Rating: 
Summary: Software unusable for signing documents in high throughput
Review: I am a physician who has his medical records stored in PDF format. What I do is get documents in PDF format in a number of ways, and then electronically sign them. I annotate the files about a third of the time with short text notes. Acrobat 5 worked OK, but had a number of glitches such as not dealing with file names over 32 characters, crashed on paste into text areas, and it lost files on occasion. I expected version 6 would make a barely adequate product work in this environment. The apparent rants by the other reviewers are, unfortunately, spot on. From my standpoint, version 6 is a frustrating product for what is such a routine task, signing documents. In version 5 you could touch key "d" and the signature cursor would appear, you selected where the signature would appear, and a press of the return key completed the signature. In version 6 it works this way (once you set a number of preferences and your digital signature file): You use the mouse to click on the Sign Document tool button (The keystroke shortcut is gone - you HAVE to use the mouse), and up pops a dialog telling you that the document is not certified. You dismiss that dialog and another dialog pops up, where you select either visible or invisible mode for the signature (no way to set a preference, it ALWAYs pops up). You then get to draw the location for the sig. Then you get a dialog for why you are signing, like v5.x did, but now you have to go to the mouse and move to click the Save button, otherwise you get a save as dialog as the default. No way to preference that, either. The save process is a joke, except that it works so poorly every time that it is VERY frustrating. The previous reviewer who commented on the slowness of the save was being kind. The software scans the file multiple times to perform a number of housekeeping tasks with every save, EVEN IF IT JUST DID THEM ON A PREVIOUS SAVE. I know this because there is a cheery status bar on the bottom left that explains why your time is being wasted. I timed myself on this: 68 documents in 2 hours and 12 minutes. The Adobe people have made a number of decisions for the user on how to operate. This has caused a tremendous slowdown in workflow with 6 compared to version 5. The interface has lost a number of keystroke shortcuts, requires that you now switch between mouse and keyboard, and has added steps that induce fumbling in the interface and workflow. A BIG STEP SIDEWAYS. I am not going to use it at work unless some improvement in workflow is seen. I will not be able to keep up with my work with this poor interface, and I am only at about 25 documents a day to sign. Normally I get that done in 15 minutes, including time to annotate and do a few multiple saves on some of the docs. When I am at 50 to 75 signatures a day I would be spending an extra 2 hours a day at work if I needed to use Acrobat 6.0 Stay away from this one. By the way, if you look at my other reviews you'll see I'm generally a level headed sort. But with the time waste I put up using this package compared to v5 I felt I really had to join in and warn everyone about this one like the other reviewers have. Steve Holland, M.D.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: OK, this does have some new features, which are handy. But some of the old, useful features of Acrobat 5 have disappeared. Remember how you could quickly edit spacing and wording of a document without having to go back and redo the PDF from the get-go? GONE. Can't find it. The online help is even more useless than ever. Bad, bad choices were made in this new version. Save your money, don't bother to upgrade.
Rating: 
Summary: slower than version 5
Review: Version 6 installs a lot of extra crud that runs all the time in the background that most people don't need. In general, the program seems to run more slowly than the previous version. I removed 6 and reinstalled 5
Rating:
Summary: GREAT, BUT NOT FREE FROM PAINFUL INSTALL & BLOAT, I'D WAIT..
Review: The general direction of Adobe's efforts with Acrobat is admirable, so it is a bit disappointing to see them roll out such a half-baked product. WHAT'S USEFUL -- [1] Fabulous document review capabilities -- you can edit directly into the underlying text, approve, then export them back into Word.
[2] More importantly, Acrobat sets up an excellent document-review work flow that works with Outlook and other mail programs to track who has received the document and responded.
[3] To simplify editing Acrobat transmits the PDF to the reviewers, who send back only their annotations. Acrobat then creates a compound document in which you can review all comments at once or individual comments by reviewer. With Word, you'd have to send everyone the same file, then compile the various changes.
[4] In MSIE, Acrobat 6.0 can quickly convert Web pages into PDF, creating either one composite file or separate files for each page.
[5] The generated PDFs maintain most HTML links and it can also store rich media files such as Flash and animated GIFs!!
[6] From Office documents, the bookmarking is now better (what a relief that is)
[7] The compressed converted files are smaller. This becomes less evident though if you have textboxes and graphics in your documents, which we usually have. BUT, CAVEATS: [1] The beast is a pain to install. I downloaded the "Tryout" version from the website, and my Acrobat does not work anymore. It will not convert a simple Word document (only formatting) due to some printer error. Not sure if this happens with every installation of this software but I am fairly technically savvy, have tried reinstalling, changing printer settings to FILE, etc etc. No go.
[2] It took over all my Acrobat 5 associations and registry settings, so remember that you cannot uninstall it and "go back" to Acrobat 5.
[3] The software is Bloated with a mega-capital B. I use a recent Pentium IV with 1 gig of RAM, and after the install of Acrobat 6, the thing practically crawls.
[4] Searching: Who needs the right-hand side navigation? Sure it "looks" cool to some people, but I'd much rather have the simple (and 10 times faster) Ctrl-F Windows pop-up box, as it is in every Windows app. WHAT TO DO IF INSTALL CAUSES GRIEF: [1] Don't install. Wait for the next version. (My general recommendation.)
[2] If things have already gone wrong, try to change the "PORT" on the Adobe PDF PRINTER settings in Control Panel to FILE:, then try printing out again (will ask you for filename, give a file path, e.g., c:\1.ps). Once the POSTSCRIPT file is generated, you can run it through the Acrobat Distiller to generate the PDF file. ALL IN ALL: If you use a supercomputer and are hard-pressed to upgrade immediately (e.g., if you use a version earlier than 5.x) than this may be worth it. But if you are at the 5 levels already, wait for the next version. Hopefully Adobe will have figured out the bloat and the install issues by then.
Rating: 
Summary: Works and looks great
Review: My motivation to upgrade from 5.05 was the split pane capability. That's worth the cost right there to me with figures in one place and descriptive text in another, it's a godsend. I found installation easy and uneventful. It identifies the need to uninstall 5.0 and tells you what to do. The new look and feel is great as well. My advice, go to the Adobe website, look at the new features like split pane viewing or MS Office integration, and decide if something there is compelling enough to warrant the cost.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic service
Review: Parpoobooks provided excellent service with priority mail which took only four days from time of their notification. I also had made a mistake in not checking system requirements for professional version (mine is 98) and had to request the order be changed to the standard version.
No problem, I returned the original order and had the replacement in a week. It seems Parpoobooks has modeled their customer service after Amazon.
I would oder from them again in a heartbeat.
Rating: 
Summary: Upgraders Beware
Review: I upgraded Acrobat 5 to 6 Standard and found out too late that the function to create PDF forms is no longer included. Of course, I had to remove version 5 first, so now I have no way to edit my existing PDF forms files other than to remove 6 and re-install 5 or upgrade further to Acrobat 6 Professional. Adobe does not make it very clear at all on their website what features of 5 require Professional or are lost with Standard. Other than this big disappointment, I find the user interface modernized and cleaner and more WindowsXP familiar. The bloated Standard takes longer to open/load than 5 - wonder how much longer 6P will take! Another annoyance are the Office toolbars for PDF functions which don't behave themselves by staying put or staying closed and insist on opening as a separate toolbar row.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Experience Upgrading, But, After That, Fine.
Review: Since, for some unknown reason, Adobe doesn't offer a direct upgrade path from Acrobat 3 to Acrobat 6, I had to buy the 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 spent over six weeks trying to do that. Amazon got me the package immediately. But, I 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. Now, regarding the Acrobat 6 program itself, I've only had one problem with a PDF on one web site: it wouldn't open in an IE window. I changed my Acrobat preferences to open it in a separate Acrobat window and it worked fine. I'm not a heavy user of Acrobat, so I'm not an expert, but I haven't noticed any performance issues. There are several complaints of scanner incompatability on Adobe's Support Newsgroups, but my scanner (an Epson 1200U) works just fine. I do wish Adobe would include some kind of document management capability in Acrobat. Right now, I'm using PaperPort 9 for document management and supplementing it with Acrobat. I had hoped to replace PaperPort with Acrobat, but there's just no way. Acrobat is for document distribution, not document management. If you want a paperless office (or home), you still need PaperPort. BTW: one person here mentions slowness in "Save As." "Save As" goes through the document and only saves current information. "Save" just dumps the whole thing back in its file (including anything that was deleted). That's why "Save As" will reduce file sizes and is probably why it's slower.
Rating:
Summary: Downgrade!
Review: I have investigated the possibility to "upgrade" to v. 6 but found out that more than an upgrade it is a way for Adobe to change its policies and charge more $ to the user. Their products seem to eliminate more and more features as they go along. How can they talk about upgrading when they keep chopping features out? These are more "downgrades" than anything else. I had to decide to stay with v5, at least until it is no longer supported.
Rating:
Summary: General comments
Review: I've just installed Acrobat 6.0 and didn't have any problems whatsoever. I can scan without problems (Better rendition than 5.0) and barely noticeable speed degradation.- My only complaint (if called that) is the softening of the look and feel (version 5.0 looked like a serious business software should look).- Notwhistanding that, my continued opinion is that Adobe products wont't dissapoint the serious user.
| 
