Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide

Rating:
Summary: Good if you have nothing else to read....
Review: A book for a program such as Acrobat needs to be straightforward and to the point. This one really isn't. Maybe buy used, but certainly don't buy new.

Rating:
Summary: The Next Level
Review: I teach Acrobat Classes and own(I think) every book that has been published on the topic. Ms. Baker's book is true to it's title. Most of the POWER of Acrobat 5 is not being tapped. She does a great job on tagging and repurposing for accessibility. Her forms section is the best available. Acrobat forms are going to really take off once people understand how powerful they are. If you are thinking about creating e-books. This is a must.
She really does a great job!
If you are serious about pdf, you must own this one.

Rating:
Summary: Acrobat 5 -- now I understand it.
Review: In my consulting business the use of Aadobe Acrobat is required. But I never really understood it.

Donna Baker's Adobe Aacrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide made it very understandable. She has done a very good job, it is a easy read, and what is stated works.

Thanks,

Harvey

Rating:
Summary: Acrobat 5 -- now I understand it.
Review: In my consulting business the use of Aadobe Acrobat is required. But I never really understood it.

Donna Baker's Adobe Aacrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide made it very understandable. She has done a very good job, it is a easy read, and what is stated works.

Thanks,

Harvey

Rating:
Summary: An aweful book for an aweful program
Review: My only regret in regards to Adobe Acrobat is that I wish I had explored the full version years ago. I dinked around with Acrobat 4.0 and felt it was useful, but awkward with isolated potential for what I needed. v. 5.0 changed my mind on what this program could do, but I still felt I was missing out of what all it was capable of doing. I found Adobe's "Classroom in a Book" helpful, but not much more enlightening than the online help information. Ms. Baker's book gave me all I was looking for, and then some! My hat off to Ms. Baker for writing an indispensable book for what has been an indispensable program for me.

Rating:
Summary: Another (sorely) deficient computer book
Review: Pages are filled with cutesy commentary unrelated to the subject matter at hand, and subject matter (when the author finally gets around to it) is replete with vague and undefined references that beg instead of answering questions necessary to make the material useful. Don't buy this book expecting to get well thought out, helpful instruction, if you do you will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: A very good guide for a complex application.
Review: This book on Acrobat 5.0 won't scare the uninitiated with its friendly style of delivery and its comprehensive and accurate descriptions of how to get things done. Fonts, creating forms, security settings, and workflows were well explained. Some other aspects were treated in a general way since the possible options and subsequent results would be too job specific.

Anyone needing to know Acrobat should find this book to be a good choice, and will be able to get decent results without having to murder their brain, like they would have to if only using Adobe's Help guide.

Another nice touch is that Donna Baker replies to e-mails: one of mine being to query her mentioning Acrobat PDF Writer, which I thought had disappeared with Acrobat 4.0 /05. Not so, if you use the Custom install. PDF Writer has its limitations, but I always thought it a handy printing / PDF creation option for text documents on older and slower computers.

Rating:
Summary: Donna Baker Wrote A GREAT BOOK!
Review: This is SUCH A GREAT BOOK! Gush, gush. If you have any need, whatsoever, to create Adobe PDF documents, or PDF documents of any kind (for instance PDF documents from PHP tools), this book is for you.

Question #1: What does this book bring to the field that was not here before?

Answer #1: Donna Baker's masterpiece "Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional user's Guide" brings the soothing wisdom of a master document expert, who has been seasoned in experience, marinated in the challenges that real-world document translation provides, and then baked and coated in the design patterns that inhabit the lives of real world automated document creators. In short, Donna is the real thing. This book is the real thing. This book delivers far more than it promises.

The case study template alone is worth many times the cost of the book. There are many one-page instruction topics that are, in themselves, worth the price of the book.

A great thing about this book is the smooth, soothing readability integrated into the wide range of view-altitudes that the reader is taken on. From tiny, tiny make-or-break details to the widest picture possible, the reader is swiftly swept along in this rapid, river flowing masterpiece. By the end of the book, the reader is left with dozens of valuable website addresses and names of professional societies that are the center of the digitally rich document creation world. Therefore, this book hand-holds and guides the reader through this important step in a larger document creation journey.

Certainly, the simplicity and confidence of the text inspires in the reader an urge to hurry and go out and use the features covered and to create documents with the tool presented. I suggest you, the reader, follow your urge. Don't wait to finish reading the book to go out and use the parts you have read. Start making documents WHILE you read the book. Then go back to the book and dive in again. The smart double-versions of the tutorials (to-be-done versions plus already-fully-done versions) allow the attention-deficit-disorder reader to quickly get the goods (view the end result) without bothering to read the details.

Question #2: Why does the reviewer believe that this book is superior to the normal user reference documentation book?

Answer #2: I suspect that the love of music of the author provided a richly textured background from which the author approached a complicated subject that is a literal forest in which the trees block the view. Simply put, the dryness of the norm of documentation makes it difficult for a reader to rapidly change their altitude of view. Rapid mastery is not available in normal how-to documentation. This book provides a superior, integrated presentation.

"Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide", from the first page to the last appendix, steps outside the norm of documentation and provides the written-word equivalent of a majestical musical journey through Adobe Acrobat 5 technology - where the words are the notes; and the headlines and half-page topics give the beat and tempo. [Editor's Note: There are no actual music or sound files in the book or on the CD. The reviewer is using a metaphor here.]

Recommended Usage:

I recommend this book be used by any document production shop, department, division or even one-person office. It can be a wonderful textbook for classes. Corporations are well advised to form classes immediately and invite persons from departments that previously had to fend for themselves or stay with non-PDF document preparation (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, HTML).

In addition, the book serves as preparation for taking the Adobe Certified Expert Exam. The value of certification cannot be minimized. The expectation of a solid ability to use the product correctly accompanies a person holding the certification. Information technology departments would be wise to have some of its members attain the certification and then offer professional help services by certified professional Adobe Acrobat experts. Other non-certified IT department workers can tag along on document creation projects, but, after they learn the ins and outs of Adobe Acrobat as an authoring tool, they should get their certifications as well.

Question #3: What is in the future of PDF documents?

Answer #3: The future of PDF-based, automated documents includes more features, and more abilities. Simply put, the future includes smarter documents. Toolmakers are busy at work creating these features as we speak (as you read this). Knowledge engineers are offering increasingly powerful guidelines for putting richer intelligence into automated documents. The demands on Adobe Acrobat authors are going to increase. The competition from non-PDF formats is going to drive this trend.

Question #4: How does this expected richer future impact users of Adobe Acrobat as an authoring tool?

Answer #4: Persons should get up to speed now so that they can be taking a little step at a time as new features roll in. It is much smarter to increase your skills a step at a time every few months than it is to hold off and then face that big brick wall learning curve all at once.

Conclusion:

This book is the best gift given the Adobe Acrobat authoring worker in a long, long time. Get the book, hear the music (metaphorical statement), and produce fascinating documents whose abilities are getting richer and more diverse, even as you read this review.

- Jim Massey, Editor-In-Chief

International News Agency
http://inewsagency.com/bookreview/donnabaker.htm

Rating:
Summary: Help is on the way!
Review: This was my situation last week: 1) Faced with a tight deadline on electronic distribution, watermarking, and control of 8000 PDF documents from AutoCAD drawings. 2) No in-house expertise whatsoever in Acrobat. (The CAD manager's only answer was a blank stare!)

This is my situation this week: 1) I have worked through many of the exercises in Donna Baker's Adobe Acrobat 5: The Professional User's Guide. 2) I have a reasonable concept about the Acrobat approach to solving the problem. 3) I have a plan.

Next Week: 1) We'll whip the project into shape and come out smelling like a rose.

Lessons Learned: Thanks Ms Baker. You're a lifesaver!

Rating:
Summary: THE book to buy on Acrobat 5
Review: Very useful reference for anyone learning Acrobat 5. A bit verbose at times.