In its quest for the paperless office, Adobe Systems is gearing up for sweeping changes to its Acrobat and
Reader platforms.
The San Jose, Calif.-based Web publishing software giant announced
the upcoming release of version 7.0 of its Professional and Standard
software. The new offerings for making Portable Document Format (PDF)
files and the corresponding free downloadable Adobe Reader version 7.0
platform will be available by the end of the year. The upgrade will be
marketed to professionals in document services, marketing, IT services,
government and education.
The most notable change is the ability for Acrobat 7.0 Professional
customers to give users feedback on a PDF file
including content from scanned paper, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Previously, both parties had to purchase the Professional version of
Acrobat to trade their 2-cents worth of comments.
The new platform will also allow Web-enabled access to Yahoo Search,
formatting for e-mails and attachments, and review policies that can
revoke access or even expire documents in a pre-set number of days.
Adobe senior product marketing manager Marion Melani said the new
feedback ability is great for companies with consultants and/or
contractors who may not want to shell out the entire USD$449 suite just
to solicit feedback.
“With Acrobat 6 and others you had to associate a password to the PDF
file that put a set of restrictions on the PDF documents,” Melani told
internetnews.com.
Outside of the usual creation and conversion technologies, Adobe said
Acrobat 7.0 and Adobe PDF lets workgroups assemble documents from
multiple sources, create intelligent forms, and collaborate on projects
inside and outside the firewall with improved security. The latest
versions also tap into the growing numbers of 3D computer-aided design
(CAD) content.
Acrobat 7.0 Professional also supports an expanded number of print
standards such as PDF/X and Job Definition Format (JDF) specifications.
JDF product definitions ensure accurate job submissions to Adobe PDF
print workflow systems. PDF/X is an industry standard for graphic arts
file exchange, which virtually eliminates the most common errors in file
preparation.
The latest update also includes all the benefits of Adobe’s
Intelligent Document platform, which includes mixing with Adobe
LiveCycle software. The improvements lets designers create XML
systems. Also, The Acrobat 7.0 family ties into Adobe’s LiveCycle Policy
Server. The platform lets organizations set and manage document policies
for helping control access to a PDF document.
The company said its Acrobat version 7.0 would also be integrated to
Adobe Creative Suite Premium, which it launched back in October 2003.
The Acrobat 7.0 family also takes advantage of Adobe’s close
relationship with Microsoft as the new Creator line
dovetails with Office products such as Outlook, Excel, and Internet
Explorer. While Adobe has acknowledged the advancements of Linux and
open source operating systems and Web browsers, Melani said the company
will stick close to widely used platforms like Windows and Macintosh.
“[The Mozilla foundation’s browser] Firefox is taking market share
away from Internet Explorer, but we have to address what are the
predominant formats being used in the marketplace especially in
government and education, and that includes Windows and Mac,” Melani
said.
The company currently has an open source version of its Acrobat
Reader available, albeit an older version 5.0. The 7.0 Reader is
expected in the first half of 2005. Melani said Adobe’s readers for
Linux and other open source distributions are critical for addressing
non-PC environments.
“We have a version of our reader in Linux that Sony is taking for a
car-navigation system for the Japanese market,” Melani said.
The new versions are being offered for the same price as before
(US$449 for Pro – US$299 for Standard) with upgrades from previous
versions starting at USD$99. The platforms will ship for Windows and Mac
machines starting in December, and in French, German and Japanese in
early 2005. The products also will be available through Adobe’s Open
Options licensing programs, which begins at US$39 per seat for a
100-seat license.
