Alrighty, welcome to the third and final part of our look at 25 cool Acrobat features. Hopefully you enjoyed the first two parts. This time around, you’ll find out about adjusting page numbering, using Acrobat’s commenting tools, security, and if ya make it all the way to the end, ya might find yourself a wee Acrobat bonus! So put down the phone and check it out!
Secret #17: Mark It Up With Watermarks!
Did ya know you could stamp good ‘ol fashioned watermarks right across the pages in your PDFs? Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of co-workers like FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY, DO NOT COPY, or my personal favorite, THIS DOCUMENT WILL SELF-DESTRUCT. Toying with your co-worker’s emotions couldn’t be easier in Acrobat, so get started by choosing Document > Watermark > Add. In the Source area of the Add Watermark dialog box, type a threatening statement into the Text field, or click on File and browse for an image to use as a watermark. After that, monkey with the Appearance options (for example, scaling, opacity, and so on), and below that, the Positioning. That’s all there is to it!
Secret #18: Get Those Page Numbers Synching With This Nifty Command!
You know what drives me nuts? When the page numbering within a PDF—that is, the numbering that appears in the footer of each page—is out of sync with the page numbering in Acrobat. In other words, to Acrobat, Page 1 might be the document’s cover; meanwhile, Page 1 of the document might be way down on the 8th page of the file. This is usually caused by front matter, lengthy tables of contents, and so on. So whadda ya do about it? First, open up Acrobat’s Pages Panel (View > Navigation Panels > Pages); then in the Options menu at the top, choose Number Pages. This handly little dialog box’ll letcha specify the page ranges you want to renumber, the numbering style, and so on. For example, the document’s table of contents may span from Page 3 to Page 8 and use lowercase roman numerals as a numbering style. Make sense? So the Number Pages command in Acrobat’ll letcha sync up those page numbers, and make it ten times easier to get around inside your files. So whatcha still reading for? Get syncing those page numbers in Acrobat!
Secret #19: Attach A File Or Two To Yer PDF’s!
Here’s somethin’ that’ll come in handy once in a while: the ability to attach a file to a PDF. Maybe you want to include a chart or a logo along with a PDF for the client to approve, or maybe you’re reviewing and editing some content, and you want to attach some revised materials—who knows, but it’s cool stuff. To give ‘er a try, open the Attachments panel (View > Navigation Panels > Attachments); then at the top of the panel, click on Add and browse for the file you’d like to attach—any file format will work, which is cool. And that’s really all there is to it. The great part is that the file gets embedded into the PDF, so if you email it or post it online, the attached file will go with it. But watch those file sizes—no embedding DVD rips of Smokey And The Bandit, now!
Secret #20: Break Up Those PDF’s With Extract Pages!
Here’s the situation: you have a large PDF, maybe containing fourteen or fifteen chapters, and you want to break the document apart into individual chapters. You could do a whole lotta File > Save As, and deleting of pages, but hey man, it’s the 21-st century here! Just use Acrobat’s Extract Pages Command. Here’s how she works. Choose Document > Extract Pages; then in the dialog box that appears, set the page range that you’re after, and let ‘er rip. Further, you can make use of the two options below the page range area, Delete Pages After Extracting, and Extract Pages As Separate Pages. In other words, delete the pages from the original PDF; and save the extracted pages as separate PDF files. Easy stuff!
Secret #21: Forget Red Pens And Deciphering Scrawl, It’s Acrobat Commenting!
More and more people are starting to use this feature in Acrobat, which is awesome, but as I’m sure you’ll agree, all the world must know! Commenting in Acrobat (also known as Markups, or Annotations) replaces the old-school method of printing off hardcopies and going at them with a red pen during editing and revision processes (gahh, hardcopy!). Keeping everything electronic in Acrobat saves a lot of things, like time, stress, and trees. Ready to give ‘er a try? Head to View > Toolbars > Comment & Markup, and go to town on your PDFs. There’s a ton of tools to choose from, but by far my favorite is the Sticky Note tool, which lets ya drop yellow sticky notes all over the PDF. Go nuts with the commenting tools, then manage ‘em all by choosing View > Navigation Panels > Comments. In the Comments panel, you can delete ‘em, sort ‘em summarize ‘em, and even export ‘em! Happy markup!
Secret #22: PDF Lockdown Mode, It’s Acrobat Security!
Many folks think PDFs are secured by default—I hope ya know this is not the case. If you want your documents locked, you gotta say so in Acrobat. There are a few ways to do this, but try choosing File > Document Properties; then click on the Security tab; then from the menu at the top, choose the type of security you’d like. For example, you could go with Password Security, which gives you the option of putting two passwords on the document, one to open the file, and one to make changes—you could use just one of these, or both. Just remember, whatever you do, don’t forget your passwords!
Secret #23: Need The Images In That PDF? Just Export ‘Em!
Have a PDF that contains a few images that you’d like to use elsewhere? Easy stuff. While you could manually convert each page of the PDF to an image with Photoshop, then crop out the images you’re after, there’s a much faster way. Choose Advanced > Document Processing > Export All Images. Next, choose where you want to export the images to, and the file format that you’d like to save them in. Hittin’ Save will finish the job. Now you’ll have all the PDF’s images saved and ready for use where ever you like!
Secret #24: Convert That PDF To A Different Format!
So whadda ya do when you have a PDF, and you need it in a different file format? Well, there’s a few things you can do. To begin, try choosing File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box that appears, the Format menu at the bottom will give ya lots ‘n lots of options for converting your PDF. Ya got yer image file formats, like JPEG, TIF, and PNG, as well as Microsoft Word, PostScript, and a buncha other goodies. With most of the formats, you’ll be able to click the Settings button to set a few additional options for your conversion. Now if the conversion doesn’t go so well, don’t get too upset. I’ve found it depends a lot on what’s inside the original PDF, and how it was created. Hope this wee function’ll help ya out, though!
Secret #25: Text Editing, Acrobat Style!
Get editing text in those PDF’s! While it has it’s limitations, this is great for those last minute changes. Head for the Advanced Editing toolbar (View > Toolbars > Advanced), and choose the TouchUp Text tool. Highlight the text you’d like to fix, and after Acrobat loads in your fonts, start typin’! Now, Acrobat’s editing abilities aren’t powerful enough to recognize margins or multiple columns, so it might be a bit frustrating. Fonts can be an issue, too, so try right-clicking on some selected text; then choose Properties. In the TouchUp Properties dialog box, you can change the font, set a size and color, and a buncha other cool things. Have fun!
So there ya go, 25 super-killer Acrobat secrets to make your PDFs really rock. I hope you enjoyed this series, and as always, post comments and questions below!
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