It’s easy to create a PDF Portfolio and add files to it with Adobe Acrobat X. In this eSeminar, you’ll learn how to create and modify a PDF Portfolio to bring together content from a variety of sources, including documents, drawings, images, e-mail, spreadsheets and web pages. Discover how to brand and personalize professionally designed layouts with your company logo and colors using themes; quickly integrate content, define navigation and add polish to communicate clearly and effectively; apply permissions and passwords to help protect sensitive information; and share your portfolio with anyone using free Adobe Reader software.

Learn how to:

• Unify a wide range of content in a PDF Portfolio
• Use professionally designed templates and visual themes
• Maintain individual file settings
• Merge multiple documents into one PDF file
• Work with and edit files in the PDF Portfolio
• Attach native files
• Incorporate web pages and online content

You can sign up for an event reminder here:

http://acrobatusers.com/events/2128/getting-started-pdf-portfolios

Adobe will also be giving away a few Adobe Gift Bags at the event.  Join us!

Acrobat X will be available for IU Faculty, Staff and Students on IUware soon.

Acrobat X Presentation

Creating a Course Packet Using Acrobat Scanning Tools

In this session, you will learn how to efficiently create a course packet for your class. You will gain an understanding of how fair use allows you to make use of copyrighted materials for education and what limits exist to what you can use. You will then learn how to use Acrobat to scan your documents directly into a PDF, and how to quickly and easily correct scanning mistakes. Additionally, this session will teach you how to secure your PDF to protect it from unwanted changes and unwanted eyes.

Who should watch this presentation?

• Any instructor who has to create course packets for a class manually
• Anyone who’s looking for a better scanning application

What we will cover:

• What is Fair Use and how can I use it in my class?
• Using Acrobat as a scanning application
• Using the Acrobat optimizing tools to improve a scanned document
• Securing a PDF for a classroom environment

June 15th 1:30 – 3:00pm (online) - Using Acrobat Scanning Tools to Create a Course Packet – In this session, I will cover how to use Acrobat scanning tools with a simple course packet as an example.  However, these skills can translate to anyone who needs to scan in and work with documents.  We’ll cover Fair Use, how to scan in Acrobat, optimizing the scanned document, adding a watermark, and securing the document. Check http://ittraining.iu.edu/ittraininglive/ for details and to sign up for an e-mail reminder.

June 22nd Noon-1pm (Online and in person in IUB CG2063) – PDF Portfolios in Acrobat 9 – In this session, I’ll show you how to store a myriad of different file types(Word, Excel, video, audio, graphics, and more) into a single PDF Portfolio, which can be read by Acrobat Reader which can extract the original files, and retain their original formats. This PDF Portfolio can be used to e-mail a package of documents without zipping, or adding multiple attachments to one document. This session will be both online and available in person. Check the links to sign up for an e-mail reminder.

June 29th – 1:30-3:30pm (IUB Library IC103 – This session is only available on the IUB campus) – Acrobat 9: Enhancing Electronic Documents (click link to sign up) – In this session, I’ll take you through the basics of putting together a single long PDF document from a group of other individual documents.  We’ll cover page numbering, features like links, security, and accessibility.  Anyone putting together a large document (like a dissertation) should take notice.

July 6th – 1:30-4:30pm (IUB Library IC103 – This session is only available on the IUB campus) – Acrobat 9: Forms for Data Collection(click link to sign up) – If you’ve ever needed to convert a paper form into an electronic form, or needed to take a quick electronic survey, then this workshop is for you.  In this session, we’ll learn how to create a PDF form, which will allow you to gather data quickly and effectively, and retrieve the data in a standard format to move to your database of choice.

July 13th – 1:30-3:00pm (online) – Send and Collaborate Live with Acrobat 9 – Finally, in this session, I’ll cover how to create a workspace in Acrobat with up to 3 people that you can use to comment on and markup a shared PDF in realtime.  We’ll also look at some of the tools available on Acrobat.com.  Click here to sign up for an e-mail reminder.

And finally, to whet your appetite for Acrobat, I’ve created this video to show you a quick and easy way to reduce your PDF file size.  The PDF format stores graphics, fonts and text, so it can create large files.  In some cases, this method can reduce your PDF size by 25%. Enjoy, and I hope to see you at some of our training sessions over the next 5 weeks.

Using Acrobat 9 to Reduce the File Size of your PDF

However, there is a lesser known program called LiveCycle Designer, which is installed with Acrobat Pro, which can also create forms.  These forms can be created from a template, or a spreadsheet, and it can even start with a blank document. It can also create forms that can be connected to a database, and can create more complex calculated fields using FormCalc or JavaScript (JavaScript can also be used in Acrobat 9).  LiveCycle Designer is a much more complex program, and unfortunately we don’t have time in Acrobat 9: Forms to cover it.

Now that IU students, faculty and staff can access lynda.com, you can now learn how to use this program, and create forms in a different way which might work better for your situation.  One of the main benefits of LiveCycle Designer is that it can give you a better starting point, since LiveCycle forms do not need a pre-existing file to work from, unlike Acrobat 9 Pro.
In Acrobat 9 Pro: Creating Forms from lynda.com (make sure you’re logged in through IT Training & Education’s lynda.com portal to access the workshop), Brian Wood covers the creation of Forms in both Acrobat Pro and LiveCycle Designer.

However, if you’ve already taken Acrobat 9: Forms from IT Training & Education, you can skip sections 1, 2 and 3 of the lynda.com video series, giving you a head start on getting through the rest of the videos, and saving approximately the same amount of time you would have spent in the IT Training & Education workshop.  Understanding form creation can probably save you time learning LiveCycle Designer as well.
Suggested IT Training & Education Prerequisites:

• Acrobat 9: Forms – Optional prerequisite. Covers the first 3 sections of Acrobat 9 Pro: Creating Forms on lynda.com, including Form creation and distribution.

Luckily, in Acrobat, we have the Replace Pages feature.  This allows us to select a page, or range of pages to replace with a page or set of pages from another document.  This is incredibly useful, because it allows us to make larger changes without remaking the entire PDF.

The best part about replacing pages though, is that it retains all of your special features, like Links.  You might have to move them around in the new document, but pressing and dragging is much better than completely replacing.

Let’s see how to do this now.

• Launch Acrobat 9, and open the PDF document that you wish to use to Replace pages.

We also need to make sure that we know the exact page numbers for the pages we wish to replace in our PDF, as well as the correct page numbers from the document that will be used for replacement.

For example, imagine we had a 20 page document, and we only need to replace pages 10 and 11 of our PDF with pages 3 and 4 of our replacement document.  Acrobat will ask us for this information at the end of the process, so be sure you know it.

• To replace pages, from the menu bar, Click Document, then Click Replace Pages

Acrobat will display a dialog box asking us to select a file to use to replace pages. By default, this dialog box will only show us PDF documents, but we can use any type of document that can be made into a PDF.

• To see other file types, in the Files of Type field, Click the drop down arrow, and then Click the File Type you wish to use.
  

Now we can see the correct file type. If the file type is not listed, you will likely have to create the PDF from the source application, using the PDF printer. (In the source application, Click File->Print, and then select ‘Adobe PDF’ as your printer)

• To open the file, navigate to it, and Double-Click the file

Acrobat will take a moment to create a PDF from the document you selected if it isn’t already a PDF.

The Replace Pages dialog box appears:

We now need to select the pages from both documents that we wish to replace.

• Set the numbers for the replacement, and then Click OK
• To confirm the replacement, Click Yes

The pages are replaced, and you can then go about moving any special features that were added.

With this method, we can easily replace pages in a PDF document without going to the trouble of recreating the entire document.

If you’d like to know more about Acrobat, and some of the special features I mentioned, take a look at our training offerings at http://ittraining.iu.edu/Acrobat.

Adobe is one of the largest software companies in the world, and while most people are familiar with their core apps, like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash, there are many applications included in the suite that you might not be familiar with. In this post, we’ll take some time to examine all the different applications that you can install with the various Adobe suites. We will focus on the applications in Design Premium CS4 and Production Premium CS4. There are many add-ons and extra technology included in the installers, but we will look only at the applications included.

Design Premium CS4

The Design Premium suite is probably what most users will download first. This package includes the most common applications that Adobe offers. Let’s look at what’s included.

Photoshop – This is Adobe’s flagship application, and the one most people are familiar with. It is a professional quality photo editing program. It can be used by basic users, but is designed for advanced and professional users. Some tasks you could complete in Photoshop include resizing images, color correcting, making a collage of images, and even saving as a different format. More complex tasks can include retouching and repairing damaged images, or removing distractions.

Dreamweaver – Dreamweaver is a website creation program designed to allow users to see the web page they are creating as they are creating it, rather than typing in code. As the user creates parts of the web page, Dreamweaver writes the code in the background, which the user can view and alter as necessary. Dreamweaver also offers Cascading Style Sheet integration, and the ability to add code in several popular web programming languages like PHP and ColdFusion.

Flash – Flash is an animation and application development platform. You can create simple or complex animations, and use the ActionScript programming language to create full featured web applications. Because it combines animation and programming, it can become a very complex application, but it also means that you can create very impressive applications once you have some knowledge.

Acrobat Professional - Acrobat is a program that creates and edits PDF documents. PDF documents are designed to be read by anyone with the freely available Adobe Reader, but with Acrobat Professional, we can create these documents and add special features. We can create PDF forms, and add links, bookmarks, and file attachments to standard PDFs. We can also add security features to our PDFs with this program.

Illustrator – Illustrator is a program designed for the creation of print graphics. It is a program designed for artists, and requires good knowledge of the use of the tools and drawing in general to get good results, but with some time and effort, most users can become proficient with the tools.

InDesign – InDesign is a page layout program that can be used to create newsletters, brochures, flyers and even more complex publications like magazines and books. InDesign works very well in any instance where text and graphics need to be placed precisely. Again, it is a program that benefits from a solid knowledge of the tools and design principles, but is usable for basic users.

Fireworks – Fireworks is a lightweight graphic editor that is focused on web graphics. We can quickly optimize web graphics, and create web specific graphics like animated GIFs, image maps, and navigation bars. It is excellent for quick re-sizing and saving in web based formats like JPG, GIF and PNG.

Production Premium CS4

The Production Premium suite is focused on video editing and creation. These programs are likely less familiar to a broad audience. Also, Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator are included with this package, which are discussed above. These programs are almost universally more complex than the Design Premium applications, because the concepts are so much more complex.

Premiere Pro – Premiere Pro (not to be confused with Premiere Elements, a separate program) is a high-end video editing program. It is a complex program that requires a good deal of skill and know-how to use proficiently. Basic users are probably more interested in the more basic Premiere Elements (available as a separate download for IU staff and students from IUWare), or Windows MovieMaker, which is available by default on Windows computers.

Soundbooth – Soundbooth is a sound recording and editing program that comes with the Production Premium suite. In this program you can alter pitch and tone, change the sound levels, remove and add audio, and even add special effects to your sound recording.

After Effects – After Effects is a program that allows you to add special effects to videos like animation, or screen overlays. It can also do video touch-ups, much like the healing tools in Photoshop can touch-up photos. It is another program that requires a lot of knowledge of video formats and the tools to get good results.

Encore – Encore is a fully-featured DVD creation program. It allows us to create a DVD with all the features of a professional DVD, such as multiple audio tracks, animated menus, chapter lists, and even includes DVD burning. Encore is a DVD creation program only, and it relies on the other programs in the suite like Photoshop, After Effects, and Flash to create some of these more complex assets, but with some know-how, a basic user could create a simple DVD fairly quickly.

OnLocation – OnLocation is an organizational program to help keep track of video files as they’re being shot. It can track a shot list, including the camera that was used, the time of day, and other information essential to a large or small production. It is designed for professionals working on a complex video shoot, and is probably not of much use to the basic user.

Adobe Media Encoder – This is a program designed as an add-on to Flash and Premiere, but can be used as a standalone application as well. It converts video files from one format to another with great precision. Basic users can use the presets, and experiment with different settings to find a good balance of size and quality.

This has been a brief overview of the programs included in the Adobe Creative Suites. If you want to learn more about these programs, and how to use them, keep an eye on this blog or try these sources:

• http://ittraining.iu.edu – IT Training & Education offers in-depth classes on all of the programs in the Design Premium suite.
• http://www.adobetv.com – For shorter video tutorials, Adobe TV can give you specific tips and skills on all of the Adobe products.