Adobe announces Acrobat 10; my quick review

I've had a chance to preview the new Adobe Acrobat, which is version 10, and there are some very interesting changes in this update. Adobe has significantly revamped the menu bar, simplifying it so that there are only 5 main menus: File, Edit, View, Window, and Help. Acrobat 9, by contrast had 10 menu choices. Gone from the main menu are the following commands: Document, Comments, Forms, Tools, and Advanced.

At first this was unsettling, but once I grasped what Adobe was doing I realized that the user-interface change will be helpful to people who are new to Acrobat. The advanced choices were not removed from the program, but simply moved to the toolbar on the right side (see below).

Putting the more advanced choices over in their own separate area actually makes sense. Below are the Tools and Comment sub-menus expanded to list some of the things that you can view here (the view is editable to exclude things you don't generally use).

 

 

Bottom line: rest assured you'll be able to work with all of your favorite tools, but now the process will become a lot easier to visualize. And key actions that people use most frequently have been placed at the top of the sub-menus.  So, for example ,the Rotate command is now at the top of the Pages sub-menu as shown below.

And you'll note that Rotate is grouped with other actions that belong together as 'page actions.' The main toolbar (depicted in topmost image) is much more configurable now, so that you can put exactly the commands you use most; you are no longer forced to have a set of commands in the toolbar if you only want one command out of that set.

I should point out that Adobe Reader (the free viewing program) is also getting an update, and it will now allow users to create and save highlights and sticky notes. Adobe keeps adding great features like this to Reader (and yet it also is careful to keep out key features that are in Acrobat, such as being able to rotate a page and save that view). Adobe Reader now is set to accept automatic updates, which will increase its stability and security as improvements are developed by Adobe.  But, back to Acrobat...

Other improvements to Acrobat 10 are better OCR capabilities, better compression of color documents, more options for Portfolios, and significantly improved export of PDFs to Word or Excel formats. Another important development is the inclusion of a feature called 'Actions' which are basically macros that allow a sequence of actions to be set up by a user. Granted, we've had the ability to to 'batch processing' but Actions are more user-friendly.  And they can be exported and shared with other users, so it's likely that Actions that become popular in the legal field will be easily distributed to other interested users.

The Redaction tool has improved a bit, allowing a user to set the default appearance more easily. But it's pretty much the same tool that we've seen in the last version of Acrobat.  Same with Bates-stamping.

So is this a must-have upgrade for legal users? It's probably not, unless you're a heavy user of the OCR function and the export to Word function. The export to Excel is also nicely implemented in this version. There are some improvements to collaboration that take advantage of Microsoft Sharepoint, but it's hard to say how popular this feature will be in the legal world.

The most interesting update is the one to Reader, the free viewing application. Being able to highlight text-based PDFs and add sticky notes is a nice touch. And one that will perhaps drive more average users to crave the additional document manipulation features in Acrobat.

The new Acrobat X (that's what it's called) and the new Reader will be out in about a month. If you want to get a preview of the new features I suggest you join the Acrobatusers.com community and then sign up for this free 75 minute online preview. You should also check out these video tutorials for Acrobat X (or bookmark them for later once you get your copy).

Also, be sure to read Rick Borstein's excellent summary of the new features in Acrobat X.

Comments

[Leonard Rosenthol]

There are some significant improvements to the Redaction function in Acrobat X that I am surprised you didn't mention.

* Searching (and Replacing!!) codes
* One click addition of codes (including multiple codes on a single item)
* Summarization of redaction operation & their codes (ALSO NOW IN READER X)
* and more...

and of course there is also the new "Sanitization" feature which will ensure that no hidden information gets out.

Leonard Rosenthol
PDF Standards Architect
Adobe Systems

[Ernie Svenson]

Hey Leonard:

You're right that I failed to mention the improvements to the reduction function in Acrobat X. I wasn't able to explore these new functions for myself, and that's the only reason I didn't discuss them. Obviously, anything that improves the reduction function will be useful to lawyers. Thanks for bringing those reduction features to the readers' attention.

[Martin Crossman]

Any changes/improvement to the Portfolio tool?

Thanks for the heads up and review. I'll be joining the mentioned group to learn more.

Martin Crossman
President - REDI Analysis
www.redianalysis.com
Developer of the REDI Office

[TomStirewalt]

Nice job on the review, Ernie. Long enough to be informative, short enough to actually read and absorb.

[Ernest Svenson]

Portfolio has more configurability in the way of aesthetics, and some improved functionality. I don't use Portfolio that much. The new features are the ability to include links to web pages and to YouTube videos (or other online video). The only problem is that, in the current beta version, the image for online content is non-descript and so it looks kind of lame. I suspect Adobe will fix this.

[Fred Bruno]

How much will this cost?

[Browning]

I examined the email AA sent to me. It looked like it was for PC only. Will version 10 be for both PC and Mac?

[Ernest Svenson]

Adobe X will be available for Mac and PCs. No word yet on what it will cost, but I presume it will be the same as Acrobat 9.

[Chris Jones]

I sure hope Adobe comes out with a utility to deconstruct PDF Portfolios in a batch process (eg. persons archiving Outlook/Exchange email/PSTs to portfolios which end up as evidence) so that the deconstructed components still retain their relationships (eg. source/attachment relationships) either in data or file naming convention. Receiving PDF Portfolios for E-Discovery processing is challenging and frustrating for both litigation support and litigation teams because we can't extract the portfolio's components and preserve the component's relationships - critical in E-Discovery.

Also, it would be extremely helpful if PDF Portfolios had a different file extension that a standard PDF, or having a batch processing mechanism to identify them within a collection of standard PDFs to separate them out.

[Drew]

Can anyone comment upon or point to a review of the relative robustness of the OCR text routine in Adobe Pro X vs. 9.4? Thanks.

[Ronnie]

Is there a way to print Search Results in Acrobat X? (If there's a way in 9, PLEASE point me to it).

[Ernie]

I don't know how to print search results in Acrobat 9, and don't think that there is any way to do that. In Acrobat X, however, there is a function that lets you save search results. When you choose to save you are given the option to save as a .PDF or a .csv file. If you save as a PDF you can then print out from that document.

The results that are saved show the file name and then a short snippet of the language that is relevant within that file is set forth. And by short snippet I mean about 100 characters, or about 15 to 20 words.

For a more complete description of this, see my most recent blog post: http://www.pdfforlawyers.com/2010/10/how-to-save-or-print-search-results-in-acrobat-x.html

[Jeff N]

How could Adobe break what are two of the most commonly used features in Acrobat 9.4.5 in such an obscure way (Search highlighting and Pages Thumbnails multi-selection), never have regression tested this basic function given the 3 month (or more) release cycle, and conveniently not have broke it in Acrobat X? Then, there are web forum recommendations pushing to upgrade to Acrobat X — which completely changed the User Interface and will result in significant loss of productivity while bridging the learning curve and dealing with new functional/compatibility problems. We don't have any commitment on if or when Adobe will fix these rather peculiar 9.4.5 bugs that are 9 weeks old or correct the apparently gaping holes in their software development/test process. Adobe, please don't try to change/add features to Acrobat 9 unless they are critical since your software development/release process is apparently semi-out of control (unless these bugs were secretly intentional to drive upgrade revenue in which case you have bigger legal concerns). Please strive towards application stability by changing only what is absolutely necessary in a conservative "do no harm" type manner. You have made many customers very frustrated, lowered your brand loyalty, and reduced confidence in major releases like Acrobat X.