Adobe Acrobat allows you to create, view and edit .pdf files. .pdf files allow a document to be viewed by other people in its original form with the help of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Why/when to use Acrobat? Acrobat can be used for many things. Here are some general rules I follow when deciding to make the document a .pdf or not.
Fishs' .pdf and .html rule: I will always try to create a .html document to go along with the .pdf. District policies, board agendas, minutes and handbooks are some examples of items that could be produced in both .html and .pdf. The .html file allows the person simply "browsing" to find information directly online and the .pdf is perfect for someone who needs to store the information in its complete form and refer to it later. Sometimes a document is too complicated to produce a .html version. A form is a good example. I will only create a .pdf if the item is too complicated to turn into .html
The Acrobat Product Line: It is important to know that there are many products that make up the Acrobat product line. You cannot create .pdf files using Adobe Acrobat Reader! Here is the Adobe Acrobat product line.
OK! Lets talk about how to create .pdfs. This is not a step by step but more a how to. I will tell you how to make an item a .pdf and then tell you how to add additional features to it.
Digging in
Adobe Acrobat made a lot of changes in 8.0. In fact, the interface looks completely different. Menus have been reorganized and icons have been added making it easier to navigate.
Making a new .pdf
 This is the File Open Dialog menu. You will also see this menu when you click on the New .pdf icon. You have the option of selecting From File which will greet you with a dialog box. You can then choose a document on your hard drive to turn into a .pdf |
When you install Adobe Acrobat, it adds a print driver called the Acrobat PDF driver. All you have to do is select it and your document will print out as a file on your hard drive. Other applications such as Microsoft Word will have a .pdf button in their toolbar once you install Acrobat. Mac OSX even has a .pdf save in the print dialog box standard. The only applications which will not be happy using the Print dialog box to make a .pdf is desktop publishing software. You will need to consult your manual to see the best way of saving .pdfs The nice thing is every Desktop Publish application has a .pdf save feature independent of you owning Adobe Acrobat. |
Editing your .pdf
Once you have your .pdf, there are many things you can do with it. If not, this handout would be done! When your .pdf was made, it actually embedded the fonts that were used in the document. So, if there is a misspelling or if you need to hide a name or change something, you can!
The Touch up text tool
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Adding Bookmarks
For larger .pdf files with a long shelf line (student handbooks, manuals, etc) adding bookmarks allow the user to click on a list of choices on the left hand side and immediately be taken to a particular location of your .pdf file
To add a bookmark:
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1. On the left side of your document, you will see some icons, click on the icon that has a little bookmark on it. This will display your bookmark panel. Chances are there will be no bookmarks listed. 2. Look on your toolbar for the select text tool. It is usually in the second row and is next to the Hand Tool. 3. Highlight text. Highlighting text will accomplish two things. It will tell the bookmark where you go when someone clicks it and it will use the highlighted text to title the bookmark. 4. Click the New Bookmark icon. If all has gone according to plan, you will now have a new bookmark! 5. You can right click the bookmark text and select properties. This will allow you to change the color and appearance of the bookmark |
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Editing your bookmark is quite simple. You can click on the bookmark text just like you would to a document and folder on your desktop. This will allow you to change the name, etc. Moving Bookmarks To move a bookmark up or down on the list drag accordingly To make a bookmark a sub bookmark to another grab the bookmark and drag up and right (shown in the circle) The black triangle will show you where the bookmark is setting itself. To move a bookmark out of a bookmark, drag above the bookmark and left. The black triangle will show you where the bookmark is setting itself. |
REMEMBER! Bookmarks are not set to show up as a default. To make sure the bookmarks you made show up when someone opens the document, make sure you set the open options accordingly by going to File > Document Properties
Click the Initial View and select Bookmarks Panel and Page from the Navigation Tab
Using the comment tools
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There is a vast amount of things you can do with the commenting features in Acrobat 8. This is one topic that I struggle getting fully into during my classes because the majority of people would never use them, but the minority find it a fantastic group of features. So, if the idea about being able to track a documents changes via markups using Acrobat and Email for 2+ people to work on as the delivery method sound interesting, dig a little deeper on Adobe's website regarding commenting. It is actually quite cool. This handout will touch on the most popular commenting features. |
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The commenting tools work the same across the board, so, I will use the highlighting text tool to describe them. Select the tool and then use it to either highlight text, underline text, cross out text, etc. Once you are done selecting, right click. One of the choices is options which will allow you to change the color as well as the opacity (transparency). To delete whatever you marked up, right click and select delete. It will remove the comment. |
Stamps
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Built into Acrobat are about 50 stamps which allow you to add a stamp to point out your .pdf document is Confidential, Not for Release, etc. Just like other comment tools, you can right click on the Stamp once it is added to change its options. My favorite stamp however is the one you can add. Imagine your school or district as a stamp or even cooler, your signature. This is perfect because you can fill out a .pdf form and stamp in you signature. You not longer need to pring the .pdf to sign and send it. You can do the whole thing in Acrobat and send the form via Email. |
Document Maintenance
Security
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If you do not set security, people will be able to edit your .pdf as well as save your images. 1. If you do not want people to see the .pdf without a password, select this option and type in a password. Once this is set, the next time a document is opened it will ask for a password. 2. This is the option to choose if you do not want people to edit your document and save your images. Remember to type in a password! The most strict security is leaving printing and changes set to None. However, you might want to change printing to High Resolution so people could in fact print this document. The only change you might want to make to Changes Allowed is the option to comment and fill out fields. That is, if you are working with a document with form fields or people you want to have comment on the document. |
Adding to your .pdf
To combine multiple .pdfs choose File > Combine. This will allow to take multiple .pdfs and combine them.
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The Document Menu is where you can Insert Pages, Delete Pages, Replace pages, etc. |
Interactive Fun
Acrobat includes some features that allow you to add web as well as interactivity to a document
Making a Link
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You can find the Link tool under The link tool will allow you to quickly jump to another page in your .pdf or link off to another file, web page, etc. This is perfect for linking to a graphic in your .pdf or proving a web link to back up an example, etc. After selecting the Link Tool and making a box around the image or text, you have the following options. 1. Change the appearance to visible, invisible as well as the color of the box (applies only if you went with the visible rectangle of course!) 2. Choose if you want it to link to another page in your .pdf (Go to a Page View) or a file, web page, etc. What is nice about the page view is that you can actually zoom in on a specific part of the page and set this link to zoom exactly as you configure it. |
Adding Sound
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You get to the Sound Options by selecting Tools > Advanced Editing > Sound Tool Why would one use the sound tool? Here are some examples: You have created a form and you want to explain to the person some details about filling it out. You have given a .pdf assignment to your students and would like to record the instructions so they can reference them when they get home. You are working on language assignment and want to record a word or sentence in various languages You simply need to explain something. The sound tool is easy to use. Once the Add Sound dialog box is displayed select a pre-recorded sound file to use and it will be added to the .pdf file. The user will see a speaker icon alerting them there is a recorded file that they can click on. |
Grabbing a website and making it a .pdf
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There are a few ways to get to the Web Capture option. The easiest is File > Create .pdf > From Web Page This is a great feature if you want to be able to grab a web page or an entire web site and save it as a .pdf. I personally use it to capture stories and site for when I am flying, but, you could also capture them for use in the classroom, reference files on a CD, etc. If you have an "interesting" internet connection, then think of this as your web page backup when you are teaching in the classroom. Here are the dialog box options 1. Type in a website. While I have the top level of my site listed, you could easily copy and URL of a story or an article buried deep in a website and paste it here. 2. Select how many levels you want to capture. Acrobat will follow all the links on the web page and continue to make .pdf files out of those links until it stops at the level you specify. Select Stay on Same Server as well as Stay on Same Path. This will ensure your web capture does not end up at a location you did not expect and go capture crazy. REMEMBER! You can always edit / update you web .pdf file by selecting Advanced > Web Capture. This will allow you to check the links to make sure they work as well as update any pages that might have changed since the last time you did the web capture. |
OCR In Acrobat? Yep!
 Once you opened your scanned image select Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Test Using OCR |
OCR Allows you to take a scanned image of a book, document, etc and try to turn it into a text document. Many other applications have done this, but, they are usually costly and do not do the job that Acrobat does built in! Your first step will be to scan a document in. I recommend a minimum 600 DPI tiff. Open the scanned file in Acrobat by Choosing File > Open and selecting "All Files" at the bottom of the open dialog box. |
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You will see this dialog box once you select OCR Text Recognition. You need to change the default options. Make sure PDF Output Style is set to Formatted Text and Graphics. If it isn't, Click the Edit button and make the change. Once that is done click ok and watch your scanned image become a text file! |
Save As....
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I had a tough time deciding where to put this feature in the handout. I talk about in the OCR section so, here it is. Once you have a .pdf you can actually output it in a variety of formats. You can either get to the options by clicking Save As and looking at the list of save options or clicking on the Export button as shown on the left. Two of the most popular save formats are Word as well as .jpeg Think about how cool it is to scan in some paper, OCR it and save it as Word. Nice! |
Forms!
Forms is still a jaw dropper for most people learning Acrobat. Many have no idea that you can easily add fields to a .pdf file so they can be filled out and even sent via email to someone else. This is perfect for expense reports, district forms that parents need to fill out, etc.
The Laziest way to fill out a form.
Please keep in mind that forms can be very interactive. You can set up routines that could collect the data, send the data to a database, etc. If you are in a district setting working with other people, you will want to learn how to make a form.
However, lets just say you have a form you want to fill out send or print and you know for sure the person will not be placing the data somewhere else.
The Typewriter will allow you to type anywhere in your .pdf file. No need to create fields, nada. So, just look on the toolbar for the Typewriter option or select Tools > Typewriter and type away!
Form Recognition
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One of the slickest new features in 8.0 is the ability to run form field recognition. Open a form as a .pdf. Select Forms > Run Form Field Recognition. Acrobat will try to identify where the form fields are in the document. You can click on the highlight fields button in the upper right corner of the document to see which fields the recognition process was able to identify. It might not always work. With that in mind, here is how you create your own forms |
Adding Form Fields
The first thing that you will need to make your forms interactive is the Forms toolbar. You can find the toolbar by selecting Tools > Forms. You will notice there is a choice at the bottom of the menu to add the toolbar to your main window. I would suggest doing this.
The Tools are as follows (left to right)
1. Button
2. Check Box
3. Combo Box
4. Menu
5. Radio Button
6. Text Box
7. Signature Box (Not discussed)
8. Bar Code (Not Discussed)
The Process
The basic process is pretty much the same for each tool. Select the tool, put it in your document and drag it to its desired size. Once you let go you will be presented with the properties for that tool.
Text Fields
Any field you create will have the General and Appearance options and they will, for the most part, look the same for each tool. While I am only describing them for the text field tool, the general rules apply for all fields.
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The general tab is where you will set the name for the field. Name: You will want to make sure this is a unique name or else you will have multiple entire's in your fields Tooltip: This is the text that shows up when someone moves their mouse into the field. |
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Appearance is where you control the look of the field. Borders: Set these to show or hide based on the look of your form. FYI, the Checkbox and Radio Button are set to show outlines so make sure to remember to click it off if you do not want that showing up Text: Change Auto to a consistent size. The only time to leave this set to Auto is for Check Boxes and Radio buttons because they will fill the entire box with the check mark, circle, etc. |
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The Field Options tab might look a little different depending on what field you are creating. Here are the options for the Text Field Tool. Alignment: I hope ya know this! Default Value: You can actually put something in the field ahead of time. Multi Line: Will allow the user to hit the return key in a field and keep typing. Perfect for long essay questions on a form Scroll Long Text: Do not allow this! Do not check it! This would allow the user to keep typing past the size of the field. Meaning, if they printed it, you would have no way of knowing what they typed past the displayed field. Rich Text Formatting: Allows people to add bold, italic, etc. |
Editing a Field
Editing a field works like any graphics program you have used before. Click the field tool in question. That will highlight all the fields of that format on your form. Clicking directly on a field will have the 8 edge handles show up. You can then click on a handle to resize or click in the middle to move it, etc. To bring the properties up again, double click on the field.
Combo Boxes
You probably know this better as a menu. Combo boxes present a list of items in a drop-down menu for users to choose from or allow the user to enter their own values. Combo boxes also use less space in a form than list boxes. This document shows you how to create and delete combo boxes in your PDF form.
We already talked about the General and Appearance options in the Text Field. You will notice the options here on the Combo Box look different.
Item: Is what will appear, in list form, to the person filling out the form
Export Value: Is what the administrator, or creator of the form will see listed if they chose to have this form sent to them as a web file or database include.
Item List: Keeps track of all the items in the list.
List Boxes
List boxes present multiple choices to the user in the form of a pull-down list
The list box works very closely to the combo box. The main difference is that instead of looking at a menu, you look at a list. An example of the list box is show on the right.
Check Boxes
Check boxes are used when you want to give the user the option of checking none, some or all of the options.
As I mentioned earlier, make sure you check your appearance options in this dialog box because Acrobat, as a default, leaves the fill and outline options selected.
The main difference with Check Boxes is the option. Basically the option gives you the choice to change the Check Box Style
Radio Buttons
The important thing to know about Radio Buttons is that they are generally used to choose only one item from a list. While they are used a lot for Yes / No, they can also be used for grade, income, etc.
The difference with a radio button is that for it to work effectively, it needs to be named the same (set in the general tab) as the other radio buttons in its grouping, so, two buttons for asking yes or no would each be named question, topic or whatever you would like. The EXPORT VALUE for each button will be different. The yes button would have an export value of yes and the no button would have an export value of no.
Formatting Fields and your first step to making calculations
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While this is an option for text fields its really the first part of making a calculation. The formatting tab allows you to format your field to display in date form, time form, number form and a few others. For calculations, select number. You will then have the option to choose how many decimal places you want, what currency you want and more. |
Calculations
Once you have set your text fields with a number format, you are ready to start calculating.
Here is how to make a calculation:
1. Click on the calculate tab in the field options dialog box
2. Select if you want it to Add, Subtract or Multiply the formula
3. Click on Pick
4. Choose the number formatted fields that you want to have included in this calculation
5. Click Close
You can also have totals of total fields, etc.
Adding Buttons and making Actions
While an action can be used in almost any field, it is most used in Buttons. The top reason you would use a button? To have someone send the form to you via email.
Once you click to make a button, click on Actions. Select the Mouse Up trigger. Mouse up means the user has moved the mouse into the area, clicked the mouse and let go.
You will see a variety of options, the option for email is Submit a form. Once there, type mailto:youremail@whatever.whatever
Please keep in mind the user has to have email software for the submit function to work.
Tab Order
Depending on how you designed the form, your fields order could be considerably off. You can change the order by clicking on the pages icon (its next to your bookmark icon). Once you click on the pages icon, you will see a graphic of your page (show here on the left). Right click on the page icon and choose Page Properties. This will take you to the Tab Order options. You can then set the order based on Row, Column, Document structure of just leave it as is.
