While Acrobat 8 has not been out a long time and it is quite stable, Adobe recently released an update, so we at Software Editorial wanted to see how well it works. Let’s take a look at Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro on the Mac.
Getting Started
Acrobat 9 Pro requires Mac OSX 10.4.11 or 10.5, a G4 or G5 or Intel CPU, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended), 1.42 GB space on the hard drive, and 1024x768 screen resolution.
I installed the software from a disk, although it is available for purchase as a download. I ran the software on a 1.8 GHz G5 20” iMac running OSX 10.5.4. The installation process was simple: I inserted the disk into the DVD drive and copied the Acrobat 9 Pro folder into the Applications folder of my local hard disk drive.
Using the Product
I tested backward compatibility by opening and re-saving older PDFs and did not have a problem. I next took some Word documents and saved them as PDFs and again, no problems or errors. You can save more formats than just Word documents to PDFs, just as in earlier versions of Acrobat Pro. I did notice that Word document I’d saved as a PDF with version 8 of Acrobat was larger than the version I saved with version 9 – the same effect I notices when using Acrobat Pro 9 on Windows.
I also tested a new feature in version 9 of Acrobat Pro 9. I tried the PDF compare feature using an old version of a 5 page university syllabus into Acrobat, and then used the Document-Compare Document menu option to load a newer version of the syllabus. It took between 30 to 60 seconds to load both PDFs (about the same time as the Windows version of Acrobat Pro 9) and have the comparison report ready. The legend how to understand the changes was on the first page, along with a summary of deleted pages and where to find the first difference. Version control is always an issue, so this feature is quite handy when dealing with multiple versions of PDFs in an office environment.
A final new feature I tested was creating a new form as a PDF. It was simple: I selected Forms – Start Form Wizard from the program menu and had the choice of opening an existing electronic document, scan in and use an existing paper form, or create a new form from scratch or from an existing template.
I chose the third option and used one of the templates and the available templates were:
Check Request, Conference Registration, Contact Information, Credit Debit Memo, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Employee Appraisal, Employee Information Form, Employment Application, Equipment Loan Sign Out, Expense Account, Help Desk Request, Invoice, Office Supplies Request, Order Form, Payroll Deduction Authorization, Personal Leave, Purchase Order, Quote, Receiving Voucher, Request for Quote, Returned Merchandise Authorization, Timesheet, Vacation Log, and Weekly Status Report.
More than a few forms used by HR departments, as well as by small and large businesses. I used the Employee Appraisal template and had created a test form in less than a minute. Part of the process includes setting up a way for people to respond by sending completed forms back by email, so I entered my address and name and then saved it I then filled out my test form and saved it with another name. Another thing: the software automatically created a response log which shows a list of form respondents and includes links to the PDFs for easy access. This was easier than some of the dedicated form creation packages I’ve used in the past, and it is available in Acrobat Pro 9 at no extra cost. There are other features in this product and you can see a complete list at HYPERLINK "http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/acrobatproextended/" Adobe’s site.
Conclusion
Two new features I liked are the ability to compare PDFs for changes, and the new form editor. This new feature would have made my job so much easier, and I will take advantage of it in the future. In the past, we used Word or a desktop publishing package like InDesign or QuarkExpress to create forms.
Adobe continues to upgrade one of their flagship products, enhancing existing features while adding new features that will be well received in the business, government and education industries. The software is easy to use, provides a great way to find and distribute information, and is very stable. I personally have not had any crashes or bugs at any time with versions 8 or 9 on a number of different Macs.
I found Acrobat useful as a technical writer in the business world, as a freelance writer, and as a student at university. This product will remain in my short list of required software applications for the foreseeable future.
Positives
The version 9 of Acrobat Pro is about the same speed as version 8 of the product, which was more than adequate. I found the product intuitive to use, like most of Adobe’s software, and believe most users will never bother to use the online help for typical day-to-day usage of the software.
Adding support for interactive materials was timely and interactive materials are displayed by Acrobat reader so not other plug-ins or applications are required. Nice. A nice addition to an already mature product and a move sure to keep people from looking at Microsoft’s Silverlight software.
Last year I used Acrobat 8 to gather and save information from Internet sources for a number of classes. While testing this version, I used Acrobat to save preparation materials for my classes this fall, and it performed as well as version 8.
The types of content that can be converted to PDFs include Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Outlook C&S, Project, Visio, Access, AutoCAD® and Lotus Notes content.
The languages supported by this product are English, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Negatives
The application takes up a lot of drive space – an issue for older G5 Macs with smaller hard drives than available for newer Intel processor Macs.
Unlike the Acrobat 9 Pro Extended version on my Windows laptop, I could not convert a web page to a PDF from the toolbar using IE on my Mac, nor was this support available in Camino or Safari. While it is still possible to print a webpage as a PDF in browsers on the Mac, the quality of the output when printed still leaves a lot t be desired. I view this a a huge weakness and I hope Adobe provides web to PDF conversion support as well as the ability to print to PDF for Mac users in the very near future.
Recommendation
Definitely recommended. This application is useful for student, small and large businesses, and other organizations that want to reduce their printed documentation by using electronic documents. While the full installation of this software takes up a lot of hard drive space, but the is easy to use and I felt the product benefits far outweigh the hard drive space one must sacrifice. The price seems high, although there are education discounts.
Review By Mike Hubbartt
Getting Started
Acrobat 9 Pro requires Mac OSX 10.4.11 or 10.5, a G4 or G5 or Intel CPU, 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended), 1.42 GB space on the hard drive, and 1024x768 screen resolution.
I installed the software from a disk, although it is available for purchase as a download. I ran the software on a 1.8 GHz G5 20” iMac running OSX 10.5.4. The installation process was simple: I inserted the disk into the DVD drive and copied the Acrobat 9 Pro folder into the Applications folder of my local hard disk drive.
Using the Product
I tested backward compatibility by opening and re-saving older PDFs and did not have a problem. I next took some Word documents and saved them as PDFs and again, no problems or errors. You can save more formats than just Word documents to PDFs, just as in earlier versions of Acrobat Pro. I did notice that Word document I’d saved as a PDF with version 8 of Acrobat was larger than the version I saved with version 9 – the same effect I notices when using Acrobat Pro 9 on Windows.
I also tested a new feature in version 9 of Acrobat Pro 9. I tried the PDF compare feature using an old version of a 5 page university syllabus into Acrobat, and then used the Document-Compare Document menu option to load a newer version of the syllabus. It took between 30 to 60 seconds to load both PDFs (about the same time as the Windows version of Acrobat Pro 9) and have the comparison report ready. The legend how to understand the changes was on the first page, along with a summary of deleted pages and where to find the first difference. Version control is always an issue, so this feature is quite handy when dealing with multiple versions of PDFs in an office environment.
A final new feature I tested was creating a new form as a PDF. It was simple: I selected Forms – Start Form Wizard from the program menu and had the choice of opening an existing electronic document, scan in and use an existing paper form, or create a new form from scratch or from an existing template.
I chose the third option and used one of the templates and the available templates were:
Check Request, Conference Registration, Contact Information, Credit Debit Memo, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Employee Appraisal, Employee Information Form, Employment Application, Equipment Loan Sign Out, Expense Account, Help Desk Request, Invoice, Office Supplies Request, Order Form, Payroll Deduction Authorization, Personal Leave, Purchase Order, Quote, Receiving Voucher, Request for Quote, Returned Merchandise Authorization, Timesheet, Vacation Log, and Weekly Status Report.
More than a few forms used by HR departments, as well as by small and large businesses. I used the Employee Appraisal template and had created a test form in less than a minute. Part of the process includes setting up a way for people to respond by sending completed forms back by email, so I entered my address and name and then saved it I then filled out my test form and saved it with another name. Another thing: the software automatically created a response log which shows a list of form respondents and includes links to the PDFs for easy access. This was easier than some of the dedicated form creation packages I’ve used in the past, and it is available in Acrobat Pro 9 at no extra cost. There are other features in this product and you can see a complete list at HYPERLINK "http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/acrobatproextended/" Adobe’s site.
Conclusion
Two new features I liked are the ability to compare PDFs for changes, and the new form editor. This new feature would have made my job so much easier, and I will take advantage of it in the future. In the past, we used Word or a desktop publishing package like InDesign or QuarkExpress to create forms.
Adobe continues to upgrade one of their flagship products, enhancing existing features while adding new features that will be well received in the business, government and education industries. The software is easy to use, provides a great way to find and distribute information, and is very stable. I personally have not had any crashes or bugs at any time with versions 8 or 9 on a number of different Macs.
I found Acrobat useful as a technical writer in the business world, as a freelance writer, and as a student at university. This product will remain in my short list of required software applications for the foreseeable future.
Positives
The version 9 of Acrobat Pro is about the same speed as version 8 of the product, which was more than adequate. I found the product intuitive to use, like most of Adobe’s software, and believe most users will never bother to use the online help for typical day-to-day usage of the software.
Adding support for interactive materials was timely and interactive materials are displayed by Acrobat reader so not other plug-ins or applications are required. Nice. A nice addition to an already mature product and a move sure to keep people from looking at Microsoft’s Silverlight software.
Last year I used Acrobat 8 to gather and save information from Internet sources for a number of classes. While testing this version, I used Acrobat to save preparation materials for my classes this fall, and it performed as well as version 8.
The types of content that can be converted to PDFs include Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Outlook C&S, Project, Visio, Access, AutoCAD® and Lotus Notes content.
The languages supported by this product are English, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Negatives
The application takes up a lot of drive space – an issue for older G5 Macs with smaller hard drives than available for newer Intel processor Macs.
Unlike the Acrobat 9 Pro Extended version on my Windows laptop, I could not convert a web page to a PDF from the toolbar using IE on my Mac, nor was this support available in Camino or Safari. While it is still possible to print a webpage as a PDF in browsers on the Mac, the quality of the output when printed still leaves a lot t be desired. I view this a a huge weakness and I hope Adobe provides web to PDF conversion support as well as the ability to print to PDF for Mac users in the very near future.
Recommendation
Definitely recommended. This application is useful for student, small and large businesses, and other organizations that want to reduce their printed documentation by using electronic documents. While the full installation of this software takes up a lot of hard drive space, but the is easy to use and I felt the product benefits far outweigh the hard drive space one must sacrifice. The price seems high, although there are education discounts.
Review By Mike Hubbartt