DTP-style features turn this
venerable app into an edit tool
Launched two decades ago to ensure a
document created on one computer could be viewed on another with its formatting
intact (indeed, during development it was known within Adobe as
"super-ASCII," making design elements as universally understandable
as the ASCII code had made text), Acrobat has become much more.
Acrobat
XI does a competent job of carving a document up into distinct text and image
boxes.
With the arrival of version XI, it
completes a critical transition: from being essentially a utility supporting
use of the PDF file format to being a full-fledged productivity app. You can
create PDF files from pretty much any app that can print documents. And now,
when you open those PDF files in Acrobat, you can do much more than viewing and
rudimentary modification, which were at the core of previous versions.
The
new editing ability also lets you perform a find and replace text action
throughout an entire PDF file, though it’s a word-by-word replacement.
Instead, you use the new Edit Text &
Images tool to work with a document that is broken down, as intelligently as
Acrobat can manage, into its text and image components, shown in boxes in
familiar desktop-publishing (DTP) style.
Acrobat XI lets you do everything you’d
expect from a DTP app in the way of moving, resizing, and modifying these
components, as well as adding new text or images. And when you're finished, you
can export in different formats, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG, TIFF,
HTML, or text, as well as PDF, of course.
The
contentious issue that you can’t edit an imported PDF in Adobe InDesign, without using a plugin,
has been addressed in part by this new workflow.
Other handy features include the ability to
combine multiple documents into one PDF, and to convert PDFs into forms that
can be filled in via Adobe’s cloud-based FormsCentral app. For more-advanced
users, there are tools such as batch processing of documents and audio and
Flash support.
But Acrobat XI is not wholly satisfying to
use. For example, navigating the toolbar is rather clunky (though the ability
to create custom tool sets displaying the tools you use and hiding those you
don't—is great). We also had some problems with text failing to reflow properly
when paragraph breaks were changed, and experienced slow performance on a
MacBook. It is disappointing, too, that the cheaper standard version, which
lacks a few of the higher-end features, is available only for Windows.
The
Tools section also features the Export File To… command which now allows you to
transform PDF files into PowerPoint documents
More significant than any particular
feature, however, is the question of how you work. If you frequently need to
edit documents produced by other people who created them using software you
don’t possess, Acrobat XI gives you more control than earlier versions. But for
the solo user, while the addition of the new DTP like features certainly
doesn't detract from the older functionality of viewing PDFs, it may not add a
great deal either.
The bottom line. Although not always
perfectly implemented, the new features of Acrobat XI could be just what you're
looking for if you need to edit others' designs.
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Information
·
Website: www.adobe.com
·
Price: $449. upgrade from $199
·
Requirements: 0$ X 10.6.4, 10.7.2, or 10.8.
Intel processor, Safari, 1GB RAM, 1.5GB hard disk space
·
(+) Powerful
new tools. Good range of export formats.
·
(-) Not always
smooth. Expensive for casual users.
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