Introduction to Adobe Acrobat X Ken Dickinson Bay Area Computer Training www.bactrain.com
Table of Contents What s the best way to create a PDF?... 3 Convert Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files to PDF... 4 Convert Word and PowerPoint files to PDF... 4 Convert Excel files to PDF... 6 Web pages and PDFs... 7 Convert web pages to PDF in Internet Explorer (Windows)... 7 Convert web pages to PDF in Acrobat... 9 Comment and Markup Tools... 10 Advanced Editing Tools... 11 Security... 12 PDF Optimizer... 13 Reader Extended Features... 14 To enable extended features for Adobe Reader such as Saving Fillable Forms, choose File, Save As, Reader Extended PDF, Enable Additional Features.... 14 Scanned PDF s and OCR... 14 To enable or disable OCR on a completely scanned PDF choose View, Tools, Document Processing, Optimized Scanned PDF and notice the OCR options... 14 Forms... 15 PDF Portfolios... 25 BACT Page 2 Adobe Acrobat X
What s the best way to create a PDF? You create a PDF by converting other documents and resources to Portable Document Format. You can usually choose from several PDF creation methods, depending on the type of file you start with and your requirements for the PDF. You can create PDFs by scanning from documents printed on paper, Microsoft Word documents, Excel Files, and digital images, to name just a few examples. Different types of sources have different tools available for PDF conversion. In many applications, you can create PDFs by selecting the Adobe PDF printer in the Print dialog box. If a file is open in its authoring application (such as a spreadsheet that is open in Microsoft Excel), you can usually convert the file to PDF without opening Adobe Acrobat X Pro. Similarly, if Acrobat is already open, you don t have to open the authoring application to convert a file to PDF. Every PDF strikes a balance between efficiency (small file size) and quality (such as resolution and color). When that balance is critical to your task, you ll want to use a method that includes access to various conversion options. BACT Page 3 Adobe Acrobat X
Convert Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files to PDF When creating a PDF from Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, you can set conversion options for the current file. You can also select a range of content in the file to convert. The conversion options that you can set in the following steps are some of the most commonly used settings from the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Any changes you make to the conversion options apply to the current conversion only. Convert Word and PowerPoint files to PDF Open a file in Word or PowerPoint. From the Acrobat Tab menu, select Create PDF You can click on Preferences to add in Security such as requiring a password and restricting editing. BACT Page 4 Adobe Acrobat X
Under the Settings Tab, click on Advanced Settings and then on Images. You can reduce down the size of your images in an Acrobat file in order to reduce the file size. Click OK, then click Save to create the PDF. BACT Page 5 Adobe Acrobat X
Convert Excel files to PDF Open a file in Excel. Optionally, select the cells to convert. Click on the Acrobat Tab Bar and choose Create PDF To change the settings and security choose Preferences Click on Advanced Settings to change additional and more advanced preferences. BACT Page 6 Adobe Acrobat X
Web pages and PDFs The core of a web page is a file written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Typically, the HTML file includes associations with other files that either appear on the web page or govern how it looks or works. When you convert a web page to PDF, the HTML file and all associated files such as JPEG images, Adobe FLA files, cascading style sheets, text files, image maps, and forms are included in the conversion process. The resulting PDF behaves much like the original web page. For example, the images, links, image maps, and most media files appear and function normally within the PDF. (Animated GIF files appear as still images, showing the last frame of the animation.) Also, the PDF functions like any other PDF. For example, you can navigate through the file by scrolling or using bookmarks; users can add comments to it; you can add security, form fields, and other features that enhance it. Convert web pages to PDF in Internet Explorer (Windows) When you install Acrobat, Internet Explorer (version 6.0 and later) gains an Adobe PDF toolbar. Using the commands on this toolbar, you can convert the currently displayed web page to PDF in various ways: You can convert the entire web page or selected areas of it; you can create a new PDF or append the converted web page to an existing PDF. The Adobe PDF toolbar menu also contains commands that initiate further actions after conversion, such as attaching the new PDF to a new email message or printing it. A menu on the PDF toolbar provides easy conversion and print capabilities. BACT Page 7 Adobe Acrobat X
Convert a web page to PDF in Internet Explorer In Internet Explorer, go to the web page. Using the Convert menu on the Adobe PDF toolbar, do one of the following: Note: If you don t see the Adobe PDF toolbar in Internet Explorer, choose View > Toolbars > Adobe PDF. To create a PDF from the currently open web page, choose Convert Web Page To PDF. Then select a location, type a filename, and click Save. To add a PDF of the currently open web page to another PDF, choose Add Web Page To Existing PDF. Then locate and select the existing PDF, and click Save. To create and print a PDF from the currently open web page, choose Print Web Page. When the conversion is complete and the Print dialog box opens, specify options and click OK. Convert a linked web page to PDF In the open web page, right-click the linked text and choose one of the following: o To add the linked web page to an existing PDF, choose Append Link Target To Existing PDF. Then locate and select the existing PDF, and click Save. o To convert the linked web page to a new PDF, choose Convert Link Target To Adobe PDF. Note: The right-click menu also includes the options Append To Existing PDF and Convert To Adobe PDF. If you select either of these options, the currently open web page, not the selected link, is converted. BACT Page 8 Adobe Acrobat X
Convert web pages to PDF in Acrobat Although you can convert an open web page to PDF from Internet Explorer, you get additional options when you run the conversion from Acrobat. For example, you can include an entire website in the PDF or just some levels of a website. Convert a web page to PDF Choose File > Create PDF > From Web Page. Enter the complete path to the web page, or click Browse and locate an HTML file. To change the number of levels in the website to convert, expand Capture Multiple Levels. Enter the number of levels to include, or select Get Entire Site to include all levels from the website. Note: Some websites have hundreds or even thousands of pages. Converting a large website can make your system slow and unresponsive, and can even use up available hard drive space and memory, causing a system crash. It s a good idea to begin by downloading one level of pages and then go through them to find particular links to download. BACT Page 9 Adobe Acrobat X
Comment and Markup Tools You can highlight sections of the PDF file using View, Comment Annotations, Choose the highlight tool and highlight the text of interest with the tool. Notice a highlight entry appears in the comments section. To change the highlight properties click on the Jump List next to the comment and choose properties. The following screen appears BACT Page 10 Adobe Acrobat X
Explore the other Highlight Tools and also the Drawing Markup Tools under the direction of your Instructor. To remove a comment, click on the Comment in the Comments List sidebar and press the delete key or click on the Comment directly in the document and press the delete key. Advanced Editing Tools To make simple edits to your PDF file (it is still preferable to do major editing in the original file such as Word and then recreate the PDF file), you can use the Advanced Editing Tools. Click on View, Tools, Content and under Edit, Text & Objects select the Edit Document Text Tool. Explore some of the other tools under the direction of your Instructor. BACT Page 11 Adobe Acrobat X
Security To secure your document prior to distribution, in order to restrict access click on View, Tools, Protection, Encrypt with Password. The following warning message appears Click on Yes and the following screen appears You can change the document to require a password and also restrictions on editing and printing the document. BACT Page 12 Adobe Acrobat X
PDF Optimizer To optimize your document prior to distribution, primarily in order to reduce the file size click on File, Save As, Optimized PDF You will be prompted to save the document before the following screen appears. Here you can compress the graphics to save space. BACT Page 13 Adobe Acrobat X
Reader Extended Features To enable extended features for Adobe Reader such as Saving Fillable Forms, choose File, Save As, Reader Extended PDF, Enable Additional Features. Scanned PDF s and OCR To enable or disable OCR on a completely scanned PDF choose View, Tools, Document Processing, Optimized Scanned PDF and notice the OCR options BACT Page 14 Adobe Acrobat X
Forms Creating an interactive form You can convert any form into an interactive form that users can fill out and return electronically. Start with a paper form you ve scanned or a form document you ve created in any application. 1. Create the PDF. You can scan a paper form directly into Acrobat (choose File > Create PDF > From Scanner). You can also convert any electronic document to PDF using Acrobat PDFMaker, the Adobe PDF printer, or the Create PDF commands in Acrobat. Create a form in Word as follows. BACT Page 15 Adobe Acrobat X
2. Use the Form Tool to automatically create form fields. Choose View, Tools, Forms, Create and the following screen appears. Click on Next and the following screen appears. Formatted: Centered BACT Page 16 Adobe Acrobat X
Click on Browse, select a file and then click on Next, you are now in Form Editing Mode. Click on OK. BACT Page 17 Adobe Acrobat X
3. Evaluate the form fields Acrobat created. Acrobat lists the form fields it created in the Fields pane. Scroll through the document to see whether Acrobat missed any fields or created any extra fields. To delete a field, select it in the Fields pane and press Delete. 4. Add and edit form fields as needed. Add form fields where you need them. You can add text fields, check boxes, list boxes, combo boxes, radio buttons, action buttons, digital signature fields, and even barcodes to the PDF. Select the type of form field from the Add New Field list in the Forms toolbar, and then click where you want the field to appear. Give each new field a unique and descriptive name BACT Page 18 Adobe Acrobat X
Delete the Category Text Field and re-create as a Dropdown List Field Double Click on the field to show the properties. Click on the General Tab and change the name to Category BACT Page 19 Adobe Acrobat X
Click on the Appearance Tab and set the Color to Light Yellow Click on the Options Tab and enter the following options. Set the default item to employee BACT Page 20 Adobe Acrobat X
Double click on the Amount Field and click on the Format tab and set the following properties. BACT Page 21 Adobe Acrobat X
Double click on the Quantity field and set the following properties. BACT Page 22 Adobe Acrobat X
Double Click on the Total field and set the following properties. You will click on the Pick field to pick the Amount and Quantity fields as part of the calculation. To Run the Form click on Close Form Editing in the top right corner of the Forms Pane. BACT Page 23 Adobe Acrobat X
Save the form and it is now ready to fill out. Choose Forms, Clear Form to clear the form of any old data. Note: If you are using the form in Acrobat Reader you will only be able to save the form if you have enabled the File, Save As, Reader Extended, Enable Additional Features options. Otherwise you will only be able to print the form out on Paper. BACT Page 24 Adobe Acrobat X
PDF Portfolios Creating a PDF Portfolio Quickly pull together all the files for a project into a single, coherent PDF Portfolio. These files can include text documents, email messages, spreadsheets, CAD drawings, PowerPoint presentations, videos, PDFs, and more. You don t have to convert the component documents to PDF, and you can edit each component independently without affecting anything else in the PDF Portfolio. 1. Create the PDF Portfolio file. In Acrobat, choose File > Create PDF Portfolio. The following screen appears. Choose a Layout and click on Add Files 2. Add files to the PDF Portfolio. Choose Modify > Add Files in the PDF Portfolio toolbar. Navigate to the files you want to include. Select a file, and click Open. Shift-select to add multiple contiguous files; press Ctrl to select multiple files in any order. BACT Page 25 Adobe Acrobat X
3. Selecting files for a PDF Portfolio When you add a file to the PDF Portfolio, a copy of the original document is included. If the document isn t a PDF, anyone who receives the PDF Portfolio may have to install the native application to preview that particular document. Layout and Details. 4. There are a variety of Layout and Detail options that you can access from theportfolio Side Pane. 5. Save the PDF Portfolio. Choose File, Save Portfolio. BACT Page 26 Adobe Acrobat X