Acrobat Puts Some Flash In Your Documents

Adobe Systems on Monday debuted its Acrobat 9 software, an upgrade that offers deep support for Adobe Flash technology. The upgrade unifies a wide range of content in rich PDF Portfolios, and provides access to real-time capabilities for co-navigating a PDF document within the workplace. In addition, Adobe has launched Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services.

Because Acrobat 9 integrates Adobe Flash technology, users can include Adobe Flash Player-compatible video and application files in PDF documents. To enable the content, recipients must have installed free Adobe Reader 9 software on their computers.

Users will assemble such diverse content into "PDF Portfolios," which will permit multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, to be put together into one, compressed PDF file. Users can choose among several prepared layouts -- or create their own -- to integrate content, define navigation, and add polish and branding. For example, a salesperson could use Acrobat 9 to send a lengthy contract to clients. The sales professional, or any of the recipients using Adobe Reader, can then drive the group's navigation through the PDF document in real-time working with Acrobat.com.

Acrobat 9 users can access Acrobat.com for storing and sharing files, use it as a central location for collecting data as part of a forms process, and to gather comments in a shared document review. Acrobat.com includes other services, such as Adobe ConnectNow (personal Web conferencing that provides desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing, and integrated chat) and Adobe Buzzword, an elegant, Web-based word processor that can be used to easily co-author and share documents for comment and review.

The Acrobat 9 family consists of Acrobat 9 Standard, Acrobat 9 Pro, and the new Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software. The most comprehensive member of the family, Acrobat 9 Pro Extended, includes Adobe Presenter software for easily turning Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that can be published as PDF files.

Acrobat 9 Pro Extended is expected to be available for $699, and registered users of qualifying earlier versions of Acrobat can upgrade at various discounts.