Acrobat 5

At some time or other every computer user will have come across an Adobe Acrobat PDF (portable document format) file. The huge strength of PDF is that, using the Acrobat Reader application, anyone can view the document layout as it was designed, with all fonts and images exactly as intended. Adobe provides the basic Reader for free but, if you want to create your own PDFs and make the most of your PDF-based workflows, you'll need the full Acrobat program.

In many ways then, the real heart of Acrobat is the bundled Distiller application that takes the PostScript output from any application and converts it to PDF. Under normal circumstances, however, this entire process is invisible, hidden by the Acrobat printer driver that makes creating your PDFs as simple as selecting the Print command. As such, the visible face of the Acrobat suite is the Acrobat application itself: a glorified, value-added version of the free Reader.

With version 5, this has seen a largely cosmetic overhaul to give the program a more Microsoft Office-style feel. The biggest difference is that the previously vertical toolbar is now positioned horizontally and has been split into separate toolbars for controlling editing, commenting and so on. You can also expand drop-down buttons and drag toolbars on screen as floating palettes. The Navigation panes have also seen some minor changes, with automatic thumbnail and bookmark generation, and a redesign that's moved command icons to the top of the panes.

In keeping with the more corporate feel and focus, Acrobat 5 has been designed to work with network-deployment tools to enable customisable installation to thousands of Desktops across a network. The tight tie-in with Microsoft Office has also been deepened, so that Word users will find a new Acrobat menu providing access to a Convert to PDF command and even an option for converting and automatically emailing the resulting PDF.

Increased security

One area that's particularly important to workgroups is security, and Acrobat's existing password protection for opening and editing files has been expanded to offer far greater control. Using the new Document Security command with its Standard Security option, you can precisely control what changes are allowed, such as commenting or form filling, and also set whether printing is possible and to what quality. You can even choose between a new, industrial-strength 128-bit encryption system or the backwardly compatible 40-bit option.

Alternatively, you can decide to base your security settings on a Self-Sign Security system of digital signatures. Acrobat provides an out-of-the-box Public-Private key solution along with support for third-party certificate providers such as Entrust and VeriSign. Acrobat 5 now lets you email colleagues to exchange certificates, and these can then be used as encryption keys so that only members of the circle can open the file. For legal contracts and other sensitive business documents, the ability to tightly control who has access to a document is crucial.

Acrobat 5 also sees a significant revamp of its collaboration and review functionality. Although the existing Comments tools are left unchanged, apart from the new ability to search and filter comments, the underlying system is all new. Now, instead of passing the same file sequentially around the workgroup or having to pool comments from separate versions, it's possible to share comments on a single, centrally held master. The increase in efficiency, particularly when deadlines are tight, is enormous.