Collaboration tools: Adobe’s enhancements to Acrobat include links to online services
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/2/2008 1:15:00 PM
Adobe Systems on Monday introduced a significant upgrade to its Acrobat software program for creating and sharing documents. The company also introduced Acrobat.com, a set of online services that can be used to create documents and establish communities for collaborating around them.
The new version of Adobe’s most well known product—Acrobat 9—delivers native support for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify a wide range of content in rich PDF portfolios, and access to real-time capabilities for co-navigating a PDF document with colleagues.
"The expectations organizations and individuals have for communicating and collaborating in the workplace continue to grow significantly,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior VP in Adobe’s president, Business Productivity unit. "The ability to break through and communicate a message in a compelling way has never been at a greater premium. Acrobat 9 is a response to this environment and is poised to fundamentally change how professionals communicate and collaborate using electronic documents.”
Acrobat 9 enables users bring static documents to life by including Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents. Recipients simply need free Adobe Reader 9 software to consume the content.
Acrobat 9 also includes the ability to unify a wide range of content into a single document with the new concept of PDF Portfolios. PDF Portfolios enable business professionals to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file. Users can then choose among several professional layouts—or create their own—to quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add polish and branding. As a result, communications such as sales proposals, legal documents, and product collateral can become far more customized and compelling.
In addition, Acrobat 9 provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document. This functionality is enabled by working with Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services Adobe introduced as public beta today. For example, a salesperson could use Acrobat 9 to send a lengthy contract to clients. The sales professional, or any of the recipients using Adobe Reader, can then drive the group's navigation through the PDF document in real-time working with Acrobat.com. This helps ensure everyone is literally, and figuratively, on the same page.
Additionally, Acrobat 9 users can access Acrobat.com for storing and sharing files, use it as a central location for collecting data as part of a forms process, and to gather comments in a shared document review. Acrobat.com includes other services, such as:
• Adobe ConnectNow, personal web conferencing that provides desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing, and integrated chat; and
• Adobe Buzzword, an elegant, web-based word processor that can be used to easily co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results.
The beta Acrobat.com hosted services are available immediately in English for free signup at www.acrobat.com.
