Adobe Systems has announced its Adobe Acrobat XI software with cloud services, a new solution that provides enhanced document productivity across devices and platforms.
In a meeting with the press, Mark Grilli, senior director of product marketing for Acrobat solutions, said the industry standard for PDF software will now feature complete PDF editing and export to Microsoft PowerPoint; touch-friendly capabilities on tablets; and newly integrated cloud services, including sophisticated web contracting with Adobe EchoSign and forms creation, data collection and analysis with Adobe FormsCentral.
“We’ve made it really easy to get things done,” Grilli said. “We made great efforts to simplify things to help you avoid mistakes.”
Acrobat XI additionally supports IT departments with seamless Microsoft Office and SharePoint integration, easy deployment, applications virtualisation and robust application security to help provide a low cost of ownership and sound return on investment.
“More and more information is being generated, shared and consumed in documents than ever before,” said Kevin M. Lynch, senior vice president and general manager of Acrobat and Document Services at Adobe, in a statement. “IT departments need to support these changes while maintaining and maximising the use of existing infrastructures and systems, as well as provide support and services that enable their organisations to take advantage of new business opportunities, improve results, justify return on investment, and lower the total cost of ownership.”
The mounting productivity inefficiencies and cost of document-based challenges are highlighted in a recent global IDC white paper, sponsored by Adobe. For a company that has 1,000 employees, for example, the estimated addressable productivity cost is $15.9 million (£9.8m) annually. According to IDC, addressing these time wasters would mean hiring 213 new employees.
Ali Hanyaloglu, Adobe’s senior marketing manager for Acrobat, said with the new features and functionality in Adobe Acrobat XI, business professionals can now edit PDF files, modify paragraphs, images, and objects by simply clicking and dragging using the new, intuitive Edit Text and Images tool.
Business users also can save PDF documents as PowerPoint, Word or Excel files or reuse parts of or entire PDF files as Microsoft Office documents and web pages without retyping, and can reflow paragraph text without disturbing its format.
Users can expedite document and web contract approvals from weeks to hours with electronic signatures using the integrated Adobe EchoSign electronic signature service.
They also can work with PDF files in touch-friendly Adobe Reader across tablets and smartphones to annotate and add comments, as well as fill in, sign and save forms. And there is a new capability to arrange and visually merge select content and multiple documents into one organised PDF file, while retaining source file integrity.
Acrobat XI simplifies access to multiple cloud storage services using shortcuts to Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, and Adobe online services to find and combine content from favorite cloud repositories.
The new release enables users to create a custom tool set by tailoring the user interface to feature the required components in Acrobat XI.
Other business user features includes improved protection of all PDF files created from Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel to help prevent copying, editing, or printing without permission. And the ability to effectively address accessibility standards using the new Make Accessible guided action and enhanced accessibility checking tool, meeting the Web Content Availability Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and PDF/UA standards.
Acrobat XI and its associated products are scheduled to ship within 30 days, with availability through Adobe Authorised Resellers, the Adobe Store, Adobe Direct Sales and Adobe Creative Cloud. List price for Acrobat XI Standard is expected to be $299 ($139 upgrade) and o Acrobat XI Pro is expected to be $449 ($199 upgrade).
A free 30-day trial of Acrobat Pro will be available upon product ship; cloud service trials are also available for Adobe EchoSign and Adobe FormsCentral. A Reader XI free download will be available at Adobe.com upon product ship. Adobe EchoSign starts at $14.95/month. And the Adobe FormsCentral subscription pricing starts at $14.99/month.
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Originally published on eWeek.
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