Rating: 
Summary: A good product but it could be better
Review: I have used Adobe Acrobat in one context or another for many years. I have been pleased with it. So recently I purchased version 5.0 to support the electronic distribution of a newsletter I edit. Version 5.0 is easy to use whether you run it from within a supported word processor, such as WORD, or from the application itself. The only frustrations have been the necessity of my readers to upgrade to version 5.0 of the reader in order to view the content of the newsletter. This required a bit of extra work helping everyone through the free upgrade process. Also, version 4 allowed an index and search add on that doesn't seem to work with version five.Aside from these minor glitches, I have no complaints.
Rating: 
Summary: Upgrade? Bahahahahaaaaaa
Review: Despite what it says on the box, upgrading from a version other than 4.x is a pain, assuming you can even do it. As I was struggling thru failure messages I finally was directed by the install program to a page on their web site ... which it turns out does not even exist. Broken link. Duh. I gave up (it was late at night), wrote them a cheery letter thru their web feedback page, and have heard nothing in 3 weeks. I am not a satisfied customer.
Rating: 
Summary: The problem with Acrobat 5
Review: When Acrobat 4 was upgraded to 4.05 Adobe included a very useful OCR facility within the program for use with your own scanner. In Acrobat 5 this has been radically altered. You are now required to send your scan to a remote OCR facility on an Adobe web site for which only a limited number of document captures are free. Therafter you must pay a subcsription fee. So think carefully before changing to version 5.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful program, but...
Review: This is a great tool for anyone who wants to make files available for everyone via the web or other electronic means. However, the documentation is severely lacking and there are a number of features that have to be dug for. This is a common problem with many software packages, as shown by the thriving market in "missing manual" type books. One wishes that the software publishers would give the info to the customers themselves, considering the prices they charge.
Rating:
Summary: Nuclear Specialist - Procedure Writer
Review: I just started using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 because my LAN environment has many different video and printer drivers. Documents opened on one PC would look different when opened on another PC. The total page count would vary from one PC to another. I use WordPerfect 9.0 in a Windows NT 4.0 environment to maintain procedures. WordPerfect is sensitive to the different printer drivers and PCs. The continual upgrades of printers and PCs challenged me to find some way to minimize the impact of different fonts/printers/drivers/video cards, etc. Acrobat is not as friendly to WordPerfect as it is to Word so I have to manually reestablish links (bookmarks) when files are updated. Once a file is in .pdf format, it behaves as expected. The look from one PC to another is the same. Acrobat's search capabilities, security options and ease-of-use are also strong points. All these things together convinced me that selecting Adobe Acrobat was a good decision.
Rating: 
Summary: Great in theory, awful in practice
Review: As is the case with so much software, Acrobat is great when it works. The idea of a universal format for exchanging documents from a variety of applications is one you'd think would solve a lot of the little problems frequently ecounted in the conversion of files. Unfortunately, I've found the document creation process to be extremely erratic. Sometimes the Distiller (virtual printer that converts files to .pdf) works, sometimes not. Different menus pop up for different documents. After using the Distiller, my computer is usually a mess and has to be rebooted. I've removed and re-installed Acrobat several times, and it seems that many problems pop up when it's installed that go away when it does. I've also created files that look fine on my computer, only to be told by e-mail recipients that a picture is missing. I know Acrobat is an industry standard and widely praised by most users, but my experience has been a very unsatisfying one.
Rating:
Summary: Not what was promised
Review: I spoke with the people at Adobe regarding 5.0. The product did not perform the way they promised. E-mailing a completed PDF does not work with all types of e-mail. (Something that would have been nice to know before the purchase) Only part of the document is transmitted with certain ISP's, more often than not, it is rejected. Also, no manual with this product, forcing me to drop another $40 for a book that isn't all that practical or easy to look things up in.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW! Convert a Website to PDF! &YES You Can Upgrade from 3.0
Review: I called Adobe (as I was trying to upgrade from 3.0) to verify the allegations of the two previous reviewers and customer service said that Yes you can upgrade from 3.0, but you must call them to have them walk you through the process. Adobe has always been great in the past about upgrades (I mean what other company will sell you a cross platform upgrade for just about every product they make for the same price as the standard upgrade)? Version 5.0 has some slick new features including an enhanced WebCapture feature with the ability to download a web page or an entire site and convert it into a PDF file, retaining all the links. It doesn't retain the Flash or animations. Acrobat now also fully supports transparent objects, allowing further editing in programs such as illustrator. In addition, Acrobat helps the user 'recycle' PDF images, by allowing one to export images to TIFF, JPG, or PNG files. The text part can now be exported to RTF (rich text format). For people that need to prepare documents for the press, Acrobat now uses the ADOBE COLOR ENGINE, the same as that used for Photoshop and Illustrator (for consistency in output). Acrobat 5 also supports intra and internet collaborations, allowing team members to view the document in Web browsers, simultaneously writing notes and striking through and highlighting text. Often touted as 'the best way to share documents online,' the best got even better, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this upgrade.
Rating:
Summary: 5.0 Really a Downgrade
Review: Had to rain on the parade just a bit. One of the features of version 4 that I really liked was deleted from version 5. That is the truncated version of Acrobat Capture that one could use to produce searchable documents from scanned acrobat files. Now, Adobe wants us to cough up money to capture documents on-line. Forget about buying full Capture if you're an ordinary human or small business -- it costs a fortune. Some lamer at work lost our original documentation for our version 4 software, so now we have downgraded to version 5, and no more Capturing files. Take a hint, and if you can still scare up version 4, get it instead of version 5 if you have any interest in producing searchable PDF files from scanned documents. Glad I bought a copy of version 4 for home office use before they came out wioth this one. Too bad I can't revert to version 4 at my day job.
Rating:
Summary: Useful to the AutoCAD professional
Review: I bought Adobe Acrobat 5 to experiment with saving AutoCAD 2000 drawings in .PDF format and e-mailing them to customers who are not quite up to speed on the complicated AutoCAD plotter configuration process. Adobe Acrobat 5 performs magnificently for this purpose. All AutoCAD line weight properties were captured effectively, and the Acrobat printing dialog can be configured to plot the drawings at exact scale. Another unexpected benefit of Acrobat is that a drawing saved as a .PDF file is approximately 1/4 the size of the original AutoCAD .DWG file. (Revision) With more experience with the process, I must now add that there is no size benefit involved in saving a drawing in .PDF over .DWG
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