcting Paper Capture boo-boos

Although the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software used by Paper

Capture has become better and better over the years, it’s still far from per-

fect. After processing a scanned PDF document using the Formatted Text &

Graphics output style, you need to check your processed document for

words that Paper Capture didn’t recognize and therefore wasn’t able to con-

vert from bitmapped graphics into text characters.

To make this check and correct these OCR errors, follow these steps:

1. Choose Document➪Paper Capture➪Find First OCR Suspect.

The program flags the first unrecognized word in the text by putting a

gray rectangle around it and opens the Find Element dialog box. Acrobat

shows a magnified view of the unrecognized word in the Find Element

dialog box, as shown in Figure 6-6.

Figure 6-5:

Selecting

options in

the Paper

Capture

Settings

dialog box.

127

Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents

2. Choose the TouchUp Text tool by clicking its button on the Advanced

Editing toolbar.

3. In the Find Element dialog box, choose one of the following options:

• To accept the word displayed and convert it from a graphic into

text and then continue to the next capture suspect, click the

Accept and Find button.

• To edit the suspect word directly in the Find Element dialog box,

type over incorrect characters in the suspect word and then click

the Accept and Find button and go to the next suspect.

• To ignore an unrecognized word and not convert it to text, just

click the Find Next button to move right on to the next suspect.

4. Repeat Step 3 until you’ve checked and corrected all the unrecognized

words in the processed document.

Note that if you choose Document➪Paper Capture➪Find All OCR

Suspects, the program finds and highlights all suspect elements in the

document without opening the Find Element dialog box. This allows you

to individually choose which OCR suspect you’d like to edit.

Figure 6-6:

Finding an

unrecog-

nized

word in the

processed

text.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

5. To edit one of the OCR Suspects in a document after choosing Find

All OCR Suspects command, make sure the TouchUp Text tool is

selected and double-click the desired element to open the Find

Element dialog box.

The selected OCR Suspect appears in the Find Element dialog box. You

can continue by repeating Step 3 or close the Find Element dialog box

and repeat Step 5.

6. Click the Close button in the lower-right corner of the Find Element

dialog box to close it, and then choose File➪Save to save your correc-

tions to the PDF document.

Importing Previously Scanned

Documents into Acrobat

If you already have a scanned document or an electronic fax saved on your

hard drive in a graphics format such as TIFF or BMP (the Tagged Information

File Format and Bitmap format are most commonly used for saving scanned

images), you can open the file in Acrobat 6 and then process its pages with

the Paper Capture plug-in (as described in the previous section). Note that in

order for the Paper Capture plug-in to render a searchable PDF document, the

source document must be scanned at a resolution setting between 200 and

600 dpi. To open the scanned graphic file in Acrobat, follow these steps:

1. Choose File➪Create PDF➪From File to display the Open dialog box.

2. Browse to the folder that contains the graphics file containing the

scanned image and click its file icon.

If the graphics file is saved in a graphics format other than TIFF, select

this file format in the Files of Type drop-down list (the Show drop-down

list on the Mac) so that its file icon is displayed in the Open dialog box.

3. Click the Open button.

The scanned graphic is displayed in the Document window in Acrobat.

4. To save the graphics file as a PDF file, choose File➪Save, and then edit

the filename and the folder in which you want to save it (if desired)

before clicking the Save button.

5. To make the text in the new PDF file searchable, choose Document➪

Paper Capture➪Start Capture.

The Paper Capture dialog box opens.

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Chapter 6: Capturing Paper Documents

6. To modify the Paper Capture settings before using it to process the

pages of your PDF document, click the Edit button to open the Paper

Capture Settings dialog box. Otherwise, skip to Step 11.

7. Select the language of the text in the Primary OCR Language drop-

down list.

8. In the PDF Output Style drop-down list, select one of the following:

• To be able to both search and edit the text, select the Formatted

Text & Graphics option.

• To make the document text searchable only, select the Searchable

Image (Exact) option.

• To make the text in a document containing many images searchable,

select the Searchable Image (Compact) option instead.

9. To compress the graphics in the PDF document, select the amount of

compression in the Downsample Images drop-down list.

Your choices are Low (300 dpi), Medium (150 dpi), or High (72 dpi).

10. Click OK to close the Paper Capture Settings dialog box and return to

the Paper Capture dialog box.

11. Click OK in the Paper Capture dialog box to begin the page processing.

12. Choose File➪Save a second time to save your changes.

After processing the pages of a scanned image that you’ve saved as a PDF

document with Paper Capture, if you used the Formatted Text & Graphics

output style, you can locate and eliminate all OCR errors in the text by follow-

ing the steps in the preceding section, “Correcting Paper Capture boo-boos.”

Using the Paper Capture Online Service

Adobe’s Paper Capture feature in Acrobat 6 is designed for individual or

small office use. For the needs of larger businesses, Adobe provides their

Create Adobe PDF Online service that enables you convert any type of busi-

ness document to PDF. Company reports, printed archival materials, spread-

sheets, calendars, and even entire Web sites are just a few of the types of

documents that you can convert in order to take advantage of the universal

file-sharing aspects of PDF. The service is subscription based (U.S. $9.99 per

month or about U.S. $99 per year), but Adobe offers the service on a trial

basis that allows you to create five PDF files free of charge.

You can go to Adobe’s Web site and see what all the excitement is about by

typing this URL into your favorite browser’s Address text box:

http://createpdf.adobe.com

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After you’ve subscribed to the service, you can then upload as many scanned

files (of no more than 50 pages in length) as you want and process them

online with Paper Capture as follows:

1. Use your Web browser to go to

createpdf.adobe.com, sign in by

entering your username and password in the Adobe ID and Password

text boxes, and then click the Login button.

The Create Adobe PDF page appears.

2. Click the Choose a File graphic link to open the Create Adobe PDF

Online - Select a File dialog box.

Note that you can also click the Submit a URL link in order to capture a

Web page. A page appears where you specify which file to process.

3. Click the Browse button to locate the desired file on your hard drive,

click Choose, and then click the Continue button on Adobe’s Select a

File dialog box to open the Conversion Settings window shown in

Figure 6-7.

Note that you can click the Supported File Types link to view a list of File

types supported by the Create Adobe PDF Online service.

4. Click the Optimization Settings drop-down list and choose either Web

(the default), eBook, Screen, Print, or Press as the output conversion

setting for your file.

Figure 6-7:

Choose

conversion

settings for

online

creation

of a PDF

document.

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5. Click the PDF Compatibility drop-down list to select either Acrobat 3.0

(PDF 1.2) (the default), Acrobat 4.0 (PDF 1.3), or Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4)

as the output compatibility setting for your file.

6. Choose a level of security for the converted PDF by clicking the

Security Options drop-down list. The default is No Security.

You have the option of choosing two other basic levels of security: No

Printing (40 bit) or No Printing (128 bit). You can further customize secu-

rity settings for your converted PDF by clicking the Adobe Acrobat

Security link above the Security Options drop-down list.

7. Select the desired method for having the processed file returned to

you in the Delivery Method drop-down list.

Your choices are No E-Mail, Download from Conversion History (which

lets you archive PDF files at Adobe and download them as necessary

from your Conversion History list), Wait for PDF Conversion in Browser,

E-Mail Me a Link to My New PDF, or E-Mail Me My New PDF as an

Attachment.

8. Click the Create PDF button at the bottom of the window to upload

your file and have it processed according to your wishes.

Create Adobe PDF Online lets you create and save your own conversion set-

tings, just as you would in Acrobat 6. To do so, click the Preferences link under

the heading Set Options in the Conversion Settings window and select the new

settings using the drop-down lists provided for various conversion settings in

the Preferences window. Then click the OK button, enter a descriptive name for

the new settings in the dialog box that appears, and click OK. Your new conver-

sion settings will appear in the Optimization Settings drop-down list in the

Conversion Settings window.

When the Create Adobe Acrobat Online service receives your uploaded docu-

ment, it displays a Confirmation screen that gives you an identification number

and that indicates how the processed file will be delivered to you. Depending

upon your settings, the service then delivers the processed PDF file to you

either by displaying it in your Web browser (assuming that you use one that

supports the plug-in for displaying PDF files), in an e-mail message as a link or

a file attachment, or as a link in your Conversion History list.

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Chapter 7

Capturing Web Pages

In This Chapter

 Capturing your favorite Web site in a PDF file

 Browsing Web pages in Acrobat

 Adding Web pages to a PDF file by surfing its links

 Changing the Web capture preferences and conversion settings

 Appending Web pages to a PDF file

 Refreshing the Web pages in a PDF file

hen you first hear that Acrobat 6 can capture Web pages as PDF files,

you may wonder why on Earth anyone in her right mind would want

to do such a thing. After all, Web browsers are not only perfectly capable of

displaying any and all Web pages in their native HTML (HyperText Markup

Language) format, but they are also much more widespread than Acrobat and

Adobe Reader. And, of course, this is true — as long as you’re connected to

the Internet. The moment you get disconnected from the Internet, all Web

browser access to online content shuts off (unless your browser is capable of

caching the pages on your hard drive and you know how to set this up).

In this chapter, you discover how easy it is to capture Web pages as PDF files

that you can browse at any time on any computer equipped with a copy of

Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Because the Web pages are PDF files, not only can

you browse them when you don’t have Internet access handy, but you can

also annotate them and distribute them as you would any other PDF docu-

ment. This makes internal Web site design reviews a real joy because it’s easy

to send the PDF versions of the Web pages to clients and coworkers for

approval, as well as elicit feedback from them right on the pages if they’re

using Acrobat 6.

One of the best reasons for capturing a Web site in PDF format is to be able to

browse its contents when you’re traveling and at other times when you can’t

go online. This feature is also a godsend when you need to give a presentation

or conduct a training session that involves the use of Web material because

you still have access to the Web content (internal links and all), even if you

lose your Internet connection or are not able for one reason or another to go

online. When viewing Web pages in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, you can use the

Full Screen view to get rid of all the distracting menus, toolbars, and so on

(see Chapter 2 for details) because you will be using the site’s own links and

navigation controls to move from page to page. You control what page transi-

tions are used and how to navigate from page to page in full-screen mode by

opening the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl+K on Windows and Ô+K on the Mac)

and then clicking Full Screen in the list of preferences.

Opening Web Pages as PDF Files

To be able to capture Web pages (and even entire Web sites) as PDF files for

viewing in Acrobat or Adobe Reader, all you need is Internet access, Acrobat

6, and the Web site’s URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Before you can use

Acrobat to capture Web pages, you must have your computer correctly con-

figured for accessing the Internet. If you already get online with a popular

Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator,

Acrobat should be able to detect these settings and use them for Web cap-

ture. If you find that you can’t capture Web pages as described in this section,

open the Internet Properties dialog box from within Acrobat by choosing

Edit➪Preferences➪Internet Settings, and then seek help from your ISP

(Internet service provider) or IP personnel in getting your Internet settings

correctly configured in Acrobat.

The steps for capturing the pages are easy as can be:

1. In Acrobat, choose File➪Create PDF➪From Web Page, or click the

Create PDF button on the Tasks toolbar and choose From Web Page

on the pop-up menu.

The Create PDF from Web Page dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 7-1.

2. In the URL text box, type or paste in the URL address of the site whose

Web pages are to be downloaded.

If you’re converting a local HTML document to PDF (that is, one that’s

saved on your hard drive or local area network rather than on the

Internet), click the Browse button. Then open the folder, select the docu-

ment’s file icon in the Select File to Open dialog box, and then click the

Select button.

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3. In the Settings area of the Open Web Page dialog box, select the Get

Entire Site radio button to capture all the Web pages on the site.

• To capture only the Web site’s start page, leave the Get Only radio

button selected with 1 in the level(s) spinner button text box to

the immediate right.

• To capture all the pages linked to the start page, increase the value

in the level(s) text box to 2; to get all the pages linked to the pages

linked to the start page, increase the level(s) value to 3, and so on.

• To restrict the Web page capture to only pages found on the same

Web site or on the same Web server, select the Stay on Same Path

and the Stay on Same Server check boxes as well.

4. Click the Create button to begin capturing the designated Web pages

as PDF files.

If you select the Get Entire Site radio button, the Potentially Large

Download Confirmation alert dialog box automatically appears, warning

you that you may have bitten off more than your computer can chew.

If you’re sure that you have the patience (or a lightning-fast download

connection), have sufficient hard drive space, and are not attempting

to download the Library of Congress Web site, click the Yes button to

proceed with the potentially large download of the entire site.

As soon as you click the Download button or the Yes button in the Potentially

Large Download Confirmation alert dialog box, Acrobat begins downloading

and converting the designated Web pages and displays the Download Status

dialog box, which keeps you informed of the progress of the first part of the

downloading process.

As the Web pages start arriving on your hard drive, the Download Status dialog

box disappears as quickly as it appeared, and the first page of the Web site

appears in Acrobat’s Document pane. The Navigation pane with the Bookmarks

palette selected is also automatically displayed in the Acrobat window. The

Bookmarks palette illustrates the hierarchical relationship of the pages you

downloaded (see Figure 7-2) as it continues to display the names of the pages

on each level as they are successfully downloaded.

Figure 7-1:

Capturing

Web pages

as PDF files.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

If Acrobat is not able to download the complete contents of all the pages on

the levels you designated for download, it displays a dialog box called There

Were Errors that lists all the files that it could not find or otherwise success-

fully download. After reviewing this list of files, click the OK button in the

There Were Errors dialog box to close it.

After all the Web pages you asked for on a particular Web site are delivered to

your hard drive, you still need to save the pages as a single PDF file so that you

can access them in Acrobat or Adobe Reader without being connected to the

Internet. To do this, choose File➪Save and then give the new PDF file a name,

select the folder in which you want to save it, and click the Save button.

Browsing captured Web pages

in Acrobat or Adobe Reader

After you download Web pages and save them as PDF documents, you can

browse their contents in Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6 just as you would any

other PDF file. You can go from page to page by clicking the page bookmarks

on the Bookmarks tab or the page thumbnails on the Thumbnails tab of the

Navigation pane, or you can use the buttons on the Navigation toolbar. (See

Figure 7-2:

Captured

Web pages

display their

linked

structure

in the

Bookmarks

palette.

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Chapter 2 for more specific information on all the ways to navigate a PDF

document.)

Following Web links in Acrobat 6

In addition to using the normal navigation controls found in Acrobat 6 and

Adobe Reader 6, because you’re dealing with Web pages, you can use their

own navigation controls, usually in the form of various navigation buttons

and hyperlinks, to move from page to page. Be aware, however, that unless

you’ve captured the entire Web site, you will often come upon buttons and

links to pages that haven’t yet been downloaded and aren’t currently part of

the PDF file. If your computer has access to the Internet at the time you’re

viewing the file, you can still follow its Web links and even download its Web

pages and add them to the PDF document.

When browsing the file in Acrobat 6, you can tell when you’re on a link to a

page that you haven’t downloaded as part of the PDF file because the program

adds a plus sign (+) to the Hand-with-pointing-index-finger mouse pointer, and

a ScreenTip showing the page’s URL address appears. In Adobe Reader 6, the

program adds a W (for Web) to the mouse pointer, along with the ScreenTip

showing the page’s URL.

The first time you click a link to a Web page that hasn’t been captured in

Acrobat 6, the program displays the Specify Weblink Behavior dialog box, as

shown in Figure 7-3. To have Acrobat 6 download the Web page in Acrobat

and add it to the current PDF file, leave the In Acrobat radio button selected

and then click OK. To have Acrobat launch your Web browser to display the

page there and, therefore, not add the Web page to your PDF document,

select the In Web Browser radio button instead before clicking OK.

Note in Figure 7-3 that the Do Not Ask Again check box is automatically

selected in the Specify Weblink Behavior dialog box. This means that the next

time you click a link in the PDF file, Acrobat will either automatically download

and display the page in Acrobat (if the In Acrobat option is selected) or in your

Web browser (if the In Web Browser option is selected) without prompting you

to decide between using the In Acrobat and In Web Browser option in the

Specify Weblink Behavior dialog box.

If you want to be prompted each time you click a link to a page that hasn’t yet

been downloaded, deselect the Do Not Ask Again check box. Even if you

don’t deselect this check box, you can still switch between the In Acrobat

and In Web Browser options by pressing the Shift key when you click a link

(that’s what the

When weblinks are clicked on in the future, the

shift key will toggle the above selected behavior

message in the

Specify Weblink Behavior dialog box is trying to tell you). So, for example, if

you leave the In Acrobat radio button selected the first time you follow a

hyperlink to have the page added to the PDF file in Acrobat, but decide at the

next link that you only want to browse the page with your Web browser, you

accomplish this by holding down the Shift key as you click that hyperlink.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

Browsing Web links in Adobe Reader 6

When you follow Web links in a Web-captured PDF file with Adobe Reader 6,

the program always opens the associated Web pages in your Web browser

(only Acrobat 6 has the ability to capture Web pages and save them in PDF

files). You can then surf the Web site by following its links as you would when

browsing any other Web site.

Figure 7-4 shows you what happened when I clicked the About Us link (shown

in Figure 7-3) in the Barnaby’s PDF file after opening this file in Adobe Reader

6. Because Adobe Reader doesn’t let you capture Web pages, it opens the

About Barnaby’s page in my Web browser, which just happens to be Internet

Explorer 6.

Creating Web links in a standard PDF file

You can have Acrobat 6 convert all complete URL addresses (ones that follow

the full format that includes

http:// in the address) entered in a standard

PDF file (one not created with the Web Capture feature) into active hyperlinks

by choosing Advanced➪Links➪Create from URLs in Document. This opens

the Create Web Links dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-5.

Figure 7-3:

Indicating

how to open

the linked

Web page.

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To have Acrobat scan all the pages of the document for URLs to convert to

live Web links, click the OK button. To have the program convert the URLs on

just some of the pages in the PDF document, select the From radio button

and enter the page number of the first and last page in the From and To text

boxes, respectively.

After Acrobat 6 has converted the URLs on the specified pages of the PDF file

to active links, you can follow the links by clicking them with the Hand-with-

pointing-finger mouse pointer. Note that when following the Web links you add

in this manner, Acrobat uses the Web link behavior that’s in effect at that time.

This is indicated by the icon that’s added to the Hand-with-pointing-finger

Figure 7-5:

Converting

URLs to live

Web links in

the Create

Web Links

dialog box.

Figure 7-4:

In Adobe

Reader,

when you

click a link

to a Web

page that

wasn’t

captured in

the PDF file,

the Web

page opens

in your Web

browser.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

mouse pointer: The appearance of a plus sign (+) means the page will be

downloaded and added to the PDF file, whereas a W indicates that the page

will open in your Web browser.

Modifying the Web capture preferences

When you download and save Web pages as PDF files in Acrobat 6, the pro-

gram uses a set of default capture settings that you can modify. To change

the Web capture settings, choose Edit➪Preferences or press Ctrl+K (Ô+K on

the Mac) to open the Preferences dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-6. Click

Web Capture in the scroll list on the left side of the Preferences dialog box to

view those options.

You can modify the Web Capture default settings by changing any of the fol-

lowing options:

 Verify Stored Images: This setting tells Acrobat how often to check

online for updates to the images on the Web pages that you’ve captured

in your PDF files. When the default setting, Once Per Session, is selected,

Acrobat automatically checks for updates just once when you first open

the PDF file (provided that you have Internet access at that time). You

can change this setting by selecting either Always (for continuous

checking) or Never on its drop-down list.

Figure 7-6:

Examining

the Web

Capture

options

in the

Preferences

dialog box.

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 Open Weblinks: This setting indicates whether Acrobat should down-

load and save new Web pages in Acrobat when you click their Web links

or simply display the pages in your Web browser. Note that the Specify

Weblink Behavior dialog box inherits the setting you select here as its

default (which you can override by holding down the Shift key when you

click a Web link).

 Show Bookmarks Panel When New PDF File (Created from Web Page)

Is Opened: This check box tells Acrobat whether or not to display the

Navigation pane with the Bookmarks palette selected when you first

open a PDF file with the captured Web pages. Deselect this check box

when you don’t want to give up valuable viewing real estate in the

Document window to the Navigation pane. Note that Acrobat creates

bookmarks for the downloaded Web pages whether or not this check

box is selected.

 Skip Downloading Secured Pages: The radio buttons under this head-

ing indicate whether or not Acrobat should skip over the downloading of

password-protected Web pages on the site you’re capturing. Select the

Always radio button to have the program immediately skip over all such

pages. Select the After radio button and specify the number of seconds

in the associated text box to have the program stop and prompt you for

the site’s password dialog box for the number of seconds specified, only

to then automatically skip the downloading of that page and continue

downloading other pages if you don’t respond to the prompt.

 Reset Conversion Settings to Defaults: This button resets all the conver-

sion settings to their original values (see the following section for infor-

mation on changing the conversion settings).

Modifying the Web capture

conversion settings

Before capturing Web pages from a Web site, you can modify the conversion

settings that tell Acrobat how to treat their content in the new PDF file. To do

this, click the Settings button on the bottom-right side of the Create PDF from

Web Page dialog box. (To open the Create PDF from Web Page dialog box,

choose File➪Create PDF➪From Web Page.) Clicking the Settings button opens

the Conversion Settings dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-7.

The General tab is divided into two areas: File Type Settings and PDF Settings.

In the File Type Settings area, you see a list box listing all the types of text

and graphics files that are downloaded and converted in the new PDF file.

The only settings that you can modify in this list are the HTML and Plain Text

settings. When you click either one of these types, the Settings button to the

right of the list box becomes active.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

When you click the Settings button when HTML is selected in the list box,

Acrobat opens an HTML Conversion Settings dialog box, where you can con-

trol the default layout, colors, and fonts displayed in the Web pages you cap-

ture. Don’t mess with any of these settings if your purpose is to do a design

review of the Web pages you’re about to capture because these changes

could prevent users from experiencing the pages as the designers intended.

The PDF Settings area in the Web Page Conversion Settings dialog box con-

tains the following four check box options:

 Create Bookmarks: When selected, Acrobat automatically creates book-

marks for each Web page you download, using the page’s title as the

bookmark name. Note that if a page doesn’t have a title, Acrobat uses

the page’s URL address as the bookmark name.

 Create PDF Tags: When selected, Acrobat creates and stores a hierarchi-

cal structure in the PDF file that tells special screen-reading software for

the visually impaired how to sequence the various Web page elements

for reading at large magnification. The support for screen readers is part

of Acrobat 6’s new group of Accessibility features designed to enhance

the usability of the software for people with disabilities.

 Place Headers and Footers on New Pages: When selected, Acrobat cre-

ates page headers and footers that display the title of each Web page in

the header at the top of the page and the URL of the page in the footer at

the bottom.

 Save Refresh Commands: When selected, Acrobat saves a list of the

URLs for all the pages captured in the PDF file that it can use to later

check for updated content. You must have this conversion option

selected when you capture Web pages if you want Acrobat to be able to

automatically download new versions of the Web pages when it detects

updated content (see the “Refreshing updated content” section, later in

this chapter, for more on refreshing Web content).

Figure 7-7:

Examining

the options

on the

General tab

of the

Web Page

Conversion

Settings

dialog box.

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Adding Web Pages to a PDF File

If the need arises, you can always add Web pages to an existing PDF file,

whether or not that PDF document already contains captured Web pages. To

capture Web pages and add them to the PDF currently displayed in the Acrobat

Document window, choose Advanced➪Web Capture➪Append Web Page to

open the Add To PDF From Web Page dialog box. Here, you enter the URL of

the Web page you want to append and specify the number of page levels to

include before clicking the Create button (this dialog box contains the same

options as the Open Web Page dialog box — see the section, “Opening Web

Pages as PDF Files,” at the beginning of this chapter for details). When you

click the Create button in the Add To PDF From Web Page dialog box, Acrobat

downloads the specified pages, automatically adding them to the end of the

PDF file.

Adding linked pages to a PDF file

Another way to add Web pages to a PDF file that contains captured Web con-

tent is through the Web links displayed in the Select Page Links to Download

dialog box. For this method, you view all the Web links on a particular Web

page in the PDF document, and then select the ones for the additional pages

you want to append to the current PDF file as follows:

1. In the Acrobat 6 Document window, display the Web page whose links

you want to use for downloading new pages.

2. Choose Advanced➪Web Capture➪View Web Links.

The Select Page Links to Download dialog box opens, as shown in

Figure 7-8.

Figure 7-8:

Selecting

the URLs to

download.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

3. Click the URLs in this list for all the Web pages you want to add to the

current PDF file.

To select multiple individual URLs, Ctrl+click them. To select a continuous

range of URLs, click the first one and then Shift+click the last one in the

range. To select all the URLs for downloading, click the Select All button.

4. Click the Download button to add the Web pages for the selected URLs

to the current PDF file.

Note that if you don’t want to select individual links and are sure you want to

download and append all pages linked to the current Web page displayed in

Acrobat 6, choose Advanced➪Web Capture➪Append All Links on Page.

Refreshing updated content

Some Web sites, especially those that cover current affairs or the news, fre-

quently update the content of some or all of their pages. If your purpose in

capturing Web pages is to keep up-to-date on the information offered by a

site, you will need to refresh the pages on a regular basis to ensure that your

file has the most recent content.

To refresh the content of the captured pages in your PDF file, choose

Advanced➪Web Capture➪Refresh Pages. Doing this opens the Refresh Pages

dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-9. Click the Refresh button to have Acrobat

check all the pages in the Refresh Commands list for updates.

By default, the program compares the text of the captured pages with their

counterparts online. If Acrobat detects any discrepancies between the two, it

automatically updates the downloaded page in the PDF file by replacing it

with a copy of the latest page on the Web site. If you want Acrobat to com-

pare all elements on the Web pages when looking for the ones that need

Figure 7-9:

Checking

Web pages

for updated

content with

the Refresh

Pages

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

refreshing instead of just comparing the text, select the Compare All Page

Components to Detect Changed Pages radio button in the Refresh Pages

dialog box before you click the Refresh button.

If you want to exclude certain pages from the Refresh Command list, click the

Edit Refresh Commands List button to open the Refresh Commands List

dialog box. This dialog box lists all the pages marked for refreshing. To skip

particular pages in the refresh operation, click the Clear All button and then

select the URLs for all the pages you do want refreshed to highlight them

before you click OK.

Keep in mind that you can’t add new URLs to the list displayed in the Refresh

Commands List dialog box: You can only tell Acrobat which ones to ignore

when refreshing the pages. The only way to add a URL to the Refresh

Commands list is to capture its Web page when the Save Refresh Commands

check box option has been checked in the Web Page Conversion Settings

dialog box.

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Chapter 7: Capturing Web Pages

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Chapter 8

Printing PDF Files

In This Chapter

 Printing with the standard print settings

 Modifying the print settings

 Looking at the high-end, prepress printing settings

 Troubleshooting problems with printing PDFs

 Using an online printing service

crobat may offer the promise of a paperless office, and PDF may be the

quintessential electronic file format, but despite it all, you will find times

when the one and only thing you want to do with the program is print out the

PDF documents you open in it. In this chapter, you discover all the ways to

print all or just part of a PDF file with your in-house printers, as well as how to

customize the print settings to print selected pages and to accommodate the

printing of oversized pages.

Printing PDF Files

Printing PDF documents in Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6 is very similar to

printing documents in any other Windows or Macintosh application program

that you use.

Before you print a file, you can change the general print settings, such as the

paper size or the printing orientation from the default of portrait mode to

landscape mode. To change these settings, choose File➪Page Setup in

Acrobat or Adobe Reader or press Ctrl+Shift+P (Ô+Shift+P on the Mac) to

open the Page Setup dialog box, modify the printing options as desired, and

then click OK. The actual options and controls available in the Page Setup

dialog box vary according to the actual printer selected as your default.

If you just need a printout of the document’s pages using the standard Print

options, follow these simple steps:

1. Choose File➪Print (in Acrobat or Adobe Reader) or press Ctrl+P (

ÔÔ

on the Mac).

The Print dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 8-1.

2. If you have more than one printer installed on your system, you can

select a different printer to print the PDF document by selecting the

name of the printer in the Name drop-down list (Windows) or by

selecting a different printer on the Printer drop-down list (Mac).

3. Specify which pages you want to print by doing one of the following:

• To print all the pages in the current PDF document, leave the All

radio button selected.

• To print just the area of a document that is currently visible in the

Acrobat document window, select the Current View radio button.

• To print only the page currently displayed in Acrobat or Adobe

Reader, select the Current Page radio button.

• To print a continuous range of pages in the document, select the

Pages radio button and enter the first page to print in the From

text box and the last page to print in the To text box.

See Chapter 9 for details on adding notes and marking up text, and to

find out how to summarize the comments in a document and save them

in a separate file that you can print.

4. Click the OK button to begin printing the pages of your PDF file.

Figure 8-1:

Opening the

Print dialog

box in

Acrobat 6 to

print the

current PDF

document.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

In the upper-right corner of the Windows version of the Print dialog box, you

find two check box options — Print to File and Print Color as Black:

 Select the Print to File option only when you want to create a file for a

type of printer that you don’t actually have available on your computer

system. You can then send or take the print file to a computer that has

the targeted printer connected to it but doesn’t have the Acrobat or

Adobe Reader program installed. When you drag the print file on the

printer icon, it prints the PDF document with all the printing options you

specified in Acrobat.

 Select the Print Color as Black option to change all non-white colors to

black. This feature is useful when printing technical drawings that have

lightly colored lines.

In the lower-left area of the Print dialog box you find the following Page

Handling options:

 Copies: Type in the text box or click the spinner buttons to specify the

number of copies of each page you want printed.

 Page Scaling: Reduces, enlarges, or divides pages when printing. The

options on the drop-down list let you select various ways of scaling the

printout of the current PDF document to the selected paper size in your

printer. Choose None to have no scaling applied to a PDF printout or Fit

to Paper to have Acrobat reduce or enlarge a PDF file to fit the paper

size selected in the Page Setup dialog box. See the “Printing oversized

documents” section, later in this chapter, for more on Acrobat’s Page

Scaling print features.

 Auto-Rotate and Center: Select this check box if you want the page ori-

entation of the current PDF file to automatically match those specified in

your printer properties.

 Choose Paper Source by PDF Page Size: Select this Windows-only

check box to have the PDF page size determine which of your printer’s

paper trays to use rather than the Page Setup option. Use this feature in

cases where a PDF file containing multiple page sizes is printed on a

printer with different-sized output trays.

 Print What: Use the options on the drop-down list to specify which visi-

ble contents in a PDF to print. The Document option prints all visible

contents and form fields, the Document and Comments option adds

comments to the printout, and the Form Fields Only option prints out

interactive form fields but no document contents.

 Printing Tips: Click this button to go online to Adobe’s Web site for

information on troubleshooting PDF printing problems.

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Printing document layers

Acrobat 6 now supports document layers created in the AutoCAD and

Microsoft Visio design programs. Those who create layered drawings in

those programs can specify what layer content, such as watermarks or confi-

dential information, must (or must not) be printed. They can then convert

their documents to PDF, layers and all, to be viewed in Acrobat 6. If the result-

ing PDF file contains content that is not visible on the screen but should be

printed (or vice versa), Acrobat 6 displays a warning message in the Print

dialog box, as well as a preview of how the page will be printed.

You can use commands on the Options menu at the top of the Layers naviga-

tion tab to determine what specific layer content you want to print. To open

the Layers tab, choose View➪Navigation Tabs➪Layers or just click the Layers

tab on the left side of the Navigation pane. To view a document exactly as it

will print, choose Apply Print Overrides on the Options menu, as shown in

Figure 8-2. This option prints all layer content in the document, even if it is

not visible in the Acrobat document pane.

Figure 8-2:

Choosing

the Apply

Overrides

command to

print all the

layers in a

document.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

You can also change print overrides for specific layers. To do so, follow these

steps:

1. Click the Layers tab in the Navigation pane to open the Layers palette

and view the list of layers in the current PDF file.

2. Click a layer name in the Layers palette list to select a layer, and then

choose Layer Properties on the Options menu at the top of the

Navigation pane.

Alternatively, you can right-click the layer and choose Properties on

the context menu to open the Layer Properties dialog box, as shown in

Figure 8-3.

3. Select the option you want from the Print drop-down list as follows:

• Select the Always Prints option to force the selected layer to print.

• Select the Never Prints option to force the selected layer to not

print.

• Select the Prints When Visible option to force the layer to print

only when it is visible in the document.

4. Click OK to close the Layer Properties dialog box.

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Playing with the PostScript options

If you have a PostScript printer, you can modify

the PostScript options in the Advanced Print

Setup dialog box in Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

To open this dialog box, click the Advanced

button in the Print dialog box. Use the Font and

Resource Policy drop-down list to specify when

fonts and resources are downloaded to your

printer. Use the Print Method drop-down list to

select the level of PostScript (2 or 3) best suited

for your printer (some older laser printers don’t

understand levels of PostScript). When the

Download Asian Fonts check box is selected,

Acrobat downloads Asian Fonts used but not

embedded in the PDF document to the laser

printer if they are not already installed on it.

Select the Save Printer Memory check box to

have Acrobat download all the fonts for a given

page before that page is printed to save on

printer memory. Note that all options in the

Advanced Print Setup dialog box display

descriptive information in a scroll box below

when you select an option.

Printing selected pages

Sometimes, you don’t need to print all the pages in a PDF document or even a

continuous range of pages. If you’re using Acrobat 6 or Adobe Reader 6, you

can print individual, nonconsecutive pages in the document. To do this, you

need to select the individual pages before you open the Print dialog box by

following these steps:

1. Click the Pages tab in the Navigation pane to bring its palette to the

front. If the Navigation pane is closed, press F6 to open and select the

Pages palette.

2. To see all the thumbnails for the pages you want to select for printing,

you may need to switch to small thumbnails and widen the Navigation

pane:

• To switch to small thumbnails, click the Options button at the top

of the palette and then click Reduce Page Thumbnails near the

bottom of its pop-up menu.

• To widen the Navigation pane until all the thumbnails are displayed

(or all the ones with pages you want to print), position the mouse

Figure 8-3:

Choosing

override

options for

individual

layers in

a PDF

document.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

pointer on the border between the Navigation and Document panes

and then, when the mouse pointer becomes a double-headed arrow,

drag the border to the right until the Navigation pane is wide

enough to display all the thumbnails.

3. Ctrl+click (

ÔÔ

+click on the Macintosh) the thumbnails for all the indi-

vidual pages you want to print to select them in the Thumbnail

palette.

4. Choose File➪Print or press Ctrl+P (

ÔÔ

+P on the Mac).

The Print dialog box opens with the Selected Pages radio button

selected, as shown in Figure 8-4.

5. Click OK to begin printing only the selected pages in the PDF document.

To print just a graphic on the page, click the Snapshot tool (G) on the Basic

Tools toolbar and use it to draw a bounding box around the image. After

selecting the image in this manner, right-click (Control+click on the Mac) to

display the image’s context menu and click the Print option to open the Print

dialog box.

Figure 8-4:

Selecting

the

thumbnails

of the

individual

files to print.

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Chapter 8: Printing PDF Files

Printing oversized documents

Some of the PDF documents that you want to print are too large to fit even

the largest paper sizes that your printer can handle. As you can see in Figures

8-1 and 8-4, Acrobat handles this in the Print dialog box by automatically

selecting the Shrink Large Pages on the Page Scaling drop-down list. This

option automatically scales down the text and graphics on each page to fit

the paper size selected for your printer.

When the Shrink Large Pages option is selected, the program automatically

selects the Auto-Rotate and Center Pages check box option. When this option

is selected, Acrobat routinely rotates PDF documents that are wider than the

selected paper size, while at the same time centering the text and graphics

that do fit. When this check box is selected in conjunction with the Shrink

Oversized Pages to Paper Size option, Acrobat shrinks the text and graphics

on each page so that they all fit and are centered on the page.

If you have a PostScript printer installed on your system, you can print over-

sized pages in your PDF documents using a method called tiling. When you

print oversized pages by tiling, Acrobat or Adobe Reader divides each over-

sized page into sections, each of which is printed on a single page of paper.

You can then fit the printed pages together to see how the oversized page

will appear when printed with a printer that can handle the oversized paper.

Acrobat gives you two print tiling options on the Page Scaling drop-down list:

Tile Large Pages (only pages larger than the selected paper size are tiled) and

Tile All Pages. Selecting either of these options displays the following new

settings in the Print dialog box (see Figure 8-5):

 Tile Scale: Enter a value in this text box to scale the printed PDF file

onto tiles. A higher percentage creates more tiles, a lower percentage

creates fewer tiles.

 Overlap: Enter a value in this text box to indicate the amount you want

the printing on adjacent tiles to overlap each other so you can more easily

align them with each other. Enter a decimal value for this overlap distance

of anywhere between 0.125 and 0.25 inches. You need this overlap dis-

tance, because laser printers have to maintain a minimum of blank space

on the page where they grab and pull the paper. The exact value you enter

depends on your particular printer and the page size your tiles use.

 Cut Marks: Choose an option from this drop-down list to indicate which

guide marks you want printed on the page. Select None to have no

guides printed for cropping the tiled printout, or select either Western

(the crosshatched registration marks universally used in North

American and European printers) or Eastern style cut marks.

 Labels: Select this check box to print descriptive labels on each tile.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Using the prepress printing settings

In addition to the standard printing options described in previous sections,

the Print dialog box (refer to Figure 8-4) also contains an Advanced button

that opens the Advanced Print Setup dialog box. These features are used only

when preparing a PDF document for professional printing with high-end

imagesetters. Don’t mess with these prepress settings without the advice and

consent of your favorite service bureau people.

When you click the name of any check box option in the Advanced Print

Setup dialog box, Acrobat displays a brief description of that option in a text

box at the bottom of the dialog box. Just be mindful that when clicking the

name of an option to get a brief explanation of its function, you also end up

either selecting or deselecting that check box. If you’re just exploring the

options to discover more about their use, be sure that you don’t inadver-

tently select an option you don’t really want to use.

Troubleshooting Printing Problems

You can click the Printing Tips button in the Print dialog box in Acrobat 6 and

Adobe Reader 6 to go online to the Adobe Web site to get a slew of suggestions

Figure 8-5:

Using the

Tiling

options in

the Print

Settings

dialog box

to print an

oversized

document.

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Chapter 8: Printing PDF Files

on how to troubleshoot the most common printing problems with Acrobat.

This area of the Adobe support knowledge base is particularly helpful if you’re

having trouble printing a PDF file on a PostScript printer. The Web page

includes instructions on how to enable the PostScript error handler for your

printer, depending upon which operating system you’re using (Windows or

Macintosh) so you can track the specific errors that printing the PDF file is

causing. It also contains a link to another page on the Adobe Web site that tells

you what these PostScript errors really mean and gives you some suggestions

on how to get around them.

Using PrintMe Internet Printing

Acrobat 6 offers support for the PrintMe Internet Printing service that

enables you to print your PDF documents to any printer on the PrintMe

Network or any fax machine in the world, which is a great convenience for

globetrotters. To use the feature, just choose File➪PrintMe Internet Printing.

If you’re not already signed up, the PrintMe Networks dialog box, shown in

Figure 8-6, appears. Select the New Users radio button, and then click the

Signup Now! button in to open the PrintMe New User Signup dialog box,

shown in Figure 8-7, where you fill in the form and get a new user account.

Upon registering as a user with PrintMe Internet Printing, a PrintMe print

driver is downloaded to your computer and you then follow the onscreen

prompts to install the driver. After installation of the print driver, the PrintMe

Networks dialog box (Figure 8-6) reappears, enabling you to log on to the

network.

To use PrintMe Internet Printing, follow these steps:

1. Open the PDF document you want to print to a remote PrintMe printer

or fax machine and choose File➪PrintMe Internet Printing.

The PrintMe Networks dialog box opens (see Figure 8-8).

Figure 8-6:

Opening the

PrintMe

Networks

dialog box in

Acrobat 6 to

an account.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

2. Enter a new name for the printed document in the Title text box (the

current document title appears here by default) and then select either

the Print All Pages or Pages options in the Page Range area. If you

select Pages, enter a range of pages to print in the text boxes provided,

and then enter the number of copies to print in the Copies text box.

By default, the My Favorites radio button is selected in the PrintMe To

area.

3. Choose a PrintMe destination or fax number from the Most Recent

drop-down list that displays the last ten PrintMe destinations or fax

numbers used.

4. To choose a new PrintMe printer or fax number, click the More button

(black triangle) if it’s not already selected when the dialog box opens.

5. Click the Printer radio button and then enter a new PrintMe destina-

tion in the PrintMe ID text box or the telephone number of the desti-

nation fax machine in the FAX# text box.

6. Click the PrintMe button to send your PDF document to the selected

PrintMe enabled printer or fax machine.

The PrintMe Networks dialog box also provides an Address Book used to store

PrintMe destination Printer ID’s and fax numbers as well as a searchable online

Figure 8-7:

The PrintMe

New User

Signup

dialog box.

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Chapter 8: Printing PDF Files

directory that lists the name and Printer ID numbers of host printer locations

currently signed up with the service. The service enables you to print to any

fax machine whose telephone number you know. Click the Address Book

button to access your PrintMe Address Book or the Find button to locate a

PrintMe printer in their online directory. To add a PrintMe destination or fax

number to the Address Book, choose Add to Address Book and enter a name

for the printer or fax number in the appropriate text box as it will appear in

your PrintMe Address Book. The entry is added to your Address Book when

you click the PrintMe button. Click the My Account button to go online and

view status and statistics of your PrintMe account.

Note that after selecting a printer in the PrintMe Networks dialog box, the

Options button activates and provides you with additional printing options

that vary depending on the selected PrintMe enabled printer.

Figure 8-8:

The PrintMe

Networks

dialog box.

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Part II: The Wealth of Ways for Creating PDF Files

Part III

Reviewing,

Editing, and

Securing PDFs

In this part . . .

fter you’ve converted your electronic and paper docu-

ments to PDF ﬁles, you’re ready to explore the many

Acrobat 6 features for reviewing, editing, organizing, and

making them secure. Part III introduces all of these kinds of

important, post-production features.

In Chapter 9, you ﬁnd out how to use Acrobat 6 to annotate

your PDF ﬁles so that coworkers and clients alike can

review them online, and you can summarize their feedback.

In the process, I introduce you to the new e-mail-based and

browser-based review features in Acrobat 6. In Chapter 10,

you discover the types of PDF document editing that you

can perform in Acrobat 6. Chapter 11 introduces you to the

ways to secure your PDF ﬁles from unwanted changes. It

also gives you the lowdown on how to use digital signa-

tures in Acrobat 6 to sign off on changes, as well as prevent

future changes. Chapter 12 covers the ways you can repur-

pose the contents of your PDF ﬁles by extracting the text

and graphics for uses with the other software programs

you commonly use. Finally, Chapter 13 rounds out Part III

by giving you vital information on how to catalog and

archive your PDF ﬁles by building searchable PDF docu-

ment collections that you can distribute on CD-ROM or

on your company’s network or intranet.

Chapter 9

Annotating PDF Files for Review

In This Chapter

 Sending out PDF files for review

 Adding bookmarks to aid in document review

 Noting changes in the PDF document

 Giving audio comments and stamping the document

 Marking up and highlighting proposed changes in the document

 Attaching supplemental files to the PDF document

 Collecting and summarizing comments

ne of the most important groups of features in Acrobat 6 is the annota-

tion features that enable you to mark up and add comments to a PDF

document. These features facilitate the review process by enabling all the dif-

ferent people on a design team to give you their feedback in a consistent and

timely manner. The annotation features in Acrobat 6 also assist in the approval

process by enabling you to get feedback and eventually the final okay from

clients and key personnel in-house.

In this chapter, you discover the many ways to send out a PDF document in

order to initiate a review cycle. You also find out how to annotate a PDF docu-

ment, including adding bookmarks to make it easier to navigate the docu-

ment you’re reviewing, as well as attaching comments (in many different

formats, including text notes, sound notes, and attached files) and marking

up text and graphics. You also become familiar with the ways to collect and

summarize review comments for a particular PDF file in anticipation of

making the final edits (as described in Chapter 10).

Sending Out PDF Files for

Review in Windows

Acrobat is known for its arsenal of useful annotating tools, and Adobe contin-

ues to improve those tools, as you discover in later sections of this chapter.

What makes Acrobat 6 such a worthwhile upgrade is the addition of e-mail-

based and browser-based reviewing. These new reviewing features, available

to users of Acrobat 6 for Windows, streamline the initiation of a review cycle

by allowing you to distribute a PDF review document either by e-mail or by

posting the PDF file on a network (intranet or Internet) server and allowing

participants to review it in a Web browser.

Here’s how a typical Acrobat PDF review cycle works — the initiator of a review

distributes a PDF document to reviewers, known as participants, who then use

the Acrobat commenting tools to annotate the document for the edification of

the review initiator. The initiator then reviews the reviews of the reviewers

(sounds fun, right?). Acrobat enables you to set up either e-mail-based or

browser-based reviews. When deciding which type of review to use, note that

with e-mail-based reviews, participants don’t need access to a shared server;

with browser-based reviews, participants can see each others’ comments on

an ongoing basis.

Initiating an e-mail-based review

In an e-mail-based review, you (the review initiator) send an e-mail to each par-

ticipant. Attached to this e-mail is a copy of the PDF document for review in the

form of an FDF (Form Data Format) setup file that contains configuration set-

tings for importing reviewer comments. FDF is an Adobe variation of PDF used

to import and export form data in PDF documents. (For more on interactive

forms in Acrobat, see Chapter 14.) The participants add comments to the PDF

document copy, and then e-mail the comments back to you via the FDF setup

file. When you open the attached FDF file, Acrobat opens your original PDF

document and automatically imports participant comments and annotations

for viewing in the original document. To get the ball rolling, make sure to save

your PDF document in a convenient place on your hard drive so that the FDF

setup file has no trouble finding it, and then follow these steps:

1. Open the PDF document you want to send out for review and choose

File➪Send by E-mail for Review.

The Send by E-mail for Review dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-1.

If you haven’t specified an e-mail address in the Identity window of the

Preferences dialog box in Acrobat 6, an alert dialog box appears,

prompting you to enter an e-mail address where review comments will

be sent. This e-mail address is added to your Acrobat preferences for

future reviews. Enter your e-mail address and click OK.

2. In the Send by E-mail for Review dialog box, enter participant

addresses in the To, Cc (carbon copy), or Bcc (blind carbon copy)

text boxes.

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Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs

3. Edit the default text in the Subject and Message to Reviewers text

boxes as desired, and then click the Send button.

If your default e-mail client displays an alert dialog box, asking you to

verify sending the e-mail, click the Send button again to distribute your

PDF document to review participants.

E-mail attachments sent using the File➪Send by E-mail for Review command

are in FDF (Form Data Format). When a review participant opens this attach-

ment, a copy of your original PDF file is opened in Acrobat, which the partici-

pant can then add comments to. When the review is finished, the participant

sends the comments back to you by choosing File➪Send Comments to Review

Initiator or by clicking the Send Comments button on the Commenting toolbar.

When you receive and open this FDF attachment, Acrobat opens your original

PDF document and imports the participant’s comments into the PDF docu-

ment for viewing.

E-mail-based reviews can be initiated in the same manner described previously

from applications other than Acrobat 6 that support the PDFMaker plug-in.

These include Microsoft Office 2000 and XP (when using Acrobat 6 Standard or

Professional), as well as AutoCAD, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Visio (when

using Acrobat 6 Professional only). Note that to initiate an e-mail-based review

in those programs, you have to open the document you wish to send for review

and choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF and Send for Review on the

program’s menu bar.

Figure 9-1:

Setting up

an e-mail-

based

review in

the Send by

E-mail for

Review

dialog box.

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Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review

Participating in an e-mail-based review

The following list gives you some pointers on making a review cycle run

smoothly, whether you’re the initiator or a participant in an e-mail-based

review:

 When you open the FDF attachment in an e-mail-based review, a Document

Status message informs you that the document has been sent for review.

You must be using either Acrobat 6 Professional or Standard versions to

participate.

 When you’re finished annotating a PDF file, save the file with your changes

in a convenient place on your hard drive so that you can review the docu-

ment without having to open the original e-mail attachment. This also pro-

vides a copy of the reviewed PDF in case you want to share the reviewed

PDF file by e-mailing it to others (you’re not allowed to enter additional

e-mail addresses when you choose File➪Send Comments to Review

Initiator).

 If you want to send additional comments to the review initiator, open

your saved version of the reviewed PDF file, edit or make additional

comments, and choose File➪Send Comments to Review Initiator again.

The initiator will receive your revised PDF. (Note that any comments

you deleted in the revised document will still appear in the initiator’s

version.) Initiators can use comment filtering and deletion features to

keep things legible. See the section, “Managing reviews with the Review

Tracker,” later in this chapter.

 When you receive a participant’s copy of the reviewed PDF file and open

the FDF attachment, your original PDF document opens. If the original

can’t be found, you are prompted to browse for it.

 If you want to make changes to the original PDF document, save those

changes under a different file name in order to preserve the original;

otherwise, participant annotations may appear in the wrong places in

the edited document.

 Use the Review Tracker (which is covered a little later in this chapter)

to manage the annotations you collect in a review cycle, whether it is

an e-mail-based review or a browser-based review.

Setting up a browser-based review

In a browser-based review, you can either upload a PDF document to a server

or work with an existing document on a server. Like an e-mail-based review,

the review initiator sends an e-mail to participants with an attached FDF

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Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs

(Form Data Format) setup file that contains configuration settings for import-

ing reviewer comments into the review PDF file. Reviewers must open this FDF

attachment, as opposed to simply opening the PDF document posted on the

server, in order to participate in a browser-based review. When a reviewer

opens the FDF attachment, a copy of the PDF file is opened in their Web

browser. Participants can then make annotations to the PDF document using

tools on the Review and Comment toolbar that appears in their browser when

the PDF file is opened. All participant comments are stored in the FDF setup

file and imported into the shared PDF document for reviewing by everyone

participating in the review cycle. Note that participants cannot edit or delete

one another’s comments, though they can reply to them, as you see in the

next sections.

Looking at the Reviewing preferences for a browser-based review

In order to initiate a browser-based review, you have to first specify the type

of server you’re using and the location of the FDF setup file where all the par-

ticipant comments are stored. Having this file accessible to all browser-based

review participants is what allows everyone to view the ongoing review cycle

in their Web browsers. You specify these settings in the Preferences dialog

box in Acrobat 6. Choose Edit➪Preferences or press Ctrl+K, and then click

Reviewing in the list box on the left side of the Preferences dialog box to dis-

play the Reviewing options, as shown in Figure 9-2.

Figure 9-2:

Specify

reviewing

preferences

for a

browser-

based

review in

the Acrobat

Preferences

dialog box.

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Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review

The following list describes the options found in the Reviewing options of the

Preferences dialog box:

 Server Type: Use the Server Type drop-down list to define what type of

server you’re using to store the FDF setup file containing browser-based

review annotations. Select the Database option if there is a database

application server setup on your company intranet. Select the Network

Folder option to upload your FDF setup file to a shared folder on your

network. Select the Web Discussions option if you have access to a

Microsoft Discussions server. Note that this type of server needs to be

configured in Internet Explorer as well. Select the WebDAV (Web-based

Distributed Authoring and Versioning) option, which is a special kind of

server that allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files

remotely, if you have access to a WebDAV server.

 Server Settings: Fill in the necessary directory path or (HTTP type)

addresses in the Server Settings text box, which activates when you

make a selection on the Server Type drop-down list.

 Browse: If you select Network Folder as your Server Type, the Browse

button activates so that you can locate the shared folder you want to

use in a browser-based review. Remember that all participants need

access to this folder in order to participate in the review.

 Reset Automatic How To Pages: Click this button to ensure that the

How To window will display topics that are appropriate to the type of

review cycle you define. For more information about getting help in

Acrobat 6, see Chapter 3.

If all this sounds like Greek to you, it’s best to get these settings from your

systems administrator. Otherwise, fill in the appropriate information and

click OK to close the Preferences dialog box.

If you choose WebDAV or have access to your own or someone else’s Web

server, you need to add that server as one of your network places in Windows

XP in order to upload your PDF using the Upload for Browser-Based Review

command within Acrobat. To do so, choose Start➪My Network Places, and

then click Add a Network Place in the Network Tasks area. Follow the prompts

in the Add Network Place Wizard and then click the Finish button. Don’t be

afraid to seek help in completing this wizard from your systems administrator

if necessary.

Initiating a browser-based review

After setting up your Reviewing preferences, you’re ready to upload the PDF

review file and specify review participants. Keep in mind that though the PDF

review file and the FDF setup file do not have to be in the same location, par-

ticipants must have access to both files on a network in order to review the

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Part III: Reviewing, Editing, and Securing PDFs

PDF document. Also note that you should wait until you’ve uploaded a PDF

for review to make any initial comments. If you don’t, any comments you

make to a PDF file prior to uploading will be embedded in the PDF document

and you won’t be able to further edit them. To upload your PDF document

and initiate a browser-based review, follow these steps:

1. Open the PDF review document in Acrobat 6 and choose File➪Upload

for Browser-Based Review.

2. In the Upload for Review dialog box that appears, click My Network

and locate the folder in which you want to store the PDF review file.

Make sure that all participants have access to this network location.

3. Click the Upload button to copy the PDF review document.

When your PDF file finishes uploading, the Start Browser-Based Review

dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-3.

4. In the Start Browser-Based Review dialog box, enter participant

addresses in the To, Cc, or Bcc text boxes.

5. Edit the default text in the Subject and Message to Reviewers text

boxes and click the Send button.

If your default e-mail client displays an alert dialog box asking you to

verify sending the e-mail, click the Send button again to send an e-mail

message to participants that specifies the location of the PDF review file.

Figure 9-3:

Setting up a

browser-

based

review in

the Start

Browser-

Based

Review

dialog box.

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Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review

If the PDF file you want to have reviewed already exists on a server, you can ini-

tiate a browser-based review as well as invite new participants to the review

cycle by first navigating to the file and opening it in your browser. The Review

and Comment Tasks button appears in your browser window; from its pop-up

menu, choose Invite Others to Review This Document to open the Start

Browser-Based Review dialog box, where you enter participant addresses

before clicking the Send button. You can also use this same command in

Acrobat 6 during an e-mail-based review to invite more participants to review

your PDF document.

Participating in a browser-based review

When participants open the FDF setup file attached to their invitation e-mail,

a copy of the PDF review document is opened in their browser. In addition to

the basic Adobe Reader tool set displayed in the browser window, you also

get the Review and Comment Tasks button, shown in Figure 9-4, that allows

you to annotate the PDF in your browser. The following list gives you some

pointers on making a review cycle run smoothly, whether you’re the initiator

or a participant in a browser-based review:

Figure 9-4:

Acrobat

displays the

PDF review

document

and the

Review and

Comment

Tasks button

with its pop-

up menu

commands

in your

browser.

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 You must use Acrobat 6 Professional or Standard versions to participate

in a browser-based review.

 You must open the FDF file attached to your invitation e-mail in order to

participate in a browser-based review.

 To annotate a PDF file, use the tools and commands on the Review and

Comment Tasks button because the menu commands in this case are

browser-specific. The Review and Comment Tasks button also contains

commands for displaying the Commenting and Advanced Commenting

toolbars. Like all tool bars in Acrobat, these can be displayed as either

floating or docked.

 In order to be able to see other participant’s comments, your Reviewing

preferences must match those of the review initiator. If you can’t see

other people’s comments, request the correct server settings from the

review initiator and make sure you have access to that location.

 To view updated annotations from other participants or to enable others

to view your recent contributions, choose Send and Receive Comments

on the Review and Comment Tasks pop-up menu.

 When you’re finished adding annotations to a PDF review document, you

can change the status of your review to completed to communicate that

fact to the review initiator and other participants. You complete a review

by choosing Review and Comment➪Set Review Status➪Completed from

the Review and Comment Tasks button pop-up menu.

 If you’d like to perform your review in Acrobat rather than your Web

browser, click the Save and Work Offline button on the Commenting

toolbar.

 If at anytime you’ve stopped adding annotations to a PDF review document

and want to continue the process, either reopen the FDF attachment in

your original e-mail invitation or, if you’ve saved the document to work

offline, open it in Acrobat and choose File➪Go Back Online. This command

reopens the PDF document in your browser and uploads your comments.

 Use the Review Tracker to manage the annotations you collect in a

review cycle, whether it is an e-mail-based review or a browser-based

review. See the next section for details.

Managing reviews with

the Review Tracker

The Review Tracker is a handy new feature that helps the review initiator

organize participant comments, communicate with participants, and keep

track of ongoing or completed review cycles, whether they are e-mail-based

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or browser-based reviews. To open the Review Tracker, shown in Figure 9-5,

choose Track Reviews on the Review and Comment Tasks button pop-up

menu, or choose Open Review Tracker on the Options pop-up menu at the

top of the Comments palette in the Navigation pane.

As you can see in Figure 9-5, the Review Tracker has two pop-up menus, Show

and Manage, as well as two list boxes, one on top of the other. The Show pop-up

menu lets you specify which reviews are displayed in the top list box. Choose

either All, Active, Completed, Sent, or Received. Note that displayed reviews are

categorized as either e-mail-based or browser-based. Attached Expand (+) and

Collapse (–) buttons on these categories, when clicked, display or hide individ-

ual review document names. Clicking a review document name in the review list

displays that review’s status information in the list box directly below.

Clicking the Open button displays the review document in either Acrobat, if it’s

an e-mail-based review, or in your Web browser, if it’s a browser-based review.

Clicking the Remove button deletes the review from the Review Tracker.

The Manage pop-up menu enables you to communicate with participants

associated with the selected review and contains the following options:

 E-mail All Reviewers: Used to send an e-mail message to all reviewers

associated with the selected review.

 Send Review Reminder: Used to send a gentle (or otherwise) reminder

to those participants who might be lagging in their rate of review

contribution.

Figure 9-5:

The Review

Tracker,

displayed in

the How To

window, lets

you manage

e-mail-

based or

browser-

based

reviews.

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 Invite More Reviewers: Used to liven up the party, especially if you find

yourself using the Send Review Reminder command a little too often.

 Go Back Online: Activates when you select a browser-based review in

the Review Tracker list. This command, surprisingly enough, enables

you to go back online and refresh the selected browser-based review for

those who might be online at the very moment you decide to change the

review status.

The Review Tracker also has the standard How To window navigation but-

tons at the top of the pane — How To, Home, Back, Forward, and Hide. Just

don’t click the Home button and expect to be able to click the Back button to

redisplay the Review Tracker. In order to reopen the Review Tracker, you

have to use the Review and Comment Tasks button or the Options command

on the Comments palette in the Navigation pane.

The Ins and Outs of Bookmarks

Bookmarks are the links that appear on the Bookmarks palette in the

Navigation pane in a PDF document. They are most often used to take you

directly to different sections within the document. Bookmarks can take you to

different pages in the document or even different views of a page. Bookmarks

can also link you to different documents (PDF and non-PDF) on your com-

puter, as well as to Web pages on the Internet. All of these functions make

bookmarks perfect for providing review participants with a quick means of

navigating to annotations and markups you make in a PDF document review

cycle. As if this weren’t enough, bookmarks can also perform certain actions

in the PDF document, such as submitting a form’s data, playing a sound or

movie, or selecting a particular menu item. (See Chapters 14 and 16 for infor-

mation on working with PDF forms and adding interactivity to PDF files.)

To use a bookmark to jump to a particular page or page view, to open a new

document or Web page, or to execute a command or perform a specified

action, all you have to do is click the name or icon of the bookmark in the

Bookmarks palette in the Navigation pane. If you want, you can have Acrobat

automatically close the Navigation pane whenever you click a bookmark by

selecting the Hide After Use setting on the Options pop-up menu at the top of

the Navigation pane. This option is particularly useful for bookmarks that

open pages in the document that are displayed in the Fit Width or Fit Visible

page views and require maximum screen area for legibility.

Generating automated bookmarks

When you use the PDFMaker plug-in to convert documents created with

Microsoft Word for Windows to PDF, you can specify that the document

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heading and other styles, cross-references, and footnotes automatically be

converted into bookmarks in the final PDF file (see Chapter 5 for details).

Also, when capturing Web pages, Acrobat can automatically generate book-

marks for each page that you capture (see Chapter 7 for details).

When the Add Bookmarks to Adobe PDF option is selected during conver-

sion, the bookmarks automatically generated from Word documents with the

PDFMaker 6.0 and from Web pages in Acrobat 6 are saved as a special type

called tagged bookmarks. Tagged bookmarks keep track of the underlying

structure of the document (such as heading levels and paragraph styles in

Word documents and HTML tags in Web pages) by tagging these elements.

You can use the elements stored in any tagged PDF document or captured

Web page to automatically generate bookmarks for any particular element in

the document. (For details on creating a tagged PDF file or converting a non-

tagged PDF file, see Chapter 15.) To generate automatic bookmarks for a

tagged file, click the Options pop-up menu on the Bookmarks palette and

then click New Bookmarks from Structure on the menu to open the Structure

Elements dialog box, as shown in Figure 9-6. Note that the New Bookmarks

from Structure menu item is grayed out if the PDF document you’re working

with isn’t tagged.

To have Acrobat generate bookmarks for particular elements in the PDF doc-

ument, you then select the names of the elements for which you want the

bookmarks generated (Ctrl+click on Windows or Control+click on the Mac to

select multiple elements) in the Structure Elements dialog box before you

click OK. Acrobat then goes through the document, identifying the tags for

the selected elements and generating bookmarks for each of them.

Figure 9-7 illustrates how this works. In this figure, you see a group of four

automatically generated bookmarks created from the Figure tag in the original

tagged PDF document. As you can see, when Acrobat generates these tags, it

Figure 9-6:

Selecting the

elements to

automatically

bookmark

in the

Structure

Elements

dialog box.

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gives them the name of the tagged element used to create them (which in this

case just happened to be Figure). These four Figure tags are automatically

nested under a generic bookmark named Untitled. All that remains to do is to

rename these bookmarks to something a little bit more descriptive, such as

Table of Figures for the Untitled bookmark, Cover for the first Figure book-

mark, Title Page for the second, Half Title Page for the third, and Copyright for

the fourth and last bookmark. (See the “Editing bookmarks” section, later in

this chapter, for details on how to rename bookmarks.)

Creating manual bookmarks

Although the automated methods are by far the fastest ways to generate

bookmarks, they are by no means the only ways to add bookmarks. You can

also manually add bookmarks to any PDF multipage document that you’ve

opened in Acrobat 6. Each bookmark that you add to a PDF document has

two parts: the bookmark link and the bookmark destination. The bookmark

link consists of a page icon followed by the name of the bookmark in the

Bookmarks palette, and the bookmark destination is the page, page view, new

document, or Web page that is displayed or the action that is executed when

you click the bookmark link.

Figure 9-7:

The

bookmarks

generated

for the

Figure

element in a

tagged PDF

document.

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Making bookmarks to go to pages in the document

When you create a new bookmark to another page in the same PDF document,

Acrobat records not only the page but also the page view and the magnifica-

tion setting in effect as part of the bookmark’s destination. This means that

the most productive way to create manual bookmarks is to first navigate to

the destination page and make any desired change to the page view and/or

magnification settings before you begin creating the bookmark. Although you

can designate the destination page as part of the process of creating the new

bookmark, going to the page and setting things up beforehand just makes the

process all the easier and more efficient.

With this tip in mind, the steps for manually creating a bookmark to a new

page in the same document are as follows:

1. Launch Acrobat and then open the PDF document to which you want

to add bookmarks.

2. If necessary, open the Navigation pane by pressing F6 and click the

Bookmarks tab to display its palette on top.

3. Using the buttons on the Navigation toolbar or navigation buttons on

the Document window status bar, go to the destination page in the

document for the first bookmark.

4. If you want the destination page to be displayed in a different page

view or magnification, select the appropriate options from the View

menu or click the appropriate buttons on Zoom toolbar and the

Document status bar (see Chapter 2 for details).

5. Choose the New Bookmark command on the Options menu at the top

of the Bookmarks palette or right-click the Document window to open

its context menu, and then click New Bookmark (you can also press

Ctrl+B on Windows or

ÔÔ

+B on the Mac).

A new bookmark icon named Untitled is added (see Figure 9-8).

6. Type a descriptive name for your new bookmark and then press the

Enter key (Return on the Mac) or click the mouse pointer somewhere

outside of the bookmark name to add it to the list in the Bookmarks

palette.

Editing bookmarks

If, after creating a bookmark, you discover that you need to make changes to

the bookmark type or its destination, you can do this in the Bookmark

Properties dialog box, which you can open by right-clicking (Control+clicking

on the Mac) the name of the bookmark and then clicking Properties on its con-

text menu. You can also edit the appearance of a bookmark in this dialog box.

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To change the text color of the bookmark as it appears in the Bookmarks

palette, click Appearance tab and then the Color button to select a new color

in the color palette. To change the text style of the bookmark, click the new

style (Bold, Italic, or Bold & Italic) on the Style drop-down list. To assign your

new color and/or text style to the bookmark, click the Close button in the

Bookmark Properties dialog box.

Changing the page destination for a bookmark

If you find that you’ve linked a bookmark that goes to the wrong page, you

can easily edit just its destination by taking these few steps:

1. Using the buttons on the Navigation toolbar or navigation buttons on

the Document window status bar, go to the correct destination page in

the document for the bookmark.

2. Right-click (Control+click on the Mac) the name of the bookmark

whose destination needs editing in the Bookmarks palette and click

Set Destination on the context menu.

3. Click Yes in the alert dialog box that asks you if you’re certain that

you want to make this change.

Figure 9-8:

Adding

a new

bookmark

in the

Bookmarks

palette to

the page

currently

displayed

in the

Document

window.

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To test the edited destination, click the buttons on the Navigation toolbar or

on the Document window status bar to move to a new page, and then click

the bookmark to make sure that it now takes you to the right page.

Renaming and deleting bookmarks

If you aren’t happy with a name of a particular bookmark, you can rename it

in a snap:

1. Right-click (Control+click on the Mac) the name of the bookmark

whose name needs changing in the Bookmarks palette and click

Rename on the context menu.

2. Replace the existing name by typing the new name and then pressing

Enter (Return on the Mac) or by clicking the mouse pointer some-

where outside of the bookmark name.

To delete a bookmark, right-click (Control+click on the Mac) the bookmark in

the Navigation pane and then click Delete on its context menu.

Inserting Document Comments

with the Commenting Toolbar

In its original state, the Commenting toolbar displays the buttons for four

tools — Note, Indicate Text Edits, Stamp tool, and Highlight Text — that you

can use to annotate your PDF document, as well as the Show button that is

used to display or hide (also known as filtering) comments in your PDF docu-

ment. (For more on filtering comments see the “Showing and hiding comments”

section, later in this chapter.) Three of the tool buttons, Indicate Text Edits,

Stamp tool, and Highlight Text, contain pop-up menus that you can click to

display additional features for the selected tool.

When you click the pop-up menu button on the Indicate Text Edits tool, it dis-

plays options for marking up edited text selections. Figure 9-9 shows the

options provided on this menu. You normally use this group of commands in

conjunction with the Indicate Text Edits tool to perform various markups on

selected text in PDF document you’re reviewing for the benefit of other

review participants. These self-explanatory options include Insert Text at

Cursor, Replace Selected Text, Highlight Selected Text, Add Note to Selected

Text, Cross Out Text for Deletion, and Highlight Selected Text, among others.

When you click the pop-up menu button on the Stamp tool, it displays all the

options for using the electronic rubber stamp feature in Acrobat 6. See the

“Using the Stamp tool” section, later in this chapter, for more information.

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When you click the pop-up menu button on the Highlight tool, it displays dif-

ferent highlighting tools — Cross-Out Text tool and the Underline Text tool, in

addition to the standard Highlighter tool. You usually use this group of tools

to draw attention to text in the PDF document you’re reviewing that needs

some type of editing (normally deletion, when you use the Cross-Out Text

tool) or emphasizing (when you use the Underline Text tool). See the “Hitting

the highlights” section, later in this chapter, for details.

Note that Acrobat saves all notations that you add with Commenting and

Advanced Commenting tools on a distinct and invisible top layer of the PDF

document, keeping them separate from the PDF document text and graphics

underneath. This makes it possible for you to import comments from other

reviewers and add them to the PDF document, as well as to summarize all

comments made in the document and export them as a separate file. For a

description of all Comment and Advanced Comment tools, see Chapter 3.

Using the Note tool

The notes that you can add when reviewing a PDF file run the gamut of

hidden comments (identified by a note icon), simple text displayed at all

times in the document, audio comments that you listen to, and predefined

Figure 9-9:

The

Indicating

Text Edits

pop-up

menu on the

Commenting

toolbar.

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Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review

stamps indicating approval, confidentiality, and the like. You can even add

notes that attach files to the PDF document (useful when you want to include

alternative text or graphics that should be considered as possible replace-

ments or additions).

To add a hidden comment with the Note tool, follow these steps:

1. Click the Note tool on the Commenting toolbar or type S if the single-

key accelerators feature is turned on in the Acrobat General

Preferences.

2. Click the Note mouse pointer at the place on the page in the PDF docu-

ment where you want the Note icon to appear.

When you click this pointer, Acrobat opens a comment box that shows

your name and the current date on the colored (yellow by default) title bar.

3. Type the text of the note in the comment box.

4. If the text of your note is short, you can resize the comment box to

better suit the amount of text by positioning the mouse pointer in the

sizing box in the lower-right corner and dragging the outline of the

box with the arrowhead pointer until it’s the shape and size you want.

5. After you finish typing the text of the note, click the Close button in

the upper-left corner of the comment dialog box to close it. You can

also double-click the Note icon to close its comment box.

After you click the Close button in the comment box, only the Note icon

appears on the page, as shown in Figure 9-10. To open the note’s comment

box to read its text, select the Hand tool by pressing H and double-click the

Note icon, or right-click the icon (Control+click on the Mac), and then select

Open Pop-up Note on its context menu. You can leave a comment box open

next to its Note icon on the page by clicking outside of the box rather than

clicking its Close button.

Figure 9-10:

Changing

note

settings in

the Note

Properties

dialog box.

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You can move notes by dragging their Note icons or their comment boxes

(if they’re open) with either the Hand tool or the Note tool. Simply drag the

arrowhead pointer to the desired position on the page (usually off the text

that you’re commenting on) and then release the mouse button. To move a

note back to its original position, right-click (Control+click on the Mac) its

Note icon and click Reset Pop-up Note Location on its context menu. To

delete a hidden comment, choose Delete on the context menu.

You can also change the color and icons used when you add your comments

with the Note tool. This is a good feature to use when many people will be

adding comments to the same PDF. By having the reviewers select individual

colors and icons, you can tell at a glance which notes belong to which review-

ers. To select a new color and/or icon for your notes, follow these steps:

1. Add your first note (by following the preceding steps).

2. Right-click the Note icon (Control+click on the Mac), and then choose

Properties on the context menu.

The Note Properties dialog box appears (refer to Figure 9-10).

3. To select a new Note icon, select it in the Icon list box.

4. To select a new color for the Note icon, click the Color button and

then click a new color in the palette.

Note that you can also increase or decrease the opacity of the Note icon

by entering either a percentage number in the Opacity text box or

moving the slider button right for less opacity or left for more opacity.

5. To change the author or subject for the note, click the General tab and

enter a new name in the Author text box or a new subject in the

Subject text box.

6. Click Close to put your changes into effect.

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Roll me over and line me up

You can have Acrobat automatically open a

note’s comments box to display its text when

you position the mouse pointer on the Note icon.

To do so, open the Preferences dialog box by

pressing Ctrl+K (Ô+K on the Mac), and then

click Commenting in the list box. Then select the

Automatically Open Pop-ups on Mouse Rollover

check box in the Viewing Comments section.

You can also have Acrobat automatically dis-

play connecting lines between Note icons and

its pop-up window when you rollover the Note

icon by selecting the Show Lines Connecting

Markups to Their Pop-ups on Mouse Rollover

check box.

When you close the Note Properties dialog box, Acrobat changes the current

comment to suit the new icon and/or color settings. All notes that you subse-

quently create will use the new note settings. Be aware, however, that the icons

for notes previously added are unaffected by your changes to these settings

(you would have to delete and then re-create them to have all your notes

reflect the new color and icon settings). Also keep in mind that changes you

make in the Author or Subject text boxes of the Note Properties dialog box

affect only the particular note selected at that time.

Acrobat 6 uses your Windows Identity or Log-in name as the default entry in

the Author text box for Notes. If your Windows Log-in name differs from your

Acrobat Identity (entered in the Identity Preferences dialog box), you can

choose your Acrobat Identity for all subsequent notes you create with the

Note tool. To do so, open the Preferences dialog box (Ctrl+K on Windows,

Ô+K on the Mac), click Commenting in the list box, and then deselect the

Always Use Log-in Name for Author name check box in the Making Comments

Preferences area.

You can also change the font and font size for text used in the comments you

create with the Note tool, as well as the opacity of the comment box (by

decreasing it, you can see more of the text and graphics underneath) in the

Viewing Comments area of the Commenting Preferences dialog box. Note that

changes you make in the Font and Font Size drop-down lists affect only new

comments created with the Note tool. The same holds true for any new set-

ting you select with the Opacity text box or slider.

Using the Stamp tool

You can use the Stamp tool to imprint the document with a predefined graphic

mark that mimics real-world rubber ink stamps used to indicate the status of

the document, such as Draft, As Is, Confidential, or Final. When you use one of

these marks, you can also add a hidden comment to it, just like you do when

creating a comment with the Note tool. Acrobat comes with a wide variety of

ready-made stamps that you can use (which are organized into different cate-

gories). You can also add your own marks to these collections.

Don’t confuse adding a stamp to the PDF document you’re reviewing with digi-

tally signing a PDF document. When you stamp a document, you’re simply

adding another, more graphic form of notation to the document. When you

digitally sign a document, however, you’re actually using a secure method

for identifying yourself as the signatory (see Chapter 11 for details on the

process involved in digitally signing a document). Use stamps when you want

to call attention to the current state of the PDF document or add a very visible

review comment, such as red-flagging a change with, of all things, a red flag.

Digitally sign the PDF document when you’re ready to freeze it and prevent all

further changes to it.

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To add a stamp to a PDF document, take these steps:

1. Click the Stamp tool on the Commenting toolbar.

2. Click the Stamp tool mouse pointer at the place on the page in the PDF

document where you want the stamp’s imprint to appear.

When you click the Stamp tool mouse pointer, Acrobat inserts the last-

used stamp at the place you click (this is the Approved mark when you

first begin using this feature in Acrobat).

3. If you want to use a different stamp, click the mark that you just

added to the document to select it (you can tell it’s selected because a

bounding box with sizing handles at the corners appears), and then

click the Stamp tool pop-up menu to select another stamp.

The Stamp tool pop-up menu and submenus contain all the built-in stamps

available in Acrobat 6. These are divided into three categories: Dynamic, Sign

Here, and Standard Business. Dynamic stamps like the Approved stamp, shown

in Figure 9-11, automatically display author, time, and date information, as

opposed to Standard Business like the For Public Release stamp shown selected

on Stamp tool pop-up menu in the figure, which has no additional dynamic

information. The Sign Here category provides a number of stamps used to high-

light digital signature areas, much like the Sign Here Post-It notes you may have

seen attached to paper documents from your accountant or lawyer.

Figure 9-11:

Choosing a

new stamp

on the

Stamp tool

pop-up

menus.

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As mentioned earlier, you can attach hidden comments to stamps (see the

following section to find out how) and also specify properties for those com-

ments. To change properties for comments made with the Stamp tool, right-

click a stamp imprint in the current document and choose Properties on the

context menu to open the Stamp Properties dialog box. The following is a

rundown of the options you find there:

 Appearance tab: To change the color used in the title bar of any comment

box that you attach to a stamp, click the Pop-up Color button and then

click the new color in the palette. To decrease or increase the opacity of

the stamp imprint so that you can see more or less of the document back-

ground, enter a percentage number in the Opacity text box or move the

slider button to the left to decrease the opacity or to the right to increase

the opacity of the stamp imprint.

 General tab: To change the author associated with the stamp, click the

Author text box and then edit the name. To change the subject of the

stamp, click the Subject text box and edit the default text. Note that

Acrobat 6 uses your Windows Identity or Log-in name as the default

entry in the Author text box for stamps. To use your Acrobat Identity

instead for all subsequent notes you create with the Stamp tool, see the

instructions at the end of the previous section, “Using the Note tool.”

 Review History tab: Contains a list box that displays any changes in

status for the selected comment.

When you finish making changes to the settings in the Stamp Properties

dialog box, click the Close button to return to the current document. Note

that when you close the Stamp Properties dialog box, the imprint is still

selected in the current document so that you can resize it and move it to a

new place on the page if you need to.

To resize the imprint, position the mouse pointer on one of the sizing handles

and then drag diagonally with the double-headed pointer. To move the imprint

to a new place on the page (perhaps to the side or above related text or

graphic images), position the arrowhead pointer somewhere within its bound-

ing box and then drag its outline and drop it in place. To delete a stamp from

the PDF document, right-click (Control+click on the Mac) the Stamp’s imprint

and click Delete on its context menu.

Adding a hidden comment to a stamp imprint

If you want to add a hidden text comment to the imprint of a stamp, you can

do so by following these steps:

1. Double-click the imprint of the stamp to which you want to add the

comment.

Acrobat responds by opening a comment box, just like the ones used to

add comments with the Note tool.

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2. Type the text of your comment in the open comment box.

3. To resize the comment box so it better fits the text you entered, drag

the sizing box in the lower-right corner diagonally until it’s the right

shape and size.

4. To move the comment box so that its title bar doesn’t obscure the

stamp’s imprint, drag the comment box by its title bar.

5. When you finish making changes to the comment box, click its Close

button to make the box and its note disappear. You can also double-

click a stamp imprint to toggle between hiding and displaying its

attached comment.

Adding custom marks to your own stamp category

You can create your own marks in graphics programs, such as Adobe

Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop, and then use them as stamps in Acrobat 6.

To do this, convert the graphic image you want to use as a stamp to either a

JPEG, GIF, or bitmap file. You can also convert Illustrator and Photoshop files

saved in their native format (AI or PSD).

After you have the mark saved, follow these steps to make it available as a

stamp in Acrobat 6:

1. Choose Tools➪Commenting➪Stamp Tool➪Create Custom Stamp or

simply click Create Custom Stamp on the Stamp tool pop-up menu.

The Create Stamp dialog box opens.

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Getting your hidden comments added and seen

When using stamps to annotate a PDF docu-

ment, you may want to make a couple of

changes to the Comments Preferences — one

that will help you remember to add hidden com-

ments and the other to let you and your review-

ers know that hidden comments are attached to

particular stamp imprints. To have Acrobat auto-

matically open a blank comment box whenever

you add a new stamp imprint, open the

Commenting section of the Preferences dialog

box (by pressing Ctrl+K on Windows or Ô+K on

the Mac, and then clicking Commenting in the list

box on the left), and then select the Automatically

Open Comment Pop-ups for Comments Other

Than Notes check box in the Pop-up Open

Behavior section. To have the program automat-

ically display the comment boxes you add to

stamp imprints whenever you position the mouse

over them, select the Automatically Open Pop-

Ups on Mouse Over check box in the Viewing

Comments section (note that selecting this check

box option affects hidden comments added with

the Notes tool, as well as those added with the

Stamps tool).

2. Click the Select button to open the Select dialog box.

3. Click the Browse button, and in the Open dialog box that appears,

locate the desired graphic and click the Select button to return to the

Select dialog box.

4. Click OK to close the Select dialog box and return to the Create Stamp

dialog box.

5. Enter the name you want to give the stamp (something with the com-

pany name or a description of the mark) in the Name text box, enter a

name in the Category drop-down list box or select a previously created

custom category, and then click the OK button.

After you add a custom graphic as a new stamp, its category, name, and

thumbnail appear on the Stamp tool pop-up menu as well as the Acrobat

menu bar, and you can start using it in the PDF documents you’re reviewing

as you would any of the other built-in stamps. After clicking the Stamp tool,

select your new custom imprint on the Stamp tool submenus and then click

the Stamp tool mouse pointer at the location in the current PDF document

where you want the stamp to appear. If you want to delete a custom stamp

you’ve created, choose Manage Stamps on the Stamp tool pop-up menu, and

in the Manage Stamps dialog box that appears, select the custom stamp for

deletion by choosing its category and name in the drop-down lists before

clicking the Delete button. When you’re finished deleting custom stamps,

click the OK button to close the Manage Stamps dialog box. Note that you

can also invoke the Create Stamps dialog box by clicking the Create button in

the Manage Stamps dialog box.

Hitting the highlights

Acrobat includes three text-only markup tools: Highlighter tool, Cross-Out

Text tool, and Underline Text tool:

 Highlighter tool: Highlights text in a color (yellow by default) just like

the highlighting pens you used to mark key words and phrases to

remember in your text books.

 Cross-Out Text tool: Indicates words and phrases that should be deleted

from the text. (Acrobat puts a line through the text just like they do in

voter pamphlets to show what provisions of a referendum will be

removed from a statute.)

 Underline Text tool: Underscores the importance of text.

Figure 9-12 shows you examples of three types of text markup: highlighting in

the title, underlining in the first-paragraph text at the top of the first column,

and crossing-out in the title at the top of the second column.

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As with the graphics markup tools, when you mark up text with the text-only

tools, Acrobat automatically adds hidden comment boxes to the markups. To

have the comment boxes contain a copy of all the text that you’ve marked with

the text-only markup tool, open the Acrobat Preferences dialog box by choos-

ing Edit➪Preferences or pressing Ctrl+K (Ô+K on Mac), click Commenting in

the list box, and then select the Copy Selected Text into Highlight, Cross-Out,

and Underline Comment Pop-Ups check box in the Making Comment section

before clicking OK to close the Preferences dialog box. You can then annotate

this comment text or replace it with the corrections you’d like to see made.

The text-only tools all work the same way: After you click the desired text-

only markup tool, you drag the I-beam mouse pointer through all the text you

want to highlight, cross-out, or underscore. Each text-only markup tool has

the same Properties dialog box as the graphics markup tools (Note and

Stamp) where you can edit the Color, Opacity, Author, Subject, and Review

History of created markups. To access these options, right-click the marked-

up text and choose Properties on the context menu to open the associated

Properties dialog box.

To delete the highlighting, strikeout, or underlining made to words or

phrases in the PDF document, right-click (Control+click on the Mac) the

marked-up text and then click Delete on its context menu.

Figure 9-12:

A PDF

document

with

highlighted

text, cross-

out text, and

underlined

text, thanks

to the text-

only markup

tools.

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To open the comments box attached to the words or phrases you’ve marked

up with one of the text-only markup tools, double-click the marked-up text to

open its comment box. You can also hide an open comment box in this

manner rather than clicking its Close button.

Remember that you can have Acrobat automatically open a comment box

each time you mark up text with one of the text-only markup tools by select-

ing the Automatically Open Comment Pop-Ups for Comments Other Than

Notes check box in the Commenting Preferences dialog box. You can also

have Acrobat automatically display a hidden comment when you position the

mouse on the marked-up text by selecting the Automatically Open Pop-Ups

on Mouse Rollover check box as well. For details, see the sidebar, “Getting

your hidden comments added and seen,” earlier in this chapter.

Inserting Document Comments with the

Advanced Commenting Toolbar

Options that appear on the Advanced Commenting toolbar give you a lot of

flexibility when annotating a PDF document by providing markup tools that

go way beyond the standard note, text edit, stamps, and highlighting features

found on the Commenting toolbar. You can use the Rectangle tool and its

many built-in variations to create drawn shapes used to highlight text or

graphics that you want to call attention to with an attached comment. The

Text Box tool creates static annotations that always appear in a document

rather than hidden comments made with the Note tool. The Pencil tool draws

free-hand shapes around document elements you want to call attention to

with an attached comment. You can even attach sound files or other docu-

ment files using the Attach Sound tool and Attach File tool. The following sec-

tions give the particulars on these useful markup tools. To get an overview of

the Advanced Commenting toolbar, see Chapter 3.

Using the Text Box tool

You use the Text Box tool to create comments in the PDF document that are

always visible. Because free-text comments are always displayed, you need to

position them in margin areas or places where they won’t obscure document

text or graphics text underneath.

To create a comment with the Text Box tool, follow these steps:

1. Click the Text Box tool on the Advanced Commenting toolbar or press

X if the single-key accelerator feature is turned on.

(See Chapter 3 to find out how to enable single-key accelerators.)

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2. Click the I-beam mouse pointer or draw a marquee at the place on the

page in the PDF document where you want the text of the comment to

appear.

When you click or draw a marquee with this pointer, Acrobat opens a

yellow bounding box (which appears dotted on some monitors) in

which you type the note.

3. Type the text of the free-text note in the note’s bounding box.

As you type a note in a bounding box you created by drawing a marquee

with the I-beam pointer, Acrobat automatically breaks the lines of text to

fit within the width of the bounding box and expands its height.

4. When you finish typing the text of the free-text note, click the Hand

tool and then click outside of the note’s bounding box.

Acrobat displays your free-text note in a box.

If you create a bounding box by simply clicking an area in your document

with the I-beam pointer, you must make the first line break in your text note

by pressing Enter (Return on the Mac) in order for Acrobat to make subse-

quent automatic line breaks. Otherwise, you end up typing a never-ending

line of text that expands the width of the bounding box right off the page!

To resize the Text Box note to make all of its text visible or to eliminate

excess white space around the note text, position the Hand tool somewhere

on the note and then click the arrowhead pointer to display the sizing han-

dles at the four corners of the free-text note box. Next, position the pointer

on one of the sizing handles and drag the double-headed pointer diagonally

until the outline of the note box is the shape and size you need. Click outside

the note box to deselect the sizing handles.

To move a free-text note, click within its note box to display the sizing handles

and then, with the arrowhead mouse pointer inside the box, drag the outline

to a new position on the page before releasing the mouse button. To delete a

free-text note from the PDF document, right-click (Control+click on the Mac)

the note text or its bounding box, and then click Delete on its context menu.

As with comments added with the Note tool, you can change the default set-

tings for the free-text notes you create with the Text Box tool. Right-click the

text box and select Properties on its context menu to open the Text Box

Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 9-13. As you can see, the setting

options in this dialog box enable you to change the Appearance, General set-

tings, and display Review History by clicking the appropriate tab.

On the Appearance tab, select a border style in the Style drop-down list. Your

choices are Solid or six different dashed-line styles. To make the border of the

text box thicker, increase the value in the Thickness text box. To remove the

border entirely from text box, set this value down to 0. To change the color of

the box border, click the Border Color button and then click a new color on the

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palette. To decrease or increase the opacity of the text box so that you can see

more or less of the document background, enter a percentage number in the

Opacity text box or move the slider button to the left to decrease the opacity

or to the right to increase the opacity of the text box. To add a background

color to the text box, click the Fill Color button and click the background color

from its color palette (but for heaven’s sake, don’t select a background color

on this palette that’s so dark that you can’t read the note text).

The options on the General and Review History tabs are exactly the same as

those for the other markup tools (Note, Stamp, and Indicate Text). Change the

author or subject of a comment attached to a Text Box on the General tab or

display changes of status to the Text Box comment on the Review History tab.

When you finish making changes in the Text Box Properties dialog box, click

Close to see the effects of your changes on the currently selected text box.

Using the Attach Sound tool

You use the Attach Sound tool to record a sound note or select an audio file

that is played back when the user double-clicks the Sound Note icon. Note

that your computer must have a microphone in order to record your own

sound notes and add them to your PDF document.

To record a sound note for playback in your PDF document, follow these steps:

1. Click the Attach Sound tool on the Advanced Commenting toolbar

pop-up menu.

2. Click the Speaker mouse pointer at the place on the page in the PDF

document where you want the Sound Note icon to appear.

When you click this pointer, Acrobat opens a Sound Recorder dialog box.

Figure 9-13:

Changing

the

appearance

of a text

box in the

Text Box

Properties

dialog box.

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3. To record the sound note, click the Record button and speak into your

computer’s microphone.

When you finish recording, click the Stop button (see Figure 9-14). To

play the note before adding it to your document, click the Play button

(which replaces the Stop button).

4. Click OK in the Sound Recorder dialog box.

The Sound Recorder dialog box closes, and the Sound Attachment

Properties dialog box opens.

5. Click the Appearance tab and select an icon for the sound attachment —

either Ear, Microphone, or Sound (speaker) in the Icon list box.

Click the Color button and select a new color for the sound attachment

icon on the color palette that appears. Increase or decrease the opacity

of the sound attachment icon by typing in a new percentage number in

the Opacity text box or using the slider button.

6. Click the General tab and edit the default text in the Author, Subject,

and Description text boxes.

Text entered in the Description text box identifies the sound file when

you position the mouse pointer over its attached sound icon.

7. Click the Review History tab to view any recent changes to the

status of the attached sound during a review cycle. When you’re

finished changing Sound Attachment properties, click Close to exit

the dialog box.

You can also select a prerecorded sound file to play back when the Sound

Attachment is played. To select a prerecorded sound file, click the Browse

button in the Sound Recorder dialog box to open the Select Sound File dialog

box. Click the folder that contains the desired sound file, click the sound file

icon, and then click the Select button.

To play a sound note that you’ve added to a PDF document, double-click its

Sound Note icon with the Hand tool or right-click (Control+click on Mac) its

icon and then click Play File on the context menu.

Figure 9-14:

Recording a

sound note.

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Chapter 9: Annotating PDF Files for Review

Using the File Attachment tool

You can use the File Attachment tool to attach or append another file (not

necessarily saved as a PDF) to the PDF document you’re reviewing. You can

use this feature to attach new copy and graphics that you’d like to see

replace particular text passages and images in the PDF file. You can also use

this tool to attach a memo or some other text document that outlines the

review steps or special instructions to the design or review team.

Don’t use this feature to attach files saved in other file formats besides PDF

unless you’re sure that each reviewer has the software necessary to open it

installed on his or her computer. Of course, the way to be sure that each and

everyone concerned will be able to open and evaluate all the files you attach

to a PDF document under review is to save them as PDF files before you

attach them.

To attach a file to the PDF file you’re reviewing, follow these steps:

1. Click the Attach File tool on the Advanced Commenting toolbar or

press Shift+J until its icon (the one with the pushpin) is selected.

2. Click the Pushpin pointer at the place in the PDF document’s text or

graphics where you want the File Attachment icon (a paper clip by

default) to appear, indicating to other reviewers that a file has been

attached.

Acrobat responds by opening the Select File to Attach dialog box.

3. Open the folder and select the icon for the file that you want to attach

to the current PDF document, and then click the Select button.

The File Attachment Properties dialog box opens.

4. Change the properties of the file attachment as follows:

• To select a new icon besides the default paper clip, click the

Appearance tab and choose an item in the Icon list box.

• To change the color of the File Attachment icon, click the Color

button and then click the new color in the palette.

• To increase or decrease the opacity of the file attachment icon,

type in a new percentage number in the Opacity text box or use

the slider button.

• To modify the ToolTip description that appears when the user

positions the mouse over the File Attachment icon, click the

General tab and replace the filename in the Description text box.

Acrobat automatically displays the filename as the ToolTip if you

don’t modify this text box.

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• To change the author or subject associated with this file attach-

ment, click the Author or Subject text box and edit the default text

that appears there.

5. Click the Close button to close the File Attachment Properties

dialog box.

As soon as you close the File Attachment Properties dialog box, you see the

File Attachment icon (a paper clip unless you changed it) at the place you

clicked in the document. To move this icon, drag it with the arrowhead

pointer. To display the ToolTip with the name of the attached file (or some

other description if you modified the Description text box), position the

arrowhead mouse pointer over the File Attachment icon.

To open the attached file, double-click its File Attachment icon, or right-click

(Control+click on the Mac) the icon and then click Open File on the context

menu. Acrobat responds by displaying an Open Attachment alert dialog box,

warning you about possible dangers in opening the file. When you click the

Open button in the alert dialog box, Acrobat then goes ahead and opens

the file.

If the attached file is a PDF document, Acrobat opens it and makes it the

current document (you can then return to the original PDF document by

selecting its name at the bottom of the Windows menu). If the attached file is

saved in some other file format, your computer’s operating system launches

the program that created the file (provided that it can be identified and that

the program is installed on the computer), opening it in a new window. You

can then return to the original PDF document by clicking its program icon

on the Windows taskbar or clicking the Application icon on the OS X Dock.

To remove an attached file from the PDF document, right-click the File

Attachment icon (Control+click on the Mac) and then click Delete on its

context menu. To save the attached file on your hard drive before you

delete it, click Save Embedded File to Disk on its context menu, select the

folder in which you want it saved, and click the Save button.

Mark it well

The graphic markup tools (Pencil and Rectangle) found on the Advanced

Commenting toolbar enable you to mark up elements that need changing in the

PDF document you’re reviewing. When you use these graphic markup tools to

call attention to particular passages of text and graphics, you can add hidden

notes (like you can do when using the Stamp and Note tools) that explain the

type of changes you’d like to see made to the elements you’ve marked.

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