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Earlier today Adobe release a new version of it's PDF document suite Acrobat. The Acrobat family has been updated to version 8 with the popular (and free) [Acrobat Reader now available][1] for download.
The Acrobat line of products now includes Reader, Elements, Standard, and Pro versions ranging in price from free for Reader to $449 US for the Pro version. Early 2007 will see the release of a fifth version, 3D, which features CAD and other 3D imaging integration.
Adobe, who controls the industry-standard Portable Document Format (PDF), is pushing the collaborative side of off the so-called office 2.0 arena. The new Acrobat reader opens with a dialog asking if you want to "go beyond Adobe Reader." The link then loads a full tutorial and overview of Adobe's sharing and online PDF creation tool, Adobe Acrobat Connect.
The new Reader features a vastly simplified toolbar. Gone are the multitude of toolbars and palettes that used to open by default when viewing a PDF file. Even better, Reader now offers user customizable toolbars, a feature I hope to see in other Adobe products.
Other new features include the ability to create PDF documents from any application that prints, including one-button creation from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Adobe Reader also sports a new option to let you fill and submit forms, save data and digitally sign documents.
Those forms can be created using the full versions of the Acrobat family and then sent out and anyone with Reader who can then fill in and digitally sign the documents.
The a new comments feature allows for online (and off) comments within the document space (see the screenshots below).
Another prominent feature (one of the few default buttons on the toolbar) is the "Start Meeting" button which will launch Adobe Acrobat Connect. Connect, the Adobe-hosted software, provides real-time online collaboration through Adobe Flash Player.
My testing revealed a couple glaring negatives, first the Mac installer has no uninstall and what's worse, if you run the installer a second time it will simply reinstall the program. I don't know if the Windows installer is any smarter, but Adobe certainly could have done better.
Interestingly, instead of going the Universal Binary route Adobe has actually released two separate versions of its Acrobat Line for Macs, one for Intel Macs and one for older PowerPC models.
Overall the new suite is impressive and the redesign elements and user customization features bode well for Adobe's other programs which are expected to be updated some time next year.
[1]: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Reader/8.0/index.html
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