Adobe Acrobat becomes most essential tool to exchange documents by electronic media. With its small file size and independent of platform, PDF is a perfect system for distributing documents. Added advantage is its compatibility with online navigation. PDF documents can be sent by Email to other users directly from Acrobat, as attachment of Email or one can distribute the documents through the Internet, Intranet of organizations or by Floppy / CD. PDF files preserve its original format during electronic transfer.
Acrobat can convert practically any document from any application to a compact and searchable PDF File (Portable Document Format). Documents in PDF file maintain the exact look of the originals with fonts and graphics. These files can be printed, distributed by e-mail and stored on the Web, an intranet, a file system, or a floppy / CD for other users to view on several platforms. Other than Window, I have not used PDF files in other platform.
Acrobat Reader (Size: 8.41 MB) is free software available in most of the CD of IT magazines and installation is easy. Or may be downloaded from Adobe Web site at https://adobe.com. With the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, one can view and print Adobe PDF files across a broad range of hardware and software. Adobe Acrobat software with PDF maker has to be purchased.
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System requirements
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For Adobe Acrobat 5.0 - I preferred Pentium III or above with operating system Microsoft Windows. Window 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6 (Service Pack 6 recommended), Windows 2000 are well suited. They are supposed to update for XP but I have no information about such development.
Hard disk with 32 MB of RAM (64 MB is recommended) and 120 MB of available hard disk space is minimum. Additional 32 MB of space if someone go for other additional fonts. CD-ROM drive is required installation.
For Acrobat reader 5.0 - Hard disk with 16 MB of RAM (32 recommended), 15 MB of available hard disk space. For Asian fonts (optional) additional 32 MB of hard-disk space is required. Operating system as mentioned above.
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Reading a PDF Document
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To open a PDF document -
# Click the Open button or choose File than Open. In the Open dialog box select the filename and click Open. PDF documents will have the extension .pdf and the icon.
# Double-click the file icon in your file system or explorer.
Adjusting the view of PDF documents - You can change the magnification level of a PDF document. One may set a page layout that determines whether you will see one page at a time or a continuous flow of pages. One can use view options from menu bar.
PDF document maker can set the document to open in a variety of ways with option like Full Screen, document might open to a particular page number, at a particular magnification, or with the bookmarks or thumbnails.
In case of Full Screen view, the toolbar, command bar, menu bar, and window controls are not visible. To suit your requirements you can exit Full Screen view by pressing Escape and adjust as per your choice.
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How to Convert MS Office files of Windows
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The default Acrobat installation in Windows includes a macro Adobe PDF Maker that allows creating a Adobe PDF file very easily from Microsoft Office applications like Word document, Spread sheet of Excel, Power Point presentation.
One has to just press PDF Converter icon on the menu bar of application to convert MS file to PDF. PDF Converter works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Excel 97, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 97, and PowerPoint 2000 and installed automatically. By default Adobe PDF files created with PDF Maker generate tagged PDF and preserve hyperlinks, styles, and bookmarks present in the source document. Acrobat supports an extensive list of various formats including movie formats.
By pressing PDF converter with Email option will open your default Mailer after converting MS file to PDF.
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Playing movies and sound clips – No personal experience
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Apple QuickTime 3.0 or later, or Microsoft Windows Media Player is good enough for this application. QuickTime 5.0 or later is required for working with MPEG files. QuickTime 4.0 is included in their software package.
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What’s the benefit of using PDF files
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Main purpose of making PDF files is to distribute undistorted documents electronically outside the organization. PDF files cannot be forged. Your are helpless if someone is determined to do so by making a new file with the help of Adobe Acrobat software. PDF files can be sent by Email as an attachment and it does not lose it’s original look. On the other hand receiver of PDF file is sure of receiving original document with right format. All hyperlinks remain active in PDF file.
I am not a very advanced user of Adobe Acrobat so cannot share any such experience. My experience is limited to conversion of MS documents.
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Dictionary Meaning
Adobe - Brick made of clay baked in sun used for building or building made of such bricks
Acrobat - A person who can swing on a trapeze or do other feats of bodily skill and strength
So a software build by tested resources does all acrobatics to save you from forged documents. You need not walk on a tight rope or take risk when sending a soft copy in this paper less office culture. This software is having option of digital signature but I have not used it so far.
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Have a pleasant weekend