Acrobat.com
Encyclopedia
Acrobat.com is a suite of hosted PDF
conversion and document exchange services from Adobe Systems. It includes the original service – Acrobat.com – as well as Adobe CreatePDF, Adobe ExportPDF, Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and Adobe SendNow. Users access each of the services through their web browser. In addition, many of the functions can be invoked through menu choices in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat software. Subscription options vary by service, but most services include free, monthly, and annual plans. Users need to sign up for an Adobe ID in order to use these services. This ID is identical to the one used on Adobe.com and at the Adobe online store, and therefore some users may already have an account to use at Acrobat.com.
Each service in brief:
Adobe ConnectNow is a web meeting service that enables users to have online conferences and live collaboration using their web browser and the Adobe Flash Player
. ConnectNow provides text and audio chat, video conferencing, whiteboard, text notes, screen-sharing and collaborative remote control of any of the participant's computers with their permission.
The free version of ConnectNow supports a conference of up to two users. An Acrobat.com Basic subscription can have 5-person meetings. Acrobat.com Premium Plus subscriptions permit up to 20 people in an online meeting.
Acrobat.com file storage allows users to upload, store and manage a file online so that multiple other users can download them. Each user has a 5GB online storage. Users may choose to make a document accessible to anyone by sharing with a URL (web address), or restrict access to specific users. A file organizer allows users to tag, find and organize their files that they upload or are sharing with others.
Acrobat.com also allows users to preview several common file types (.DOC, .XLS, .PPT, .PDF, .WPD
, .ODT
, .ODP, .ODS, .ODG, .ODF, .SXW, .SXI, .SXC, .SXD, .STW), along with common graphics files.
Additionally, Acrobat.com allows users to embed a preview of their documents into their web pages.
There are several file types that cannot be uploaded and shared on Acrobat.com, a list of which can be found here.
Acrobat.com Workspaces was introduced in March 2010. It allows Acrobat.com users to upload, import and organize multiple documents into a shared workspace with folders, then share that workspace of files with multiple members using their email address/Adobe ID. Adding additional documents does not require resending a link to the file. Members of a workspace can be administrators, which allows them to manage the files and the shared workspace in addition to the original workspace owner.
Free Acrobat.com accounts can only create a single shared file folder. Basic accounts can create up to 20 shared file folders; Plus accounts have unlimited shared file folders.
Adobe Buzzword is an online word processor that allows users to create and collaborate on text documents on-line. Multiple users can be assigned different roles by authors to read, review, comment on or co-author a single document collaboratively. Document revisions can be managed and changes displayed using the History bar.
Text features include font and paragraph formatting controls; lists and tables; headers, footers and endnotes; page and line breaks; horizontal rulers; URL links; spell checking; document properties such as margin controls; and inserting fields such as document name and last saved date. Images can also be placed, positioned and resized visually. The images can be uploaded from the local computer; by searching for an image from Flickr
or Google
directly within Buzzword; or by entering in a URL to the image to be placed in to the Buzzword document.
Buzzword imports and exports plain text (TXT), Rich Text Format (RTF), Microsoft Word (DOC and DOCX), and Open Office (ODT) files. It also exports to Adobe PDF, HTML, and EPUB.
Acrobat.com Tables is a web-based tool similar to popular spreadsheet applications that allows multiple users to work on shared data sets simultaneously in their browser, such task lists, schedules, contacts, sales numbers, etc. Contributors can see who is working on the table cells, and define filter views on data. Formulas can be used, but are column based. Data tables can be exported to XLS, CSV and PDF formats. As of April 2010, Acrobat.com Tables is a beta release.
A complete list of supported file formats can be found in the Adobe CreatePDF FAQ.
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
conversion and document exchange services from Adobe Systems. It includes the original service – Acrobat.com – as well as Adobe CreatePDF, Adobe ExportPDF, Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and Adobe SendNow. Users access each of the services through their web browser. In addition, many of the functions can be invoked through menu choices in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat software. Subscription options vary by service, but most services include free, monthly, and annual plans. Users need to sign up for an Adobe ID in order to use these services. This ID is identical to the one used on Adobe.com and at the Adobe online store, and therefore some users may already have an account to use at Acrobat.com.
Each service in brief:
- Acrobat.com lets users host online meetings, store files online, create shared file folders, and collaboratively author documents and spreadsheets.
- Adobe CreatePDF lets users convert files to the PDF format, combine multiple documents into a single PDF file, and convert PDF files into editable Word or Excel documents.
- Adobe ExportPDF lets users turn PDF files into editable Word documents.
- Adobe EchoSign lets users sign, send, track and file contracts electronically, including PDF, Word, and Excel files.
- Adobe FormsCentral lets users create web forms, distribute them, and view results online in a table format.
- Adobe SendNow lets users send, share and track large files as an alternative to email attachments and FTP sites.
Acrobat.com
The original Acrobat.com offers the following services: ConnectNow online meetings, File Storage and Sharing, Workspaces, Buzzword word processor, and Tables. All of these services are available for free, with some limitations. Subscription packages are available that offer larger meetings, unlimited file folders and up to 100GB of online file storage.Adobe ConnectNow is a web meeting service that enables users to have online conferences and live collaboration using their web browser and the Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
. ConnectNow provides text and audio chat, video conferencing, whiteboard, text notes, screen-sharing and collaborative remote control of any of the participant's computers with their permission.
The free version of ConnectNow supports a conference of up to two users. An Acrobat.com Basic subscription can have 5-person meetings. Acrobat.com Premium Plus subscriptions permit up to 20 people in an online meeting.
Acrobat.com file storage allows users to upload, store and manage a file online so that multiple other users can download them. Each user has a 5GB online storage. Users may choose to make a document accessible to anyone by sharing with a URL (web address), or restrict access to specific users. A file organizer allows users to tag, find and organize their files that they upload or are sharing with others.
Acrobat.com also allows users to preview several common file types (.DOC, .XLS, .PPT, .PDF, .WPD
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
, .ODT
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
, .ODP, .ODS, .ODG, .ODF, .SXW, .SXI, .SXC, .SXD, .STW), along with common graphics files.
Additionally, Acrobat.com allows users to embed a preview of their documents into their web pages.
There are several file types that cannot be uploaded and shared on Acrobat.com, a list of which can be found here.
Acrobat.com Workspaces was introduced in March 2010. It allows Acrobat.com users to upload, import and organize multiple documents into a shared workspace with folders, then share that workspace of files with multiple members using their email address/Adobe ID. Adding additional documents does not require resending a link to the file. Members of a workspace can be administrators, which allows them to manage the files and the shared workspace in addition to the original workspace owner.
Free Acrobat.com accounts can only create a single shared file folder. Basic accounts can create up to 20 shared file folders; Plus accounts have unlimited shared file folders.
Adobe Buzzword is an online word processor that allows users to create and collaborate on text documents on-line. Multiple users can be assigned different roles by authors to read, review, comment on or co-author a single document collaboratively. Document revisions can be managed and changes displayed using the History bar.
Text features include font and paragraph formatting controls; lists and tables; headers, footers and endnotes; page and line breaks; horizontal rulers; URL links; spell checking; document properties such as margin controls; and inserting fields such as document name and last saved date. Images can also be placed, positioned and resized visually. The images can be uploaded from the local computer; by searching for an image from Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
or Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
directly within Buzzword; or by entering in a URL to the image to be placed in to the Buzzword document.
Buzzword imports and exports plain text (TXT), Rich Text Format (RTF), Microsoft Word (DOC and DOCX), and Open Office (ODT) files. It also exports to Adobe PDF, HTML, and EPUB.
Acrobat.com Tables is a web-based tool similar to popular spreadsheet applications that allows multiple users to work on shared data sets simultaneously in their browser, such task lists, schedules, contacts, sales numbers, etc. Contributors can see who is working on the table cells, and define filter views on data. Formulas can be used, but are column based. Data tables can be exported to XLS, CSV and PDF formats. As of April 2010, Acrobat.com Tables is a beta release.
Adobe Create PDF
Adobe Create PDF is a web service that allows users to convert files with a maximum file size of 100MB to PDF, combine multiple files into a single PDF file, and convert PDF files to the Word (DOCX) or Excel (XLSX) formats. One free conversion is available to anyone logging in with their Adobe ID. Unlimited PDF file conversions are available with a paid subscription. Users can create a PDF file by uploading their file via a web browser, printing to a virtual printer (a download for their local PC), or selecting a file to convert from the Share pane in Adobe Reader X.A complete list of supported file formats can be found in the Adobe CreatePDF FAQ.