Customer Reviews

Acrobat X Professional -Win

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Before I begin, I should say that I'm reviewing this from an individual user's perspective. Large businesses and other organizations would find the product more useful, but I figure they're unlikely to buy the software from Amazon.

The main issue for potential Amazon buyers shouldn't be whether it's a useful product--it is. Rather, is it useful enough to justify its high price? For most users, I think it isn't. Instead, I recommend looking at some other products whose *combined* price is a fraction of Acrobat X Professional.

Here are the PDF features I use most and that I think are most relevant to individual users.

PRINTING TO PDF. If this is all you want from a PDF software, then Acrobat is waaaay overkill. The free version of Cute PDF is all you need.

SCANNING TO PDF. Many scanners come with software that allows you to save as a PDF, so look into that first. Otherwise, check out Cute PDF Professional and Foxit Phantom PDF Suite.

SEARCHING PDF. The free Acrobat Reader has a nice search function.

EDITING TEXT IN PDF. I recommend Corel PDF Fusion because of its great function that allows you to import a PDF directly into Word and edit it there.

COMBINING DOCUMENTS, DELETING/INSERTING PAGES, ETC. There are many PDF software programs that do this. Cute PDF Professional allows you to insert blank pages into a PDF, something Acrobat still doesn't let you do even though it's a basic feature that many people would like.

I've mentioned a few PDF programs so far (PDF Fusion, Cute PDF Professional, Foxit Phantom PDF Suite), but there are some that I haven't tried that may be worth investigating:

--Nitro PDF
--Soda PDF
--PDF Suite Pro
--Inflix PDF

You may have noticed that I didn't mention Nuance PDF Converter. Until Nuance fixes its problem of making you re-activate if you insert an external hard drive, I can't recommend it.

Even if you have to buy more than one of these products to get all the features you want, the combined price is still less than Acrobat, and you'll get some additional features that Acrobat doesn't have.

Now, who *should* buy Acrobat? First, people who need good optical character recognition (OCR). There's no better software for this. Second, people who want to create PDF forms. Again, no better software.

Bottom line, Acrobat offers almost all the features you get in other programs, all in one package. But that's one very expensive package, and for the price, you could get multiple other PDF programs and have money left over.

Before buying, I highly recommend downloading the free 30 day trial of not just Acrobat but also the other software programs I've mentioned.

Full disclosure: I received a free test copy of Acrobat X Professional but was not compensated for this review.

I was hoping that Acrobat X would be faster with less glitches than Acrobat Pro 9. However, it is actually worse! The tools are so disorganized. In Acrobat Pro 9, you can customize the tool box in an intuitive fashion, but in version X, it is so convoluted and I couldn't figure out how to make it the way I wanted. Also the Typewriter now pops up with its own window that you cannot integrate into the tool bar. What the heck? And the interface is just ugly. What were the designers thinking???

Don't waste your money on this, and stick to the Acrobat Pro 9.

I have been a fan of Adobe Acrobat from day one. I do a great deal of work in the print-on-demand field, and PDFs are the defacto-standard, and require specialized formatting. I was excited that version 10 was out, and was looking forward to a lot of new features and a better program all around, but I was disappointed.

The user interface is completely changed from v.9, and it actually looks like it belongs to a "lite" version, rather than the flagship v.10 this has been touted to be. It took me a while to find my way to my favorite tools, and even though I've used it a while now, I don't like the configuration, and am going back to v.9. (Adobe has provided user tutorials to help you learn the newly revamped interface. Really? Why do I want to spend time learning a new interface to a program I've already used for years?)

If you're upgrading from a really old version of Acrobat, then the features here will seem heavenly. But if you're already using v.9, I would suggest sticking with it until we see what Adobe has planned for v.11. I'm hoping they'll take user comments to heart, and return us to the user interface we can all use in our sleep, and not make us re-learn how to do things we already know how to do.

I am not a graphic designer, but I do build simple websites and use the computer all of the time for work, including GIMP, Word, Excel, WordPress, Powerpoint, etc. This is an excellent addition to my library making work-arounds to use PDF format programs unnecessary. I love how easy it is to create images in formats I need, or to take PDF documents and convert them back to the format they were created in. Using it to make forms was a breeze as well. It was very easy to install, I have not had any problems with it, and I highly recommend it.

There is a conflict with Excel 2010 that requires a removal of a file from Excel that deals with pdfs. Various fixes online, I tried a simple one which seems to work, but am unsure if other problems will arise from the 2 programs or from my fix. I don't understand why the manufacturers don't deal with this outright.

Adobe, please take a step back for a moment and remember that we pay an obscene amount of money for this product in order to get -work- done. Your new smooth and cutesy chrome is a major detraction from what has been in the past, very good software. Please add a "I'm not in elementary school" option to the prefs and select it by default.

I have used Adobe Acrobat 9, and had installed Acrobat X Reader (version 10.0.1), so was anxious to see what Adobe Acrobat X Pro (10.0.3) had in store. It's a well-written program, but there is still room for improvement.

First I noticed masses of cardboard surrounding the DVD - too much for a green world. It would be nice, if software companies, computer retailers and their software box designers en masse could reduce the size of packaging. Companies like Adobe could take a lead - we don't have 5 1/4" floppy disks and big manuals inside the boxes any more - after all with app stores most software is going to be downloaded.

There was a time when Adobe would put both Mac and Windows versions on one disk. This DVD was just for Windows - would it be more efficient to have just one SKU with both versions on one disk. There is no Linux version - only Mac and PC.

Occasionally, if a disk has gone to sleep I have been unable to use Acrobat because the computer can't read the license info. I had this annoyance in Acrobat 9 and it doesn't seem to have gone away. Adobe products are the only ones that occasionally have this problem - the usual solution is to quit all Adobe apps, wake up the disks and then reload.

When you go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features (under Windows 7) Adobe Acrobat X Pro the only option is to Uninstall the product. You might want to Reinstall it. I've never really liked the way Adobe does its own installers - actually most vendors only have the Uninstall option - but see TurboTax Deluxe Federal + e-File + State 2010 for an example of a product that offers an Uninstall and Reinstall option.

The Export to Word option is not very good.
Test 1.
I made a PDF of a PowerPoint document and then exported it to Word. It had 62 pages and it repeated words from the title page on two slides, then had the heading for the 2nd slide as the 3rd - then a bunch of horizontal lines. When I scrolled down it actually caused Word to hang.
Test 2.
I then gave it an easier test. I printed an Intuit Quicken Report to PDF using the Adobe virtual PDF Printer. When Adobe Acrobat displays the PDF file after saving it the menu item to Export to Word is not there. So I had to reopen the file created by printing the Quicken report in Acrobat X and then the menu item was there to Export it. I thought at first that it may have opened Adobe Acrobat X Reader, but no the About file at the top clearly said it was Adobe Acrobat X Pro. So the menus must be contextually dependent. The Quicken Report file was a disaster too - columns shifted to the wrong place - not aligned - it should have looked like a table.
Test 3.
So I gave it a third test. This time I printed the web page on Adobe's site that is a Product Support Help document with a list of topics related to Adobe Acrobat Pro. This too was a disaster - the simple list was combined into one continuous paragraph. Most text had moved from where it was. The page had very little artwork - a horizontal line was not reproduced, only the Adobe Logo and a couple of small images for arrow and checkbox.

The ability to send files up to 100MB worked well and is convenient for large documents.

I loved the new layouts for displaying groups of PDF files in a Portfolio - that worked very well.

In Acrobat, finding the editor is always tricky. The editor leaves much to be desired, compared with say MS Word, however it is a clear improvement over that of Acrobat 9.

For example, I wanted to create a form. In most applications there is a New button under the file menu. Not so in Acrobat X. Actually now I see a huge Create Button I was looking for the wrong word (used Microsoft for too long!). Even under Forms, there is no obvious menu item to create a new form. Finally under a menu bar with Forms, I find Create. You can make a new form online, but you may be better scanning a form or importing a file from Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Business (Disc Version). You can edit in LiveCycleDesigner - a bit like Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Although clumsy, it doesn't take too long to make a form. However, MS Outlook hung when I tried to send a form for signature that I had made in Acrobat - I had to use Adobe's Send Mail system to send it out. I suspect some security settings are preventing the Acrobat PDF form with fields for signature in them from being sent.

Acrobat.com offers you, in the free version, 2GB free storage, 1 online file folder and the ability to convert 5 files online to PDFs.

The contextual menus drive me mad - commands that I thought would be there appear and reappear. Acrobat X takes some learning and because it's incorporating legacy products has that "bolted together" look of many of Adobe's products. Nevertheless, it's robust and works very smoothly and I'd recommend it as a way to make and manage PDF files, online forms and portfolios. Consultants that are used to sending documents by express mail to clients, will benefit from this package that professionally packages information.

So I made a huge OneNote notebook for a customer (I'm a consultant) but I wanted to provide a pdf also. OneNote has a way to make a pdf. It was 321 pages. Now due to the way I jammed all the pages together, the pagination was all wrong in the pdf. I could go back and tweak the OneNote or I could edit the file. I chose the latter. I downloaded Adobe Acrobat X Pro trial. IT SUCKED. It says right up front it has poor editing tools. It's right; hard to move things around, delete text, change text. Just about anything is hard to do. It also has a bug on deleting pages. Version 10 and it has bugs! It also hung and got confused a lot. SO I looked around for other pdf editors. I tried..Infix, Smart Pdf Editor, PDF Studio,lightning pdf 7, Corel PDF Fusion and Nitro Pro 7. Lightning 7 looked pretty good, but it started getting some weird black blotches on the screen. Nice interface too. Maybe it was my computer? But NO Faq or anything on the site to help me out. Anyway, finally I tried Nitro Pro 7. IT WORKS GREAT!!! Seriously, it works great. It's only $120. The web site [...] says that ComputerWorld judged it to be the best thing since sliced bread... "Nitro Pro recently claimed the top spot in Computerworld's review of PDF editors, beating out Acrobat X (and the rest) with its powerful editing features and superior ease of use.". I gotta find that review.

I do not have experience with Acrobat 9, so I cannot comment on whether or not Acrobat X is a step up or down from that. What I can say, is Acrobat X Pro was simple to install - the entire process took about 10 minutes - and it provides an all-inclusive solution for professional PDF needs.

The learning curve was definitely there. I had to spend about a half an hour watching Adobe's how to videos before I was comfortable working my way through the menus and features. After devoting the time familiarizing myself with it, I had very few issues working and interacting with the editing features.

That said, if you're not going to need all of the features provided with Acrobat X Pro, there are numerous cheaper (sometimes free) solutions for PDF needs. Educate yourself on all of the options before deciding on this investment. If you decide this is what you need, and you are willing to devote the time needed to familiarize yourself with how to use it, I believe you will be satisfied with its performance.

Please note, I received this product free of charge for reviewing purposes, through the Amazon Vine program. I did not let this fact influence my review in any way.

Acrobat X Pro is a great tool for people who spend a lot of time working with PDFs. For me, the main uses for it are being able to get into the 'guts' of pre-existing PDFs and edit text, images, graphics, etc., and being able to export PDFs that have images, graphics, and tables into other formats (Word, Excel, Photoshop, etc.) so I can continue to edit them there. To that end, it works very well. The ability to export PDFs to some of those other formats is great, and even though it's not 'perfect'- as with nearly every tool that converts one file-type to another, there are formatting issues sometimes-, it's very serviceable and the formatting issues are always fixable.

Being able to move among Acrobat, Photoshop, and Illustrator is a huge benefit. I've created several projects that were image-intensive but needed to be in PDF format, and since Acrobat isn't a dedicated image editor or vector editor, the compatibility of created files across Adobe applications is a functional dream and a big time-saver.

Having said all that, prospective buyers need to know that nearly all the functionality of Acrobat X Pro can be achieved through other free and lower-cost means. Everything from just reading PDFs to formatting, editing, PDF creation, and even cross-format exporting can be done with free and low-cost alternatives. I'll not go into those options too extensively since this isn't a review of them (Foxit Reader is an excellent PDF reader- superior to Adobe's own free Acrobat Reader- and CutePDF is a great PDF printer, to name two), but buyers need to be aware that these options exist.

The main advantage of Acrobat X Pro over those other options is simply that all that functionality is available in a self-contained package that 'does it all'; all the tools are centralized, Adobe's customer support is generally very good and helpful (at least in my experience), and for those interested in cross-compatibility with other Adobe products, using Adobe's own product obviously lends itself to maximum compatibility and simplicity. On top of that, users who are familiar with Adobe's products in general or past iterations of Acrobat in particular will feel at-home with the intuitive interface.

This is recommended, then, for those who are concerned with ease-of-use, self-containment, and publisher support over price.