Adobe Acrobat top tips
Adobe's Acrobat document format is almost ubiquitous - many of us have it on our PCs and many of us use it every day: opening, reading and printing documents. But there can be much more to Acrobat than that - here's our top tips.
20 September 2006
Adobe Reader
The free version of Acrobat, now called Adobe Reader, is a cut-down version of the main package which is designed for people who only need to read Acrobat documents. It's free to download from www.adobe.com All of these tips apply to the free Adobe Reader. A better way to read through a document
Proofreading documents on screen is notoriously flawed - for some reason it's easier to review a document that's printed than it is on the screen, and it's easier to miss errors in on-screen documents. Since PDFs are often used to approve design work, this can be a bit of an issue. Printing the document obviously helps, and it's great that the layout will be retained when it's printed. But there's another useful tool too, which forces you to read the document - all of it - at a natural pace. First, make sure you are zoomed in so that you can read the text, then go to 'View, Read Out Loud' and Adobe Reader will read the document to you. The voice is very 'Stephen Hawking' and not that natural, but it is clear enough to follow - and is a great help when proofreading a PDF, as it ensures that you check every word. Even the fact that the voice sometimes gets words wrong helps to keep you on your toes and double-check everything. If you go to 'Preferences, Reading' you can change some of the voice attributes so that it reads at a speed which is comfortable to you.
Get rid of screen clutter
It sometimes helps to get rid of the menus and toolbars - maximising the amount of space used by the document. Just go to 'Window, Full Screen View' or use the keyboard shortcut Control-L. You can then use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the document - and when you want to get back to the normal view, simply press Escape. Again, you can set preferences for how the full screen view works, including having it automatically advance to the next page.
Checking fonts
If this is a design proof, you might want to ensure you are seeing the proof as the designer intended - using the correct fonts. When a PDF is made, the designer will usually 'embed' the fonts in the PDF, so you don't need to have them on your system in order to see them correctly. You can check if you are using the fonts in the PDF or the fonts on your system by going to 'Documents, Use Local Fonts'. The difference between the two can be dramatic.
Searching PDFs
Adobe Reader features a very useful search tool, which enables you to search the PDF. This is somewhat obscured by the search box which is automatically at the top right of the window - that actually searches the Web, using Yahoo! - which can be useful, but it doesn't search the document itself. For a quick search, go to 'Edit, Find' or use the keyboard shortcut Control F. This brings up a little search toolbar which allows you to search for, and then step through, all instances of a word in the document. There's also a more in-depth search: go to 'Edit, Search' and a panel opens up on the right of the document which gives you far more control over your search - indeed, it even enables you to search for a word (or string of words) in all PDF documents in selected locations on your PC. Best of all, it also allows you to restrict your search to whole words, or make it case sensitive, and also searches through PDF bookmarks or comments which have been added by others.
Show comments
If you're reviewing a document within a workflow where others have added comments, choosing 'View, Show Comments List' enables you to see all of the comments in one place, without having to hunt through the documents for them. Sadly, in the free Adobe Reader, you can't add comments, you can only review the comments of others. To be able to add comments, you'll need to upgrade to the Adobe Acrobat Professional package - or do you? See our next tip...
Adding comments to documents
People with the full, professional version of Adobe Acrobat have the luxury of being able to add comments to the document - invaluable for design workflow. The basic Adobe Reader doesn't support adding comments as standard - but there is a fairly easy way of making it do so. After the document author has created the PDF, using Acrobat Professional, they can then go to 'Document, Enable for Commenting and Analysis in Adobe Reader'. They can then resave the document in a format which enables comments to be added - using just the free Adobe reader. Once opened up in the free Adobe Reader, you can access the commenting toolbar from 'Tools, Commenting, Show Commenting Toolbar'. Then you can add your own comments and send the document back to the author for changes. Comments can be typed in, or you can even attach a file inside the PDF or record an audio comment - assuming you have a microphone. This more or less gives you the same commenting tools as found in the professional version.
Adding other items to a PDF
If the document is enabled for commenting, other edit options automatically become available. These include: being able to draw rectangles, circles and the like - useful for highlighting elements in the design; drawing callouts - notes which point to a specific item; measuring items using a tool which accurately measures the distance between two points; highlighting or crossing out text.
Stamping documents
Again, if the process above is followed, documents can be 'stamped' for quick turnaround back to the author. This allows you to say that the document has been revised, received or approved - each with a date attached to it. This is a great way to sign off documents within a paperless organisation. Because Adobe Acrobat is an almost universal format, any of the changes above can be read in any other current version of the Adobe Reader or full Acrobat Professional - and should really help make a publishing or document workflow much more effective.
