Acrobat 9: Product Review

CATEGORIES: Product Reviews, Software | David Creamer | June 03, 2008

NEW VERSION OF ADOBE’S PDF-MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Acrobat.com This new version of Acrobat has a lot going for it, however many of the “new” features are mostly improvements of existing ones—making it seem like more of a major update to version 8. Adobe is changing the line-up slightly, mainly for Windows, which will have three versions to choose from: Pro Extended, Pro, and Standard. Macintosh will (still) only have the Pro version. The Pro Extended version included the Acrobat 3D features and adds geospatial reference data support for working with PDF maps, multimedia transcoding to and basic editing support for Flash Video embedded in PDFs. (Some features of geospatial and multimedia authoring support are in the Pro version too.)

As in past versions, the Macintosh version is lacking some important features that the Windows version has. Just to clarify, the Acrobat Pro application is virtually identical on both platforms—it is the other applications that come with the Windows version that create the difference. The Pro Extended version, LiveCycle Designer, and PDF Maker are only available on Windows. (With such useful programs missing, one would think that the Mac Pro version would cost less than the Windows Pro version.)

Some of the more interesting features are the ability to split a document into separate PDF based on page count, file size, and, best of all, top level bookmarks; the use of Acrobat.com for review cycles and form data collection (more on this later); and create a layered PDF with vector, text, and images moved to separate layers. Of course, depending on ones profession, other features might be just as important—such as…

PDFMaker
The PDFMaker can now make PDFs from selected content in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Office 2000 support is being dropped). Most AutoCAD files can be converted to PDF without having AutoCAD installed; in addition, PDF/E format is supported. Macintosh PDFMaker for Office is being dropped (not that it ever did that much anyway).

Redaction
Redaction, or the deletion and blocking out of sensitive information, now has the ability to search-and-redact text throughout a document, restrict redaction to specific page ranges, and a preference to automatically append “_redacted” to the file name.

PDF Portfolios
PDF Portfolios, formally PDF Packages, have been made much more attractive and useful feature. Although the basic premise is the same, but one can now preview Office files, most standard graphics files, and Flash files (.flv and .swf).

PDF Optimizer
Optimizer can now subset any embedded font and has an option to optimize an image only if it will reduce file size.

OCR
OCR accuracy has been improved with a new ClearScan setting replacing the older Formatted Text and Graphics setting; also, one can OCR multiple open files at once.

Geospatial
As mentioned, files imported with geospatial reference data can create PDF maps that the user can interact with. Only Pro Extended will have the main features for importing and updating data, however, all versions of Acrobat will be able to work with the maps.

Print Production
PDF/X-5 support has been added and the color conversion settings are better than ever, including better CMYK-to-CMYK conversion and better black ink handling. A nice addition to the Output Preview panel is the Object Inspector, which can give details on any selected object.

Forms
While the overall function of forms has stayed the same, the user interface is quite different and may bother some users. The Run Form Recognition has been changed to Start Form Wizard, but the biggest change is the Form tool bar—gone is the floating tool bar.

Acrobat.com and ConnectNow
Both commenting (which is virtually unchanged) and forms can both use Acrobat.com to distribute forms and for uploading PDFs for a comment review. Of course, users have the previous options available to them too, as some companies may not want to distribute forms or PDF for commenting through Adobe’s servers. ConnectNow will be replacing the Acrobat Connect meeting feature of the past version. As I understand it, ConnectNow will be free for 3 users, with upgrade options to Acrobat Connect Pro. Details should be available by the time you read this.

Most users of Acrobat will probably find some features that will make the upgrade worthwhile. Depending on your use of Acrobat (and almost every area of Acrobat has been improved), this may be a must-have upgrade.—David Creamer

PRICE: $299 (upgrade $99)
FROM: Adobe Systems, Incorporated
WEB: www.adobe.com
RATING: 4.5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Improvements to just about every Acrobat feature
NOT No ground-breaking new features

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Visitor Comments »

I would be nice to be able to include a non-form page in a fill-out form PDF, instead of having to make a “portfolio” of the individual pages.

Comment by Spirax Sarco | June 26, 2008 @ 2:31 pm

I just wanted you to know that Acrobat Pro 9 is rife with problems.

OCR is seriously crippled. Version 8 has no problem OCR’ing the same files that crash on 9.

WordPerfect X4 cannot open a version 9 pdf and reports the file to be “corrupt or encrypted.”

After some careful testing on several computers with various files we’ve decided to revert back to version 8.

I couldn’t find anything on the web reporting these problems but I thought that you might have an Acrobat contact who may be able to shed some light on the issues.

Comment by Scott Greer | August 14, 2008 @ 3:20 pm

Oh cmon Scott, you say it’s “Rife with problems” and then list a feature few people use, an application apparently ONLY you use, and…. that’s it?

Comment by Roberto | August 22, 2008 @ 6:28 am

Roberto, there are about 2000 people in my organization that rely heavily on Acrobat and Wordperfect.

Would it be better if problems were not reported?

From my organization’s point of view, Acrobat 9 IS “rife” with problems to the point where we cannot use it.

Comment by Scott Greer | August 28, 2008 @ 1:45 pm

Just installed Acrobat 9 Pro and the reader v9. Every time I try to open a PDF file via the web browse from any web site, my IE ver 6.0.2900.2180 crashes. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Comment by Katrina | September 10, 2008 @ 12:16 pm

I purchased Acrobat 9 Pro Extended to prepare pdfs (originally from pagemaker utility) to work in a digital magazine software application (Zinio). Acrobat 6 worked flawlessly, as did Acrobat 9 PE for about two weeks, except the latter failed after the initial install and now corrupts the files. I’ve even scraped it off the computer and have reinstalled it, but with no improvement. I’m awaiting a tech support explanation, but I’m highly frustrated.

Comment by Rose Smith | October 6, 2008 @ 3:10 pm

Corel and Abobe are mortal enemies. It is such a surprise that Adobe makes their products a pain in the ass for any other vendor?

To be fair - the PDF spec is Adobe’s technology. But it’s come to point that they are predatory in the marketplace due to their success with it.

New Adobe stuff is beyond bloated now, and NOT all happy-land for designers.

A bit off topic, that’s why I use CorelDRAW and am just short of being a millionaire as a graphic designer. It’s twice as fast as illustrator FWIW.

If you are serious about productivity, take a look.

Comment by wake up people | October 17, 2008 @ 4:02 pm

I also installed 9 and reverted back to 8 because of problems. I found many problems with fonts and misalignment with 9.

Until these issues are resolve I cannot upgrade as I could not run business as usual.

Comment by Dave | October 31, 2008 @ 11:50 am

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