Adobe's Acrobat Redefines PDF Communications

By DE Editors

Adobe Systems Incorporated (San Jose, CA) introduced Adobe Acrobat 9, an upgrade that is expected to transform the process of creating and sharing electronic documents. Acrobat 9 delivers native support for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify a wide range of content in rich PDF Portfolios, and provides access to real-time capabilities for co-navigating a PDF document with colleagues.

Acrobat 9 now provides support for Adobe Flash technology, enabling users to include Adobe Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents. Recipients simply need free Adobe Reader 9 software to consume the content.

Acrobat 9 includes the ability to unify a wide range of content into a single document with the new concept of PDF Portfolios, which helps to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into a single compressed PDF file. Users can then choose among several professional layouts — or create their own — to quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add branding.

Acrobat 9 also provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document — enabled by working with Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services Adobe introduced as public beta with this release. Plus, 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, gather comments in a shared document review, and explore other services.

The Acrobat 9 family consists of Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and the new Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software. Acrobat 9 Pro Extended includes Adobe Presenter software for turning Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that can be published as PDF files.

For pricing and availability, contact Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.