Review: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro document creation software

Coinciding with the decision of the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) to adopt the Acrobat PDF file format as an official industry standard, comes the release of Acrobat 9 from Adobe.

And, with this upgrade, Adobe is continuing to transform PDF into an all-encompassing file format that allows you to combine all sorts of content, from simple text and graphics to web pages, video and even 3D graphics.

As always, the Acrobat name refers to a family of products rather than one specific piece of software. The basic Reader program ­ called Adobe Reader, rather than Acrobat Reader ­ remains a free download that allows anyone to read Acrobat PDF files. However, to create your own PDF files you need to buy one of the other products in the Acrobat range. As well as the Pro version reviewed here, it’s available in Standard (£311.38) and Extended (£727.32) versions.

Businesses and other users that just want to create basic text and graphics documents, such as manuals and forms, will probably find the Standard version is all they need. The Standard version also allows you to add Flash Video files to PDF documents (Flash Video is the format used by sites such as Youtube), so you have some ability to create multimedia PDF files. However, to make best use of this option you’ll really need the new Portfolio feature that is only available in the Pro and Extended versions.

Previous versions of Acrobat did have a limited ability to be used for presentations work, as they allowed you display a PDF document one page at a time. The Portfolio extends this into a full-scale presentations tool by allowing you to import and combine a variety of different file formats and assembling them within ready-made templates.

Clicking the Combine button in the program’s main toolbar allows you to import any group of files you want to use in your portfolio ­ MS Office documents, existing PDF files, graphics and Flash Video files can all be used. Each file then acts like a slide within a presentation, and you can arrange these files using various layout templates.

The Portfolio feature can’t compete with dedicated presentations programs such as Powerpoint, however, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended includes an additional feature called the Presenter that allows you to use Powerpoint presentations within PDF files. The advantage of this is that you can put the compressed PDF file onto a website or distribute it across an intranet so it can be read by anyone that has the free Adobe Reader. The Extended version also allows you to import other video formats, such Windows Media or Apple’s Quicktime, and even 3D graphics taken from CAD programs.

The emphasis on multimedia content in this upgrade may mean Acrobat 9 isn’t an immediate
must-have upgrade for companies already using earlier versions of Acrobat to produce relatively simple forms and manuals. However, many users will appreciate the ability to create PDF Portfolios with Acrobat 9.

We’d prefer simply Pro and Extended versions available at slightly lower prices, as £300 for the entry-level Standard version seems a bit steep. There’s no doubt Acrobat is here to stay as a file format for distributing documents and information, and even many smaller businesses will probably benefit from having at least one copy of Acrobat 9 Standard available for sharing documents with clients and colleagues.