Adobe does a Google Docs with new online suite

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Jun 2008 at 08:37

Adobe is attempting to secure a share of the online documents market with its new Acrobat.com service.

The site, which treads on the toes of services such as Google Docs and Zoho.com, allows visitors to create, store and share documents online.

Acrobat.com inlcudes the Adobe Buzzword word processor, which was launched at the start of the year, along with the option to turn up to five documents into PDFs using an online version of Adobe's new Acrobat 9 software.

The site also provides online document storage and ConnectNow collaboration facilities, which allow people to work on documents together using instant messaging, voice or video conferencing.

Acrobat 9

Alongside the new website, Adobe has also launched the latest version of its Acrobat desktop software.

The big newcomer in Acrobat 9 is the option to embed Flash in PDFs, allowing users to place videos in sales brochures or PowerPoint presentations in reports, for example.

The Free Adobe Reader 9 can be used to play back the new Flash-enabled PDFs, although the new Foxit Reader also claims to support video playback.

Meanwhile, the Pro version of Acrobat 9 is being rolled into Creative Suite 3.3, which means "designers can combine PDF files, video, audio, and other documents into easy-to-distribute PDF Portfolios," according to Adobe.