Adobe Acrobat 6

What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It's an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.

Acrobat is the name Adobe has given to its technology built around the PDF, and in many ways Acrobat's flexibility is its problem as much as its strength. In particular, it can be difficult for users to get their head around just what Acrobat can do for them. That's why, with this latest release, Adobe has chosen to split the technology into a family of four increasingly powerful applications: Adobe Reader, Acrobat Elements, Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional. Unfortunately, Adobe had only released the Professional version at the time of going to press, so it's impossible to be precise about every individual feature that each version will offer, but the target audiences and dividing lines are clear.

The first rung on the ladder is the PDF viewer application previously known as Acrobat Reader and now renamed Adobe Reader. This is the version of Acrobat you'll almost certainly use even if you aren't interested in creating your own PDFs, as it's both free to use and distribute - authors can bundle it with their PDFs. So what's new apart from the ability to open files created with Acrobat 6's new PDF 1.5 format?

There's nothing too drastic to report in terms of the interface, but there are changes such as the new How To window, on the right, providing access to task-based HTML help (assuming this finds its way into Adobe Reader - all Adobe is currently saying is that it will have a similar styling to Acrobat 6 Professional). This side panel is also used for the new Microsoft-style Search feature, which lets you search through multiple PDFs without needing a pre-created index. The toolbars have also changed to include friendlier icons, most of which have text labels next to them, while more advanced features are accessed via drop-down menus.

For the Professional version (and possibly others), new navigation and viewing features include a Split view for viewing different parts of your document simultaneously and a Layers navigation pane for hiding and showing layered content. Zoom levels up to a stunning 6,400 per cent are now supported and there's greater viewing control available via a Pan and Zoom window (this lets you set up the current zoom area interactively) and a Loupe tool that magnifies the area under the cursor (great for tiny captions).

Most eye-catching, or ear-catching, is the new Read Out Loud command available on supporting operating systems, although Microsoft Sam's flat voice and intonation soon grate.

STARTING TO WRITE

Adobe Reader caters for the free consumption of PDFs; the rest of the Acrobat family is where you start paying. Acrobat Elements is the cheapest option available, but it's only available to enterprise for volume licensing. The dividing line is that Acrobat Elements enables users to create their own PDFs. Traditionally, this has been taken care of by Acrobat Distiller, which converts PostScript print-to-disk files to PDF. This could be brought into play from any application via the Adobe PDF printer driver.

However, Adobe has recognised that Distiller and the whole idea of 'printing' to PDF was off-putting and little understood, so has done everything it can to push it into the background. The emphasis instead is on the one-click automatic creation of PDFs from all the major Office applications. Macro-based 'Convert to PDF' icons are automatically added to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and now Outlook too. It's even possible to right-click on a supported file in Windows Explorer and convert from there.