Adobe® Acrobat® 8 PDF Bible

Introduction

This book is the fifth edition of Acrobat PDF Bible. As a result of feedback from many users, this edition is an effort to include coverage of some topics missed in the last version and to add additional material where users asked for more detail. As you will see by browsing the contents of the book or launching the new version of all the Acrobat viewers, including Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat Standard (Windows only), and Adobe Acrobat Professional, there are many changes in the programs. As such, I've made an effort to cover as much of the new version as is possible in this single, comprehensive book.

What Is Adobe Acrobat?

We've come a long way in Acrobat evolution, and those users of Adobe Acrobat are familiar with the distinctions between the Adobe Reader software and Adobe Acrobat (either Standard or Professional). However, among the many users of Adobe Reader, there still exists some confusion about what Reader can and cannot do. When acquiring Adobe Reader, many folks think the viewing of PDF documents with Adobe Reader is the extent of Acrobat. Now in version 8, Adobe Reader can do much more in terms of editing PDF documents. In addition to editing features, Acrobat Professional 8.0 now includes the much desired options for enabling PDFs with special features for Adobe Reader users for saving form data and adding digital signatures.

For those who don't know the difference, I explain in Chapter 2 that Adobe Reader is only one small component of Acrobat. Other programs ...