Adobe Acrobat 9 Classroom in a Book

I've now used Acrobat for a number of years and have, for the most part, been able to figure out what I needed to do. I recently bought a new scanner (which is not yet available on Amazon) and have come across several problems while converting documents to .pdf files. Due to these matters, I thought I'd finally spend the money to buy this book to fully learn all of Acrobat (I have Acrobat 9 Pro) features. To say that I'm disappointed in this grossly overpriced book is an understatement. Much of the book is devoted to materials that do not need to be dealt with (as they're so basic) or on flashy (no pun intended) elements, such as 3-D animations and other not-so-important features that I suspect most users could care less about.

To make matters even worse, the book instructs readers to examine the help files that come with Acrobat for information (if these help files were useful, I wouldn't have needed to buy this or other books). Then there's the problem that some features are not covered in detail at all - as I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to use a new scanner and the OCR functions on Acrobat. Less than a full page is devoted to that topic and essentially nothing helpful is provided (yes, I already know how to press the button on the scanner - something that this book tells readers to do). Nothing at all is mentioned about the new feature in Acrobat 9 about "ClearScan" - the function that replaced Formatted Text & Graphics found in older versions of Acrobat. While I finally figured out what "ClearScan" was only to those who are true neophytes to the program. Even so, there are too many items of importance that are not covered.

I run a small internet based sales business. I needed a way to convert images and text into PDF files so that I could share more info easier and faster and also have some security over what I decided to email out to customers or post to my web site. Since I sell photographs and information I wanted to promote those items, not give them away. So I bought Adobe Acrobat 9 from Adobe, then ordered the Adobe Acrobat 9 Classroom in a Book from Amazon which arrived in a few days after I ordered it.

I have a background in professional training. I found the book to be orderly and very easy to read and comprehend. If you do exactly what it says to do, START AT THE BEGINNING, and do a lesson at a time it walks you right through the process of creating and converting and combining documents into PDFs.

Chapters 1-8 were the meat of the training that I needed. Chapters 9-15 are extra gravy. Having used the product now for about a month I'm pretty fluent in creating PDFs from documents I create, from photos I have scanned, and from emails and web pages I send and visit. The nice thing is that we're really trying to cut down on paper and ink use to save some money in the business. By turning all of our receipts and invoices into PDFs we can save 100% of our business data electronically as PDFs now. That has really streamlined invoicing and end of month posting cuz we can do it all right off the computer screen now without having mountains of paper to push around to figure out what's what with every sale and invoice.

This book was essential to helping us understand how to EASILY get moving with making PDFs. Now that we have more confidence in how the program works we're experimenting with the toolbars to see the other functionality that the software has so we can jazz up these documents when we create them. Honestly, using Adobe 9 has been a bit of fun, and it's the lessons in the book that showed us how to get there in short order. It's an easy read. Just be patient and do the lessons as they have layed out for you, and you'll be humming along with Adobe 9 too.

We gave the book 4 stars out of 5 cuz now that we're using the software we can see there are a few other things it would have been nice to know ahead of time. But no one book covers everything either. We did use the CD that comes with the book but after the first few lessons it was easy to see that basically the CD provides some finished PDFs that you simply pull from a directory, open, then close again, to get you into the habit of opening, combining, and closing the PDFs when working in the different chapters. The CD is a nice way to make the whole process of learning friendlier so don't be afraid to install the CD on your computer and use it exactly the way they tell you to use it. It's simple and it works.

Cheers! J. Lemke.

The first pages introduce the reader to PDF. What is PDF; how does one create PDFs; what are the applications of PDFs? For example, one could convert Outlook mail to PDF for backup or publish HR Employee Handbooks to PDF and save on paper. What is this part of the workspace called? And that? What is the Taskbar; the Toolbar; and all those buttons? What are the PDF design considerations for screen viewing versus the printing press versus web publishing?

The remaining 14 chapters introduce and explain topics via the lessons on the CD. Each chapter concludes with review questions and answers to wake those who may have been reading this book as an Agatha Christie fiction.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Getting Started

1. Introducing Adobe Acrobat 9

2. Looking at the Work Area

3. Creating Adobe PDF Files

4. Creating Adobe PDF from Microsoft Office Files (Windows Only)

5. Combining Files in PDF Portfolios

6. Reading and Working with PDF Files

7. Enhancing and Editing PDF Documents

8. Adding Signatures and Security

9. Using Acrobat in a Review Cycle

10. Working with Forms in Acrobat

11. Creating Multimedia Presentations

12. Using the Legal Features [such as redaction and Bates numbering]

13. Using the Engineering and Technical Features

14. Using Acrobat in Professional Printing

15. Working with 3D in PDF Files

This book covers Adobe Acrobat Standard, Professional, and Extended for Mac OS and Windows, but only Acrobat 9 Pro runs on OS X. The following are not available on OS X:

a) Use QuickBooks data in forms (Windows English only) - Import and export Intuit QuickBooks data using custom templates.

b) LiveCycle Designer ES is not part of the Adobe Acrobat family and so is not covered here, but is bundled in Acrobat Pro and Extended because it far exceeds the features of Acrobat's integrated AcroForms and is the application of choice for advanced forms designers.

There is little here for those seeking Acrobat certification except to acquaint with new and enhanced features of Acrobat 9, which can be learned from Adobe's website. It is well-edited for proper spelling and grammar, which is always welcome for IT books, and the layout is lively and easy to follow, as expected from Adobe. A good book for beginners.