Rating: 
Summary: Shame on Adobe!
Review: I have been LEGALLY using Adobe software for years, including Photoshop, PageMaker, LiveMotion, GoLive, Acrobat, etc. I own two registered copies of Acrobat 3.01 and I was still unable to install the 5.0 upgrade! I tried the passcode, pointing to the CD, everything! Adobe Tech support finally tells me that the reason my install is failing is because I still have the previous version on my machine...so I have to edit my registry. If this is your method of preventing software piracy (by keeping valid users uphappy), then shame on you, Adobe!Adobe has since released a revised CD, so I was told by tech support when I recently had to reinstall several times. His response was that if I did not like having to call for a new passcode each time I have to reinstall, then I should BUY the corrected CD. Never offered me a patch. Can you believe it?
Rating:
Summary: Another Unhappy Customer
Review: Double Beware!! I am also a legal owner of version 3.1. I bought version 5.0 upgrade. Nowhere in the box can you find a warning saying that if you have version 3.0 or 3.1, the program will not install. I feel taken, robbed. I will never buy an ADOBE program again. I bought the program when I visited the US last month. I give the program 1 star for the simple reason that I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO INSTALL IT. I bought version 3.1, 5 years ago. Am I supposed to keep the receipts?
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Summary: Warning re Acrobat 5.0 Upgrade for Mac
Review: If you purchase the Acrobat 5.0 upgrade for a Mac running OS 7.x or 8.x with Adobe Exchange previously installed, and your experience parallels mine, you'll waste 2 to 3 hours attempting without success to install it. If you then fight your way through Adobe's support system, you'll find that there's a "fix" on their web site -- In other words, Adobe will ship you a product *which they know at the time of shipping* to be totally non-functional, and despite having your contact information from the online order, give you no warning of this. (Incidentally, for your [money] they supply you with a CD *and no users manual*)
Rating: 
Summary: Beware if you are upgrading from Version 3
Review: Acrobat is an indispensible but overpriced utility. With the ubiquity of the PDF format, all applications really need to start having "Save as PDF" as a built-in function. Until then, we need Acrobat to save files in a shareable format. I foolishly believed the packaging that states this is an upgrade from version "4.0 and earlier." Don't believe it! I had a full legal version of 3.01, and the 5.0 installer refused to recognize it. Adobe tech support refused to give me a 6 digit key code until I faxed them proof of purchase for both versions 3 and 5! Once they received the fax, they then refused to provide the key code unless I was physically at my PC at home. I wasted a whole week fooling around with Adobe, and their only excuse was "this is company policy." Well, it is not my policy to support companies that treat their customers like suspected criminals... Acrobat is an essential utility and performs as it should, so it is great for that. But its price for what it is mainly used for, it's deceitful packaging, and its terrible customer relations bring it down to a mere 3 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Great but pricey for creating your own .pdfs
Review: Almost everybody who is on the Net has the free download Adobe Acrobat Reader. With this reader, users are able to view .pdf documents in exactly the same format the writer published it. So, how did the writer publish his or her .pdf? Answer: he paid a lot more and got the non-freeware version of Adobe Acrobat (sometimes called Adobe Acrobat Pro or Adobe Acrobat Writer). There is absolutely no doubt that this software is essential if you produce a lot of documents electronically. In any other format (HTML, Word, etc), you run the risk that the users' machines will reconfigure your document in ways that you hadn't intended. Adobe Acrobat locks your publication into a format that can be transferred between computers and across computer platforms. It is, however, priced for the office user. Home users, once again, have to shell out over $... for the standard version and $... for the upgrade. It's a shame, as home computers are not just about games and surfing the Net. Some people do some serious writing outside of the office. If home users could pay half the price for this product, it would be well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: The industry standard!!
Review: Acrobat has become the industry standard for creating PDF (portable document format) files for one very good reason... quality. Adobe, with the exception of InDesign, puts out some of the best programs for the graphics industry. Now, with the inclusion of the notation capability formerly available as the separate Acrobat Business Tools, Acrobat is a complete suite of tools to make life easier. .... And, OSX users will want to know that Adobe is working on a Carbonized version for the latest Mac OS.
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Summary: Eliminates paper capture functionality
Review: Adobe delivers a fine product in Adobe Acrobat. The PDF format is my favorite for delivering content rich material through the Internet. This upgrade improves functionality in manipulating PDF files, navigation, analysis of PDF file internals, file comparison, and web capture. Adds the ability to merge comments from multiple reviews. Adds automatic creation of thumbnails. Substantially upgraded form technology via calculation fields, Javascript, and common fields. I am disappointed that Adobe has cut the paper capture feature from the Acrobat product. Paper capture allows you to take a PDF file in image format (created for example by using an image scanner) and generate a smaller and searchable PDF document. The paper capture feature uses text recognition technology. Acrobat has the best paper capture recognition technology in the market. If you want to use the paper capture feature you have three choices: use the older Adobe Acrobat 4.0, purchase the Adobe Acrobat Capture product for ..., purchase an online paper capture subscription for ... per year.
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Summary: The Best Keeps Getting Better!
Review: This version has a plethora of new features. The most important of which (for me, anyway) is the ability to convert .pdf documents to rich text format (RTF) for editing in one's favorite word processor. So far, this feature seems to work nearly flawlessly. If you have to generate simple or complex electronic documents then you should not be without this program. The ubiquitous avialablity of Adobe Reader means that the people to which you send your documents will always be able to open them. I know people that won't use MS-Word, but I don't know anyone without Adobe Reader so you won't go wrong in using Adobe for your document generation.
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Summary: Much needed upgrade
Review: Acrobat for Windows (and other Adobe software) is expensive. Way too much. Every Adobe program costs hundreds of dollars, and only recently they started offering product suites that greatly reduce the cost of ownership. Acrobat is included in every such collection. The problem with such collections (4 programs) is that the price tag approaches 4 digits. All of these suites contain Acrobat (4.0), the heading program of "e-paper solutions". If the changes from version 3.0 to version 4.0 were profound, then the change to version 5.0 is much more than substantial, it's overwhelming. REMARKS FOR FIRST-TIME USERS: If you don't already know that, here is a short, but important message for newcomers to the PDF world: if you only need to read PDF files - you do not need Adobe Acrobat - just download a free Acrobat *Reader* from Adobe website. If you need to create the simplest possible version of PDF documents, there are free tools on the web that will allow you to do that. Acrobat is a powerful program that is designed to assist you in almost every aspect of publishing electronic documents online, or sharing them in a multi-platform environment. Hence, as this software is expensive - you might reconsider your purchase. If you regularly publish important stuff online and you work in a potentially multi-platform environment or the whole network AND you think seriously about your work, then Acrobat is for you (this is why I tested and bought yet another upgrade). Nevertheless, this powerful tool may be too much. If you need to distribute files among friends or post some messages online, you might consider using HTML (available even via any word-processing software like Word). PDF format is really designed to be multi-platform - and you have to pay a "nice" price for the opportunity to create such documents. WHY IS THE UPGRADE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION: For the first time in Acrobat history you are able to RESTRUCTURE existing PDF documents. It's especially useful when you no longer have the original version of the file from which PDF was created. To this end, Acrobat uses the RTF format recognizable by every word processor. Acrobat can publish user-interactive documents online - with integrated (yet still limited) options used in productivity office suites: calculation, spell-checking, multi-user collaboration. You can specify permissions on distributed documents, like allowing/disallowing printing, changing or copying text to clipboard. Newly supported encryption is now 128 bit. Finally, FINALLY, Adobe decided to simplify the user interface a little. Now, more than ever, Acrobat toolbars are much more customizable - you can arrange them in the floating Photoshop-type way, or use all toolbars (including new formatting toolbar) at once, as in Microsoft software. This is a step in a good direction. Last, but not least, you have a PDF repair utility. It is especially useful when you use a browser plug-in (Acrobat integrates with MSIE and Netscape) to save a web page, or capture it and convert to PDF. There is a high probability that the file will include unnecessary portions of html code, including scripts. That's a very good reason to upgrade, if not anything else. REMARKS: PDF writer (a simple PDF-producer included as a "virtual" PDF printing option) fails more often than not and in order to have correct results, it's better to use Distiller (a full-featured virtual PDF printing engine) which may be not user-friendly to new users. Still, in this version 5.0 the old truth remains the same: not every graphics object you have in your document will be converted - sometimes you will get a blacked area instead of the picture. There is no other way around than experimenting with the file type, which may be confusing in some productivity applications. SUMMARY: Powerful tool for those who really need multi-platform secure document creation and distribution. It's still relatively-user unfriendly. If you have already used a previous version, 4.0., do not hesitate. If you are contemplating first-time purchase, read the above remarks and think twice. That's of course if you have enough money to buy Acrobat.
Rating:
Summary: Merely a Stepping Stone
Review: Since, for some unknown reason, Adobe doesn't offer a direct upgrade path from Acrobat 3 to Acrobat 6, I bought this Acrobat 5 Upgrade merely so I could qualify for a free upgrade to Acrobat 6. Not only is this silly of Adobe, it's also expensive. Instead of buying an Acrobat 6 package, sticking my old Acrobat 3 CD into the drive, and continuing on my way without further hassle or expense, I had to buy the Acrobat 5 upgrade, go to the Adobe website to find their customer support phone number, call them via their 800 number, get them copies of the receipt, pay a token shipping cost, and then install the new software. What's even worse is that I've spent over six weeks trying to do that. Amazon got me the package immediately. But, so far, I've had to talk to Adobe (at their expense) five times. The first time was to find out that the upgrade existed and get the instructions for faxing the information to them. Supposedly, my fax never arrived. Then, I had to talk to them about that and get a snail-mail address. Supposedly, THAT package never arrived. Then, with my next call, I managed to get an email address to send the documents to. Again, supposedly, that never arrived. Finally, I talked to a person who had me re-fax just the receipt and my Acrobat 3 serial number. She called me back within a half an hour and we completed the whole process (confirmed my shipping address and got a credit card number for the shipping fee). Besides the hassle I had to go through, this upgrade must have cost Adobe a bundle in phone and support personnel costs. The free upgrade period from Acrobat 5 to 6 is over now, but Adobe really needs to come up with a better way for their old Acrobat 3 customers to upgrade.
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