Acrobat 9.0 - Worth getting for one new feature

I've tried Acrobat 9.0 on both Mac and Windows and I have to say that it's an impressive upgrade. Initially, I was lukewarm about the prospect of upgrading, mostly because 8.0 offered most of what I need as a lawyer (e.g. bates-stamping and redaction). But 9.0 offers one thing that, by itself, makes this a worthwhile upgrade for many lawyers. Definitely, those who use Casemap will want to get the new version.

Here is the big thing that Acrobat 9.0 adds: a 'Split Document' feature. And this feature, as part of the choices in how to split the document, allows you to split by 'top level bookmarks.' This means that if you have a large PDF file that contains many individual documents that you would like to break up into separate files, you can do so very easily. Presumably you'll have these separate documents bookmarked so you can distinguish where a new document begins. If so, then just run the 'Split Document' utility and have it break the PDF up into many separate documents. You can opt to have the new files named according to the bookmark that was used to create it, or by appending a name you designate, followed by an incrementing number.

You can run this utility on a single PDF, or on multiple PDFs at once. In fact, one great addition to Acrobat 9.0 is the ability to run many operations on multiple PDFs at once. The only bad thing about this 'Split by Bookmark' feature is that sub-level bookmarks are not preserved in the resulting files. But, that's a minor point. The addition of the 'Split by Bookmark' feature is a major time-saver and will make this a must-have upgrade for many lawyers and law firms.

I'll have more to say about other useful features of Acrobat 9.0 in upcoming posts. If you want to try the new version you can download it and try it free for 30 days. The only downside is that you'd have to uninstall the old Acrobat so it's maybe not worth doing unless you know you'll wind up buying it. Also, if you upgrade to Acrobat 9.0 and have Casemap you'll need to download Casemap again and reinstall it. The folks at Casemap updated the Acrobat plug-in (even though the version of Casemap remained the same) so you'll need the latest version of Casemap.

Incidentally, the new version of Acrobat comes in several 'flavors': Standard ($279 full, or $89 upgade), Professional ($399 full, or $169 upgrade), and Pro Extended ($629 full or $209 upgrade). The Standard version includes the 'Split by bookmarks' feature, as do the Pro versions.

Comments

[Larry Kasoff]

Check out my recent blog post for splitting a PDF document on bookmarks without upgrading to Acrobat 9.0:

http://www.patenttechtips.org/2008/08/28/spliting-multi-part-pair-pdf-files/

[Richard]

Hi, just thought I'd mention that Nitro PDF Professional has supported this sort of splitting for quite a few years now. We also retain all the bookmarks and can make all the links work across documents once the pages are split into new PDF files.

[Eric Rhodes]

Just a note for those who are interested in getting Adobe Pro bundled with the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M - I emailed Fujitsu in conjunction with my recent review of the S510M on my blog, and it will be another six months (at least) before Adobe 9 replaces Adobe 8 in the bundle:

"... We do not have a time frame for Adobe 9, it usually takes about 6-12 months for us to place new versions of Adobe in the box.
Thank you
Fujitsu Computer Products of America"