PDF How-Tos

HerGeekness Says: Convert Any File Part III

You've now converted that funky file to a PDF. It's time to tackle the final step: extracting assets from that PDF.

Protect Your PDFs

Digital files can end up in the strangest places. Before you send another PDF to a client, coworker, or anyone else, find out how and when to password-protect your work.

Bake Up a Batch of PDF Files

Open a file, change the header, save the file to a new location, close the file... repeat more times than you can count. If that sounds familiar, help is on the way.

Slim Down Your PDFs

Follow these tips to shrink a PDF's file size and help it display faster.

InDesign Transparency: No Longer the Forbidden Fruit

With this advice, you can reap the rewards of transparency and never hear those dreaded words, "It won't print!"

Git Along, Li'l PDF: How to Stamp Proofs with Your Own Brand

Acrobat's Stamp tool can prevent a lot of confusion if you use it for things like explaining Lorem Ipsum placeholder text and FPO images on client proofs. But rather than settling for Acrobat's generic stamps, you can create your own. Yeehaw!

Collaborate with Acrobat

Whether you're working with offsite team members or gathering feedback from a client, Acrobat's commenting and reviewing tools are unbeatable. Here's how to use them in a powerful, flexible collaborative workflow.

Start Smart: Create Quality PDFs

The secret to banishing bad print jobs is to make PDFs the right way.

Acrobat How-To: Reuse Table Information in a PDF

You need text or images that are in a table, but all you have is a PDF, not the source document. Are you out of luck? Not if you read this how-to!

A Trio of Acrobat Tips

You can attach companion files, flatten PDFs with editable objects, and tile one PDF across two screens.

Acrobat Tips: The Ins and Outs of Document Review

When you're sharing comps with colleagues and clients more than a hallway away, sending PDFs via email for review is the fastest and easiest route. Here are tips for sending the PDFs so any recipent can comment; comparing differences between PDFs before and after the review, and spell-checking your comments.

Customize and Shrink PDFs Exported from QuarkXPress 6.5

No need to fear these Jaws: They bring native PDF production under the QuarkXPress hood.

Quick Tips for Acrobat 7

Acrobat isn't as complex as some other Adobe apps ([cough] Photoshop [cough]) but you've got to admit that Acrobat is getting deeper with every version! That's why we've compiled a bevy of quick tips to give you back control.

What's the Problem With This PDF?

Your print shop tells you to send them a PDF because it's less trouble than native file formats and the linked images and typefaces. But then the print shop says your PDF is problematic. What do you do?

Acrobat Tip: Make Last-Minute Corrections

When you need to correct an Acrobat PDF but can't or don't want to open the original file, try the TouchUp Object tool. Here's how.

Acrobat How-to: Share the Love With Acrobat 7.0

Before the current version of Adobe Acrobat, only those who paid for the program could use its commenting tools. People with just the free Reader were left out in the cold and out of all online collaboration and review processes. Now, thanks to Acrobat 7.0 and this easy tutorial, you can bring everyone into the fold.

Acrobat How-To: Previewing Color Separations Onscreen

This tutorial shows you how to "soft-proof" your document before you send it off to your printer. Not only will you catch costly errors, but your neighborhood prepress professional will love you for making this effort.

Acrobat How-to: Softproofing PDFs with Acrobat's Preflight Tools

Even as PDF is becoming a preferred format for final delivery of print-ready files, many creative professionals the technical glitches that can arise in this relatively unfamiliar workflow. That's why Adobe built preflight tools into Acrobat 6 Professional. Here's how to spot common errors.

Acrobat How-to: Traditional Proofreading in PDF

While the so-called paperless workflow has many benefits, some things are just better done on paper, like proofreading and copy-editing, for instance. Is it possible to replicate traditional methods in a digital environment? You can with Acrobat's markup tools.

Acrobat How-To: Setting PDF Open Options

Authors of PDF documents know that controlling the reader's viewing environment important. That's where the Initial View properties come in. See how to set these viewing options in Acrobat 6 to make a good first impression.