Rating: 
Summary: Good Product, Poorly Documented
Review: I didn't understand the multiplicity of ways in which Acrobat can be used until I took part in an Acrobat focus group. The documentation is awful and even the "official" Adobe instruction books (which are expensive) are no better.That said, as I have gotten to know the product, I find myself using it more and more. It is particularly useful for file-sharing -- unlike MS Office files, which will repaginate for different users, the Adobe .pdf format is a graphic one, so that everyone who looks at a document is literally reading off the same page. It is also possible to store large amounts of information in relatively small files. I know that because I know that files I pull down off the Web are relatively small, but being able to do it myself has proved elusive. There are some useful web pages on the topic on Adobe's website, but that too is poorly organized.
Rating: 
Summary: Magic for everyone who needs document review or control
Review: If you use Photoshop, this is a natural complement. It is great for document editing and management --- as well as downloading websites. There are more features than one needs to or will learn --- but an absolute for anyone who sends documents to others, as you can limit the use of the content sent (no printing, no extraction, allowing or not allowing editing, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much money
Review: Adobe Acrobat in my opinion is not powerful enough as a product to tweak output. Extremely cumbersome. It basically is just another way of printing documents (read PRINTER DRIVER) from other programs and ... is too much for a printer driver. I've also found in order to get decent graphical output you have to cut down on the compression but then get HUGE Acrobat files (I've seen them up to 4MB!).
Adobe got the world hooked on lightweight portable documentation but comes up far short when creating/editing them in this product.
I found a simple, easy to use product which creates small Acrobat files of high quality. It is integrated right into MS Word with a macro but you can "print" Acrobat files from anything...
Rating:
Summary: Image Quality is Horrible
Review: I have spent hours trying to get the images in my PDF files to print with descent quality. I have searched Adobe's site and countless others for hints. The settings allow you to create huge PDF files with the same horrible quality of the small, highly compressed files. For me, as a technical writer, who needs clients to review documents that are image-intensive, this software is absolutely useless. This software purchase was a colossal waste of money.
Rating:
Summary: Useless Product
Review: Organizations and businesses are using Adobe generate forms and applications that can be downloaded from the WEB. I purchased this product thinking I could easily fill out necessary application by editing the downloaded PDF file. Nothing could be further from the truth. Adobe makes it extremely difficult to edit or fill in a form with Acrobat. Try to mark a box with an "X"---good luck. Don't buy this product if you are planning to fill out a PDF form or application. You will be sadly disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: This takes a year to load
Review: This product is dificult to use, difficult to start and just plain difficult!
Rating: 
Summary: How about an instruction manual??!!
Review: Adobe Acrobat may be a great product, but frankly I wouldn't know because they don't provide the least little bit of an instruction manual when you purchase the software. I thought that when I spent $... I would get a basic "How to get started" manual. Oh, and if you think that Adobe has some online tutorials, well they do.... ... ...
Rating:
Summary: Essential software for your PC
Review: Along with Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is the only other piece of software I own that I consider essential. This component - which includes the all-important writing facilty - is a 'must have' for anyone creating document-centric content that is either going to be either (a) posted on the web, or (b) circulated for review and comment. Acrobat's portable data file ('PDF') output is as close to a lingua franca as you're going to get in computerdom. Pretty much the entire population has the Acrobat Reader. For those that don't, you can easily direct them to a download. Although the software has many different options, the standard settings work straight out of the box. It integrates directly into your Office XP software via embedded macros. To create a PDF document out of, say, a Word ".doc" file, you just click on the little 'Convert to Adobe PDF' icon that will now appear on a new toolbar at the top of your Office applications. From there, it's a snap. All software should be this easy. Another value-added advantage - the resulting PDF will almost always be smaller than your original Office-based document, making distribution less of a burden on your bandwidth-challenged friends and co-workers. For example, this morning I took a graphics-intensive 1.9 Mb Word file through the conversion process and ended up with a PDF of 700 Kb. Your mileage may vary, of course, and the biggest factor will be the nature of your content. Still though, I've never seen Acrobat become part of the problem by increasing the size of an already too-big document. This software will pay for itself almost immediately.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Aggravation
Review: I ignored the various warnings by other contributors and bought 5.0 for an upgrade from 4.0. I had wanted (and tried) to load my old 4.0 into my new computer, but gee, what a surprise, macro error messages prevented access to Microsoft Outlook and other M/S programs because (apparently) XP Professional and Adobe Acrobat 4.0 can't quite seem to get along. (Planned incompatibility to force repurchasing?) Hence, I bought the upgrade. It loaded okay once I figured out that the serial number that wanted entered for 5.0 was really my old 4.0 serial number, although they specifically stated to enter the new 5.0 SN (which was rejected). At any rate, I got it loaded. Now, even after trying in vain to adjust preferences to minimize file size, when I create a pdf file from Excel the pdf file is 7.5 times as large as the original Excel file. This negates one of my main reasons for buying the thing in the first place since I want to email smaller pdf files of my Excel reports. I suppose if I were a geek I would chuckle at this problem and make some mystery adjustment somewhere and obtain the desired results. After hours of struggling with this, I tried to contact Adobe. The message stated that all their suppport personnel were in a meeting...Congratulating one another, no doubt, on their fine product. All I want is to be able to send a Word or Excel file as a decent-sized pdf file--which I could easily do with 4.0. I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I am. I pay for everything, pirate nothing, and get this garbage for my efforts and expense. If you can do without this product, hold your ground. Revised comments added a couple days dater: I did reach a very helpful tech at Adobe who quickly talked me through my problem with wanting smaller pdf files. If you need this info: (1) Select Print, (2) Select Adobe Distiller Document, (3) Select Properties, (4) Select Adobe PDF settings, (5) Select Conversion Settings, and then (6) Select the "Screen" option (assumes you aren't using fancy fonts, etc.) Now why didn't I think of that? Actually, on the 3 different occassions that I did reach techs, my wait proved to be minimal, and they all were helpful. But I still have a grudge against what for me is an over-engineered product that has taken a simple concept and turned it into an expensive and involved effort. If you live and breathe this stuff, then 5.0 will probably satisfy your various whims. But if you are an infrequent user wanting minimal functions, then you'll have to jump through some unwelcomed hoops. With Adobe Acrobat 5.0, one size fits all--and "all" means all those who eat kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Those of us with big fingers and little patience won't be quite as enthused with the product.
Rating:
Summary: Great results.
Review: The quality is just as if you have printed the document from its original application. You can also edit PDF files -- yours and others. Very easy to generate from Office applications. As for the other applications -- you just have to print to a different driver. Very usefull for distributing MS-Project plans.
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