Adobe Unveils Acrobat X Portfolio

Adobe has announced its new Adobe Acrobat X software family of products 18 October, which includes Acrobat X, Reader X, the Acrobat X Suite and new document exchange services at Acrobat.com.

The new Acrobat X software, pronounced “Acrobat 10,” empowers professionals to innovate and create higher quality content, driving tighter collaboration and productivity across teams, said Rick Brown, senior director of Acrobat product management at Adobe.

Acrobat X

Acrobat X delivers new guided Actions to simplify multi-step document preparation and publishing processes; completely new customisation capabilities in PDF Portfolios unify multiple file types into a compelling presentation.

New document services available at Acrobat.com give individuals the ability to collaborate more efficiently. And integration with Microsoft SharePoint enables consistency of PDF documents across the enterprise; re-use of content is now easier with higher quality export to Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

Kevin Lynch, vice president and general manager of Acrobat, in the Digital Enterprise Solutions Group at Adobe, said, “Today, more than ever, people need to communicate and collaborate reliably and professionally with people outside their organisation. Acrobat X is a response to this dynamic – to drive more fluid collaboration and to create richer experiences in today’s fast-paced, complex business environments.”

“Companies today need to work with their customers and partners in multiple time zones, languages and cross-functional teams,” said IDC analyst Melissa Webster. “Seamless, fluid content creation and collaboration is critical to how organizations use, repurpose and share information – it is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it is an imperative to success in today’s business world.”

Ease Of Use

New Acrobat X features include the ability to change how users view, think and interact with content and its context with PDF Portfolios using new layouts, visual themes and colour palettes. The new version of Acrobat also enables users to streamline the process for large organisations to deploy, configure and manage updates and conform to ISO standards, in both Adobe Reader X and Acrobat X, including support for Microsoft SCCM and SCUP; as well as to display the most commonly used tools all in one pane with the updated user interface.

And Acrobat X enables users to Automate routine, multi-step tasks with new guided Actions and easily share them with coworkers and collaborators, reducing the burden of training: to maximise the power of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat to easily create dynamic communications with the new Acrobat X Suite, and quickly capture, edit and combine digital content right from the desktop; and to increase productivity across the organisation with new Microsoft SharePoint integration and to check-in, check-out PDF files for reviewing and editing shared documents.

Reader Update

In addition, Adobe Reader has been enhanced. Commenting is now available in Adobe Reader X with Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools available to all users. Adobe also expands PDF access to mobile devices with free Adobe Reader X for Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry Tablet OS. And the new version features safer viewing of PDF files with new Protected Mode security capabilities in Reader X.

“Reader is the backbone of the success of PDF,” Adobe’s Brown told eWEEK. “And with reader what we’re trying to do is ensure that there is a widely available client tool for interacting with business cases.”

Meanwhile, new services from Acrobat.com include Adobe SendNow, a new document exchange service that enables users to send and receive large files and track them with proof of receipt, avoiding email gateway issues, complicated FTP servers, or the costs of expensive overnight mail. Adobe also offers the new Adobe CreatePDF service for easily converting files to professional PDF documents from within Adobe Reader X or any Web browser.

“We wanted PDF to look like part of the web, and Reader gets out of your way unless you need it,” Brown said.

Overall, Brown said Acrobat is focused on the business user. “We’ve made it easy for them to work through a complex sequence of steps without running into a lot of technical ‘gotchas,’” he said.