25 Supa-Killah Acrobat Secrets, Part One!
Ya know, Acrobat—Acrobat Professional, that is—just so misunderstood…it offers so much stuff, so many commands…but most people only use it just to open, and maybe print PDFs. Now I don’t wanna come off as some kinda poster-boy advocate for Acrobat or anything, but it’s got some great stuff to offer. In fact, it’s the lack of Acrobat know-how that compelled me to put together this list of 25 killer secrets. And while they’re not necessarily secret—they’re all right there in Acrobat just waitin’ to be used—they can be thought as secrets cuz nobody seems to know about ‘em. There’s so much great stuff in fact, that as I was putting this together, I quickly realized that I was gonna have to break it into three parts. So, you’ll get the first 8 secrets here, followed up by the next 8 in Part 2, and 9 more in Part 3. That’s a lotta good stuff, so fire up Acrobat and get readin’! In no particular order, here they are, 25 killer Acrobat secrets:
Secret #1: Settin’ ‘Er Up With Layers!
Didja know Acrobat has Layers? Yeah, Layers! When you’re creating a PDF outta InDesign or Illustrator, for example, you can specify to preserve your file’s layers, which then appear in Acrobat’s Layers panel (View > Navigation Panels > Layers). At first, it might seem like you can’t do a whole lot to layers in a PDF file, but you can do quite a bit with a dash of creativity. For example, you can create a hyperlink (see Secret #3) that controls the visibility of these layers, thus controlling the visible content in your file. Imagine a link that says “Click here to see the Spanish version.” While it’s all built into a single PDF file, you could have different “versions” of a file available. This is just one simple example. Use a bit of imagination, and put Acrobat layers to work!
Secret #2: Super-Sweet Navigation With Bookmarks!
You know about Bookmarks in Acrobat, right? You don’t? Oh man, this is arguably one of the best navigation devices you can add to PDF files. Bookmarks are sorta like a clickable list of hyperlinks that take a user to different locations throughout a PDF—imagine a clickable Table Of Contents, or a list of different sections within your file, for example. To getcha started, choose View > Navigation Panels > Bookmarks. Use the settings underneath the panel’s Options menu (top-right corner) to create new bookmarks, delete ‘em, and to otherwise mess around. Definitely consider adding bookmarks to your PDFs to make them easier for users to make their way around! In fact, check out this cool video I did, which’ll show ya how to use bookmarks!
Secret #3: Add Major Interactivity With Hyperlinks!
You might know about creating hyperlinks if you’re into web development, but didja know you can add ‘em to PDFs as well? It’s real easy, too. In fact, you can make any part of a PDF file clickable, and have all sortsa cool things happen, like open web sites, play an audio file, control a form, and even more. Try this: Choose View > Toolbars > Advanced Editing (one of the coolest toolbars in Acrobat, by the way); then on the Advanced Editing toolbar, click on the Link tool (the one that looks like two wee chain links); then click and drag a box around the text or image that you’d like to make clickable. In the dialog that appears, you can control the appearance of your hyperlink, as well as the link’s action. Have fun!
Secret #4: Portability And Design Integrity, It’s PDF-Based Forms!
Next up, PDF-based forms. Yup, rather than wrestling with web-based forms, or (gakk!) the near-unusable Word forms (hold up, I’m…gonna… heave…), you can create forms in Acrobat. It’s totally huge, and not enough people know about this. Now the big question: Why would you want to create forms in Acrobat? I’ll tell ya. For all the reasons why you’re already using PDFs: cross-platform, file-size, portability, preservation of document layout and integrity…and the list goes on. So whatcha waitin’ for? Get up to speed with PDF-based forms with Acrobat’s Forms toolbar. Choosing View > Toolbars > Forms will getcha started.
Secret #5: Work Half Days From Now On, Acrobat Has Batch Processing!
Holy hell, Batch Processing?! Yup, and it’s the meat ‘n potatoes in Acrobat! What’s Batch Processing, you ask? Well, Photoshop calls ‘em Actions, in Microsoft-land they call ‘em macros. Well in Acrobat, we call it Batch Processing, and it works a little something like this: Ya got a folder of 50-zillion PDFs, and the boss wants ‘em all watermarked and secured before the end of the day. Well, grab your jacket and head out for an early lunch, cuz you’re already done—you set up your own batch, smarty-pants. Here’s how it goes: Head to Advanced > Document Processing > Batch Processing. The dialog that appears is gonna letcha run one of the pre-created batch sequences, like Fast Web View or Set Security To No Changes, or you can create your own by clicking the New Sequence button. Happy batching; just don’t let the boss see you when you’re on your way out!
Secret #6: Make ‘Er Just Right With Initial View
“Son-of-a-motherless-goat-herder, every time I open this freakin’ PDF, it opens all zoomed in, and that’s not how I want it to open for the client when I send it over!” Soothing breath, grasshopper. Acrobat has a wee stress-reducing command called Initial View, which lets you control how your PDF opens for your users. Check it: Go to File > Properties; then click on the Initial View tab. Hells yeah! You can control the magnification, what navigation tab opens automatically, and even what page the PDF opens on. How cool is that? Give ‘er a try by setting an option or two; save your file; then reopen it. To your surprise, it’ll open exactly as you’d specified. Sweet, that’ll make the vein in your forehead go away!
Secret #7: Even More Interactivity With Page Actions!
On the interactive side of things, you can get into what are traditionally called Page Actions in Acrobat. The idea would be to have some kind of an event, like a sound play or a message appear when the user navigates to a specific page in your PDF. Give ‘er a try by heading to View > Navigation Panels > Pages; then in the Pages panel that appears, right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac) on the page that you’d like to attach the action to, and choose Page Properties. In the dialog box that appears, click the Actions tab, and go nuts! Now where ya gonna use this? Again, get that creative thinking going, there are tons of applications for adding this sort of interactivity to PDFs! To test your action, navigate away from the page, then head back to it. Easy!
Secret #8: Say Yer Prayers PowerPoint, Acrobat’s Got A Full Screen Mode!
If I have to attend one more freakin’ PowerPoint presentation, the presenter’s gonna get a choke-slam! It’s the whiz-bang slidey bullet points, the spinny headings, and the oh-so-barfy special effects that I just can’t take anymore. Gahh…Kay so enough with PowerPoint. Create your full screen presentations in Acrobat instead. Why? No more slidey bullet points, woo-hoo! So whatcha do is build your slides in the app you’re most comfortable in. InDesign, Photoshop, where ever. Years back I kicked major ass with one I did up in Quark. Make sure you follow all the standard full screen advice, like avoiding 6pt type, dropping 8,000 graphics on a single slide, and using a page size more like 8.5×5 (or something like that). Next, take your file and convert it to PDF. Once you’ve got it open in Acrobat, choose View > Full Screen Mode. Whoa, how awesome is that? And nobody knows Acrobat can do this! Customize things a bit further by going into Acrobat’s preferences (Edit > Preferences in Windows; Acrobat > Preferences on the Mac); then into the Full Screen category. You can create self-running shows, shows that loop, and all kindsa cool stuff. And notice, no barfy-effects options. Means no one’s gonna get a choke-slam!
So, are ya diggin’? Then here’s Part 2 of 25 Supa-Killah Acrobat Secrets!
