It’s easy to start using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, but it is also full of features that only emerge after a little digging. Here are some cool things that I didn’t know about – if you’re already using Acrobat 8, see if any of them will make your life easier!
These tips come from today’s TechnoLawyer newsletter – credit goes to New York attorney Roy Greenberg, who wrote the original column. TechnoLawyer keeps its materials behind a wall – join their mailing lists or become a member if you want access to more tips from this article or any of the other TechnoLawyer resources.
1. USE ACROBAT’S SNAPSHOT TOOL
Acrobat has a built-in tool for making a quick snapshot of a portion of a PDF, similar to Vista’s snipping tool for screen shots. Click on Tools / Select & Zoom / Snapshot Tool, then highlight the area to be copied. (You can highlight any area up to a full PDF page; you’re not limited to what’s visible onscreen.) When you release the mouse button, the selection will be put on the clipboard, ready to be pasted into an e-mail or a Word document.
2. USE THUMBNAIL IMAGES FOR DOCUMENT NAVIGATION
“When you send a PDF document to your client, use the “Initial View” feature to help your client navigate through the document. I have sent clients multi-page documents, only to later learn that the client never realized that the document consisted of more than one page. I now send clients a PDF in which the left-hand panel consists of thumbnail images of all of the pages of the document. The client can see any page by clicking the thumbnail image. As many programs use such images, most clients instinctively understand how to navigate through the document.
“Here’s how to set it up: Press Ctrl-D. Choose the “Initial View” tab. Select “Pages Panel and Page” from the drop down menu. Press the “Apply” button and save the document. When your client opens the document, he’ll see both the first page of your document and the pages panel consisting of thumbnail images.”
3. USE THE ORGANIZER
Use the Acrobat Organizer to get a unique visual display of PDF documents. The Organizer (click on File / Organizer / Open Organizer) gives immediate access to all the PDFs you’ve opened during the last week, month, or year, or gives you a visual look at PDF files on the hard drive. It also has a feature called “Collections” where you can drag frequently used PDFs and keep them sorted, without moving them from where they’re stored on the hard drive.
4. SEND WEB PAGES INSTEAD OF URLS
“Use Acrobat to capture Web pages. This is a separate function from printing a Web page using the PDF driver. When the page is captured, all of the links on the page remain active. When you click a link in the PDF, the selected page will open in your browser. You can send clients Web pages of interest instead of Web addresses (i.e, URLs). Send a brief note explaining that the PDF Web page has all of the functions of the original Web page.
“Home or opening pages from a large Web site are often a good choice. I often send clients the first page from my local town government’s web site. My client can then choose the item of interest on the page, click the link, and find what they are seeking. You can capture the Web page by choosing “File / Create PDF / From Web Page” from the menu bar in Acrobat. You’ll need to enter the URL of the page that you want to convert to a PDF, but you can cut and paste the URL from your browser.”
