Rating: 
Summary: A Useful Tool For The Intrepid Reader
Review: Those of us who work with computers find files in all sorts of varying formats, so a tool like Acrobat is absolutely invaluable. One of the principal features is the PDF printer, which allows the user to break into any file and read or print it(e.g. an html page from a website) in a PDF format, including accompanying graphics. The Acrobat software creates a "virtual printer" allowing the user to execute print commands creating 0 PDF rather than having to print to one's DeskJet. Acrobat 5.0 is also capable of converting most file types by employing the print command into a PDF. You can also choose to either be read online or viewed with the reader and printed out. The PDF format renders the advantage of simplifying tasks such as editing, formatting, or other tasking on any computer appears to have a similar format, regardless of monitor type or monitor resolution. This is a terrific tool for the frequent reader, especially if one prowls the web or has friends with machines with different formats who often send you materials you are otherwise left puzzled and frustrated in trying to decode and view. it is a great product, and well worth the investment! Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: For functionality and reliable cross-platform compatibility.
Review: Acrobat 5.0 can convert any file type from its application's print command into a PDF, which, when viewed by someone with the free Acrobat Reader, will look the same as you created it, irrespective of their monitor's resolution setting, or computer platform. This means that a document containing text and images will look correct on screen and when printed. At present, the Adobe PDF format is the only means of achieving this. You can create a navigation path within your PDF using the Bookmarks feature. Highlight and add annotations to sections of the document. And include hyperlinks as in an HTML page, etc. Using Acrobat to create a bookmarked photo-gallery, for example, will result in a file much smaller than an equivalent HTML item when you use Acrobat's screen-optimised Distiller settings, and with all the images retained within the PDF itself, instead of split between a contents folder and its associated HTML page. The PDF can be secured so that your images and text are secure from simple pilfering. The security settings in Acrobat 5.0 are a little more comprehensive than was available in 4.0. Examples being password encryption at 128 bits, and print resolution options of high and low. Even so, PDF security is a matter of hot debate at present, as is security in any computer format. So don't get overly confident. Only regard a secured PDF as being safe from access or tampering by Joe Public. In the case of my photo-gallery example I can secure the PDF from interference in the Reader and the application by using a password. But the images can still be extracted in a PC by simply hitting the print-screen key and then pasting the clipboard contents into an image application such as Photoshop. This also applies to text which can then saved as a TIFF file and processed in an OCR application such as Fine Reader 5.0 Pro, or by straight transcription. Some features are now more easily accessed: Distiller and Security settings being two. Whether or not Acrobat 5.0 is a major improvement over 4.0 is superfluous, since 4.0 will soon be unavailable. 5.0 does everything that 4.0 did, and more, but some of the features are not backwards compatible with earlier versions of the reader. Users of your files will have to be forewarned if you are using such features, to upgrade their reader. Adobe claim over 200 million Acrobat Reader installations, but that includes readers of 3.0, 4.0, and 4.05 vintage. An example of incompatibility would be an access password set at 128 bits. The recipient must have the 5.0 reader installed to gain entry. Sorry to rabbit on about this, but it is a current point of contention as to why PDFs are not used as often as they might be. Joe Public seems to have an aversion to updating even their internet browser, which is why web-masters have such a fun time keeping their web-sites as compatible as possible. PDFs can be used instead of HTML pages on your web-site but for maximum compatibility you will have to ensure that all important features can be read by a 3.0 reader. Bit of a pain, but there you are. Keep your PDFs simple and there shouldn't be a problem. When you buy Acrobat 5.0, and you haven't any prior experience, I would recommend that you buy and work your way through Adobe's Acrobat 5.0 - Classroom in a Book. This, in conjunction with the Acrobat help guide ( Help > Help guide ), will tell you all that you need to know. Methodically work your way through the classroom book first though. It'll be a lot easier if you do. A well designed PDF is the best way for you to communicate your intentions whether that be an e-book, technical supplement, or a photo-gallery
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.
Rating:
Summary: Best way to capture, archive and share electronic documents!
Review: Before truly getting to explore Adobe Acrobat 5.0 I had thought Acrobat had only limited features and therefore limited usability -- to turn MS Word & Excel documents from virus-magnets into platform-independent files. For most of the documents I create I use a personal layout with my company logo that I do not want tempered with or copied by people I send the documents to. I also use specific fonts that are not common to all computer users. With MS Word it was impossible to control the layout or font of the document when viewed by the customers. With Acrobat, however, I can embed the fonts with the pdf document instead of having to point a customer to a web site to download (or worse, to buy) a font used in the document, or live with the company logo showing up like totally and embarrassingly messed up on the client's machine. PDF documents created by Acrobat solved this problem both on the screen and for the printer.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find daily uses for Acrobat, even for my personal projects. For archiving personal records that I do not want accidentally altered by myself or someone else, I keep them as PDF's with my signature, which has the date-stamp info. I no longer have to worry about new versions of Word being able to open my old Word documents, which, mind you, is a proprietary format whereas PDF is not. I have also used the Web open/capture feature to capture groups of web pages or entire web sites to my hard drive as a single multi-page document. Instead of having to follow the link for each page from the table of contents page, I just put the web URL in the Web Open address box, and specify how many levels of links I want Acrobat to follow and capture. If you think this is a rare need, try downloading the lyrics for each song of a 2-CD set, or the top 10 recipes using the pumpkin, or even a multi-part study guide for Tommy's calculus class. After capturing all I needed from a web site, I can delete the pages I don't want (legal mumble-jumble, advertisements, or the answer sheet for the calculus review questions included in the study guide), perhaps saving those deleted pages as a separate document (in the case of the answers to the calculus questions), then print out the final document I wanted, or maybe email it, as a single PDF document, to Tommy who's (on a Mac and) stressing out about his calculus test in a college in another state. How convenient is that! So, if you think Acrobat is too limited in features to justify its price, I can tell you that it is much more than a Word-document capturer, and it is truly indispensible. It is based on a great concept and well-designed, with a easy and short learning curve for a new user and still offers advanced features for those with a more technical background. Scripting to make forms from Acrobat, I've heard, is pretty nifty, but that's beyond me. Try Acrobat 5.0 -- it's a cliche, but it's true -- you'll be glad you did. :-)
Rating:
Summary: Has features I only dreamed about using earlier versions
Review: Version 5 has features I dreamed about in 3.0 and 4.0, but despaired of ever seeing. Adobe made my dreams come true. Here are the highlights that make this an essential tool if you work with PDF files or transform other documents into PDF format: You can now save files in rich text format (RTF), which can be directly opened and edited in Microsoft Word (and other applications). I was able to do this in version 4 with an expensive third-party plug-in that did not always produce the results I was looking for. Version 5 does not need the plug-in and does a much better job. Two other features that I love are the ability to extract images from a PDF file and save them as Tiff, JPEG or PNG graphics. This is really powerful. A nice touch is the user interface, which now makes Acrobat's tool bars look like those in Microsoft Office applications. I thought this was a quantum improvement over the confusing interface in previous versions. Adobe touts added security features in this version, but the only thing I found different is the 128-bit encryption. Version 4 gave me total control over protecting documents from alteration, selecting and copying text and printing. As a consultant I sometimes need to provide clients with intellectual property that I need to protect, and the features that I enjoyed in version 4 have been fully carried over in this version. Another nice feature that has been carried over from the previous version is the ability to open a web page from within Acrobat and save it as a PDF file. I have grabbed many pages from many sites for off-line reading using this feature and it still works without a problem in version 5. Other features that are interesting, but I have not tried, include the ability to create and publish dynamic forms online, and support for XML form data. When I get time I plan to play around with creating and publishing the dynamic forms because I can think of a dozen uses on my web site. Overall this is a solid product that did not cause me the same pain I endured when I moved from version 3 to 4. Everything works as advertised and some of the new features are plain wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Adobe Acrobat 5
Review: Have you ever tried to send someone a file, only to find out that they don't have the same program you do? What about, them getting a copy where all of the formatting has changed? Maybe you've asked them to revise, and you have to sort through and find all the corrections? All of these things have happened to me, and I'll tell you it's time to get Adobe Acrobat 5! Adobe Acrobat 5, has the amazing capability of being viewed across platforms, so that you'll never need to worry that your Mac friend can't view the file created on your PC (or vice-versa). You also don't need to worry about different programs messing up your formatting, unauthorized users messing with your documents, or different programs refusing to open your documents! All the other party needs, is the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader. Acrobat is simple to learn and use. All you need to do is create your file in your favorite program, print the document (using the Acrobat Distiller printer included) and you have a new PDF file. Using this program you can convert virtually any file to PDF! Once in PDF format, set your security options, and send away. You can even use advanced features such as electronic signatures and highlighting, to work in an editorial environment (others will need the full Acrobat to view these kinds of additions). Documentation for Acrobat is terrible! If you are unsure that you can learn Acrobat, I would recommend buying a companion guide for this product (Excellent product is: Adobe Acrobat 5 Classroom in a Book). Once you begin using PDF, you will find that it is so practical and useful you won't know how you got by without it...
Rating:
Summary: Essential yet simple to use
Review: I resisted buying Acrobat 5 and tried a number of shareware/freebie and inexpensive commercial alternatives. The alternatives just aren't good enough unless you are producing uncomplicated documents in Ariel or Times Roman. While essential for the graphic artist, Acrobat embeds itself so seamlessly into your wordprocessor that you hardly notice it. From within Acrobat (the main program), it's easy to e-mail a PDF as an attachment. Editing abilities within the main program are limited. I have discovered the Web capture tool is very useful to capturing websites for offline reading and research. Since it preserves page format and the original location, you can always cite the correct URL. One piece of advice: if people reading your PDF might have old versions of Acrobat Reader, you may need to open Adobe Distiller, which sets the options for Acrobat, and make an older version of PDF the default. I've found a lot of older Acrobat Reader software can't read the newer PDF format. Finally, a plug for Amazon: fast shipping and the genuine product (not greyware or pirateware from eBay) at a great price!
Rating:
Summary: This is the best deal going right now for Acrobat
Review: By the time I was done reading the reviews for Adobe Acrobat 6.0 I was depressed. Not only do I not have Windows XP, or Windows 2000, or NT installed in my machine (The only operating systems that will work with 6) I also couldn't muster up the confidence in the product after so many people were giving it the thumbs down. I want to create an eBook, and Adobe Reader is the most popular reader out there, with some 400 million, to a half a billion users with it installed. What a dilemma. I kept coming back to read some more. Finally I found the answer. I bought a new Adobe Acrobat 5.0 here at Amazon from one of their vendors, and it works great with my Windows 98SE. I planned on buying the 6.0 upgrade after they got the bugs out, and or I got a new computer with XP. Then I found out that 5.0 was the only version before, and that was the professional version. 6.0 Standard is a geared down version of 5. Ok, so it has some additional features, but it is missing all the rest of the professional features that 5 has.
So what's the skinny on the deal? For what I paid for a new 5 that is the full program, unregistered, and upgradeable, plus what I would have to pay here at Amazon for the 6 Professional Upgrade, I saved 80 bucks, and wound up with both versions 5 and 6 pro. Which as I mentioned are both professional versions. If I bought 5 and upgraded to 6 standard, I would only spend a little more for both versions. (About 4 percent more for standard, and about 20 percent less for professional) That way if 6 standard turned out to be as bad as many were saying it is, I would have 5 also.
In the final analysis, I am using 5 and am super excited about the new capabilities that Adobe Acrobat gives you. I'm hoping that by the time I get a new machine with XP on it, Adobe will come out with 6.something, or a second edition of 6 etc. with the fixes built in.
I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion. I noticed in the sales rank at the time I bought it and wrote this review, that 5 was outselling 6. Also I noticed that in the "Those who bought 5 also bought this" section, it had a special note that said, 47% of the people who bought 5 also bought the 6 upgrade. If your running XP, 2000, or NT, get them both. That way all the bases are covered.
Check out the reviews on 5 you'll be surprised how everybody raves about it. To be perfectly honest with you, if I had an XP machine, I would have ordered the 6 upgrade at the same time. Hope this helps.
Rating:
Summary: Newbie to Acrobat
Review: Yes indeed Adobe Acrobat is too expensive, but, when considering the alternatives of buying other brands of PDF software that have less than pleasing quality, it all boils down to choosing the product that has the highest quality. To my knowledge, Acrobat is still the best PDF software available. My personal needs are to create PDF files, encrypt them, require passwords to view, and restrict the user from printing and copying. After testing a couple other PDF products, I quickly discovered that their security was overly easy to bypass, no I take that back, they were *ridiculously* easy to bypass. Adobe's security has so far proven to be usefully solid. Since Adobe provides limited public information about their products, I recommend that you first buy a book teaching how to use an Adobe package and read it through so that you will know what the software actually does and does not do. Yes, I agree, having to purchase a book and spend the time studying is not the prefered way to learn about any product, but the few dollars invested can easily pay for itself by your knowing which software to buy (or more specifically, what not to buy!). What has amazed me the most with my Acrobat experience is when I had to call Adobe customer service to get a complex upgrade to version 6. Not only did the girl answering know what I was talking about, she also accomplished the entire order within that one phone call! WOW! Customer service like that is unheard of today. Apparently Adobe does care about its products enough to hire quality employees, and with that level of care, I feel more confident that I made the right decision choosing Adobe. Too, I purchased Acrobat from Amazon for the same reason of wanting quality service. There are other PDF products available, some are even free, but for those of us who prefer quality and usefulness over initially lower costs, Acrobat is an intelligence choice. Choosing the right product today, the one that does not crash nor take time away from our work to fiddle with settings, gives us more time to whine about the costs later. If Acrobat were less expensive, I would give it five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Essential if you like to save web pages
Review: I use Adobe Acrobat for many things--creating PDF files, editing them and writing documents for work. But if you visit web pages and want to save or print them, the Adobe Distiller is really essential. The Distiller acts like a virtual printer, and saves a web page view as a PDF file, complete with images. Unlike saving a web page, which relies on being on the internet to bring up linked photos, the PDF captures the pictures and creates a document that you can store away. Even if the webpage is taken down or altered, you have a copy of it. Web pages are rather ephemeral; they come and they go. This is a good way to document them. I don't find the interface particularly easy to use--it's not like the Microsoft Office package and the icons are all new to figure out. The price is somewhat steep, though it's been lowered recently. Despite these criticisms, I would not be without this software. It's probably one I use more than almost any other on my PC.
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