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(Reviewed by Fred Sabin, President, NJCC)
Adobe Acrobat̉
6.0 is absolutely awesome! … Why? Read on and find out.
The Portable
Document File (PDF) is a standard for today’s computer users, and for good
reason. These documents can be utilized on any computer platform, and can be
read by anyone using the free Adobe Reader̉
software. They can be easily and simply created from anything that can be
printed, including text, graphics, and almost any other file type used on any
computer. They are small due to compression, but when viewed and printed are
exactly like the original document. If desired it is possible to allow the
contents to be annotated, marked-up, or even extracted for usage in another
format. Alternatively, the contents may be locked and secured such that only
viewing is permitted, and nothing may be changed or even printed without a
password.
Like any
comprehensive software, Adobe Acrobat̉
Standard 6.0 takes a while to learn, as there are a lot of features and settings
available to use as you develop proficiency with it. You can create a PDF
document from a file, Microsoft Office, or Internet Explorer with a single right
mouse click, or “print” any document from almost any application directly to a
PDF format in lieu of going to a printer. You may then change the default
options to various color or black and white settings; dots per inch settings
from 72 to 4000 dpi; portrait or landscape orientation; various compression
modes; numerous paper sizes; etc. You also have the options of adding pages,
bookmarks, layers, signatures, and/or comments. Secure digital signatures and
encryption or password protection are also available. The combinations of
choices are extensive to allow you to get exactly what you want and need.
For example,
minutes of a meeting can go directly from Microsoft Word to a PDF document that
can be emailed or posted for review and comments by numerous persons prior to
final approval. Or an HTML document from the Internet can be saved as-is in PDF
format, or an entire website can be automatically converted into a PDF document
with page identifications and bookmarks (as our NJCC website was saved as 217
pages in full color in minutes as a 2.6 MB PDF file). The saved PDF files can
then be viewed in a wide range of magnifications, or even “read out load”
through your audio system. Pages may also be deleted, added or merged from other
sources.
This is a
quality product. The versatility and applications are seemingly endless. I will
be doing a hands-on presentation and demonstration of Adobe Acrobat̉
Standard 6.0 at our May 12th NJCC Meeting. I encourage you to attend
to see what this software can do and to answer your questions.
Adobe Acrobat̉
Standard 6.0 requires a Pentium CPU; Microsoft Windows 98SE, ME, or XP; 64 MB
(128 MB recommended) RAM; 220 MB of hard-drive space; IE 5.01 or later; a
CD-ROM; and an 800X600 monitor resolution.
The list price
for Adobe Acrobat̉ Standard 6.0 is
$299, and it is available from their website e-store at:
http://www.adobe.com. The Adobe Reader̉
software (for viewing and printing PDF files only) is free, and is also
available for download from the
http://www.adobe.com website.
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