Acrobat 5 H*O*T Hands on Training Review
Book Review by Ed Melanson

This book is a Hands On Training Manual for the Adobe Acrobat Reader that allows us to read, copy, generate and edit PDF files. Now for the minority of our readers who do not know what a PDF (Portable Data File) is check out this site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html

This book is intended to be used by beginners and intermediate users. To fully utilize the contents of this book you will require the full version of Adobe Reader. I do not know any intermediate users who have this full version. Adobe Reader 6.0 Standard version, cost $149.00; Adobe Reader 6.0 Professional version, cost $449.00. This puts it out of my class. Having said this, there are a lot of useful examples of what you can do with the free version as well as the full version. To down load the free version, go to the Adobe web site;

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Now most of us have heard and probably have the free version of Acrobat Reader in our computer. Most of us use this program without thinking much about it.. We receive or want to down load a manual, it will most likely be in PDF format. Many businesses, and most on line government manuals, including the IRS, use the PDF format. This free version is a read only program with tools to help you navigate through the file. You cannot edit or generate a PDF file with the free version, for that you will have to buy the full version of Acrobat Reader.

After reading the first couple of paragraphs I followed the instructions to update my Acrobat Reader 5.0 to 5.05, which is actually 5.0.5, which turns out to be version 5.1. I presumed that this was a later version that came out after this book was written After about 20 min. on the Acrobat’s web site I finally figured out what I had to do and updated to Adobe Acrobat Reader to 5.1 without any problems. The latest is now version 6.0. The tutorial CD that comes with this book has the Adobe reader 5.0 and the upgrade 5.0.5 that you can install on your computer. But I would recommend going to the source and get the latest version. Use the 5.1 version to do the exercises in the CD.

As previously mentioned, this book comes with CD Rom with exercises you can perform while reading the book. This provides a great learning tool. While skip reading the introduction portion of the book, I noticed that you had to uncheck the read only box for each folder on the CD, I followed the instructions, which are clear enough, but could not do it. A quick email and an even quicker response resolved the problem. I learned that I had to click and drag the folders over to my desktop, then do the un-checking. A couple of paragraphs down explained the process. in fuller detail,

There are many things you can do with the free version of the Adobe Reader that are described in the book and the CD. For example;

·Scroll through a multi-page document vertical or horizontal.
·Zoom in or out. 8.33% to 1600%. I did not try the 1600%; you would probably have to scroll
·letter to letter.
·Navigate forward and backwards, first page, last page, page by page.
· Filing, printing even emailing, and much more.
·PDF forms, like IRS Tax forms, may be downloaded in PDF format, www.irs.gov that can
be filled out on your computer and be printed out. However you cannot save the filled
out form with the free version. Saving the filled out form will require the full version of

Acrobat Reader.
The full version of Acrobat Reader has many more features that are explained and demonstrated with the help of the exercises in the CD. Each exercise gives you a step-by-step explanation of what to do. As long as you read the steps carefully and do not try to anticipate and jump ahead, like I sometimes do, you will stay out of trouble. Each paragraph is independent of the other paragraphs. This means that you can exercise any paragraph without any knowledge of the previous chapters.

This book has 15 chapters and 617 pages. If you use or are going to use the Adobe Reader, especially the full, Standard or Professional version, this book will be very useful

The included exercises require the full version of Acrobat 5 for Windows or Macintosh, Quick time 5
and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 (provided)
Required; Mac OS 8.6 or higher, Windows/ 95/08/SE/ME/NT 4/2000/XP

Linda.com/books are published by Peachpit Press
1249 Eight Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
810.524.2178
fax 510.524.2221
www.peachpit.com
Price $44.99

Return to Review Listing 2003

This page created: 18 June 2003