Acro9 Series: Sharing PDF Files Online
19th August, 2009 - Posted by MsD
The Acrobat 9 Download Series: Readers of my articles at acrobatusers.com who’d like to read offline at their leisure can now download a PDF in a print-ready format.
PDF for the Web & SEO is the current topic of the month at Acrobatusers.com.
There’s been a lot of Internet kerfuffle over the years regarding how to use PDF documents–or even whether to use them at all! Web usability pioneer Jakob Nielsen has long promoted limiting the use of PDF files online to those items users are likely to print. Although his recommendations don’t consider the unique qualities of PDF, there are valid usability issues everyone should consider when moving PDF content online.
Download the article- 2009_08web
Maybe slightly off-topic, Donna, but I have been producing highly interactive e-books in PDF with embedded QT videos and QTVR virtual reality panos. They are intended for physical, rather than virtual distribution, i.e., as CD- and DVD-ROMs, rather than accessed online… although I’m think how to best migrate this kind of content to the Web.
My immediate problem in reviewing some of my earlier publications (produced under full Acrobat 7 or older), is that when opened in Reader/full Acrobat 8 or newer, the pages are clipped at the top, making the first line of text often unreadable. Older (v. 7 or earlier) versions of both Reader and full Acrobat have a preferences checkbox under “Page Display”, entitled “display pages to edge”. when this is checked, the pages are not truncated and display fine. But both Reader and full Acrobat versions 8 or newer don’t have a “display pages to edge” checkbox as far as I’ve been able to find, and when these files are opened in v. 8 or 9, the top line is truncated and unreadable. I tried using the “optimize PDF” routine, but it doesn’t work.
If you send me a snailmail address to this email address, I’ll send you a physical disk or two so as you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about.
The next step will be how to get this stuff up online so the links and interactivity work as intended.
Hey Donna
Ok I went to add or edit fields and the closest button they had was an OK button. Is this the same as submit? If it is it asks for a URL. I tried to put in an email and when when I tried to submit it I got back a general error. I don’t know much about pro. So if there is anyway that you could give me step by step I would really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot
Naomi
Hi Naomi -
You can definitely do what you’re wanting to do. The key is to have a Submit button on the form that includes an email address. When Acrobat saves the file, the address becomes part of the file’s data, and users can easily send the data back to you, from Acrobat or from Reader.
donna.
Hey Donna
I can’t find the answer to this question anywhere else. We have all of our forms on our website. We want people to be able to fill them in, save them and than email them back to us. But now they can fill them in and print them out only. Is it possible to save and email if they only have reader and not pro?
Hi Ric -
You’re looking for tooltips that don’t convert properly in the case of the navigation buttons. In Acrobat, open your file, then choose Forms > Add or Edit Fields to open Form Editing mode. Once you’re there, double-click the nav button to open it, and you can change the tooltip on the General tab (displays by default when you open the dialog box).
As for the tooltips showing a URL instead of an instruction – that’s how they work! So the bashing of one’s head against the wall has no effect.
Here’s an idea, although I haven’t tried it. If it’s really important, you could add an invisible button over each link with the tooltip in the button. Of course, then the user might see the tooltip, might see the web link tip. It might work, but may confuse the bejeebers out of your users.
Hi Bonnie -
You need to use Acrobat 9 Pro or Pro Extended to enable the file for use by recipients using Reader only. Enabling the file gives them access to the Review Tracker, Comment & Markup toolbar, and commands on the Document Message Bar for receiving and sending comments.
Thanks for writing!
donna.
In order to use the comment function for sharing documents, is that ability only on Adobe Acrobat Professional? If the recipient only has Reader, any way for them to add the comment boxes?
Hey there Donna–
Great information on your blog… I have a quick question and I would REALLY appreciate your help. I’m working on a project for a client and I’m designing the files in PowerPoint. From there, I export to Adobe pdf, but I can’t see the screentips when I mouseover the navigation arrows. Also, when I hover over links, I get the url instead of “click here to open pdf” or “click here to open web site.” I’ve manually input the screentips in PowerPoint and I’ve played around with the settings in Acrobat. Am I doing something wrong, or am I trying to do something that won’t work? Btw, I’m using Vista and running PowerPoint 2007 and Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me crazy because I’ve been researching online for a week and can’t find anything that exactly addresses my problem.
Thanks so much for your time. Please feel free to email me or if you’d rather call, my number is 919.539.2480.
Thanks again and I hope to hear from you soon…
Take care–
Ric Swiner