Customer Reviews

Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional Upgrade [Old Version]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For just about every user, it's more than likely that one would be better off saving the money and not getting this upgrade. Functionality hasn't changed, many other glitches that have existed since 2.0 still abound. Save your dough and wait until they drastically upgrade.

What the importance of this particular upgrade amounts to is the few operations that have been made easier (working in conjuction with AutoCAD, etc.). But the all around use of the program is essentially unchanged. Do your research first.

The caveats are, have a FAST computer and wait for the major patch that is probably coming soon. Its dreadfully slow on any MAC below 600mhz. Large document manipulation is laughable. The interface redesign is great but the looks dont cover up the fact that it feels sluggish and bloated......what is it with the "save as" function being so slow.....and I mean SLOW!!!!!

I have some issues with Adobe's/Acrobat's all over the map development. One minute its for maintaining a documents integrity, the next its for collaborative review of documents. Then its for printing professionals to deliver burnable files to printing agencies....

Great product but all over the map as far as how Adobe is developing it.

I'm currently involved in a project using Acrobat in creating legal documents for an impending trial. We use Acrobat HEAVILY to say the least. And I can honestly say that Adobe needs to work on a few upgrade items to make it suitable for business needs. A much more lucrative market in the long run.

1. Extractable Bookmarks: It is such a pain to extract pages and have to recreate the bookmark structure manually all over again. When you've done this for the millionth time you are pretty much convinced its a function inexcusably lacking. BTW-this upgrade does not provide the feature.

2. Printing of a documents page structure in relation to bookmarks: It would be wonderful to print or view the bookmarks in relation to the pages they map to. This would verify a logical chronology within the document vs having to literally click each bookmark to verify its link. They provide mapping views in programs like Dreamweaver or <gasp> Frontpage. This seem like such a no brainer to include in Acrobat.

3. Extraction of groups of documents that are not synchronus. Currently you can only extract documents that are in order. This makes for very slow going when it comes to compilling and arranging "unique" new documents.

The paperless office is a long way away and Adobe made a wonderful step in that direction when it created Acrobat. However their development path has become a comedy of immediate gratification errors. They have the awesome interface, have made it astonishly simple to use....but why has no one from Adobe made an effort to approach industries, businesses, et al to research what their document needs are.? I somehow bet that Adobe is paying some idiot analyst research firm to confirm their (presupposed) notion that Acrobat is best used in the realm of the print professional vs the business environment at large. Short sighted needs being met vs mirroring the inspired leap that made Acrobat truly unique in the first place.

If you are going to bloat out Acrobat why not make it a word processing, layout program suited for business. Maintaining document integrity yet creating a defacto standard when it comes to a truely editable, searchable, PAPERLESS office.

Adobe gets some of the picture but they have fallen sadly short over the past few years. Once visionaries they are now satisfied attending Sybold and thinking that everyone out here is a graphics geek professional. No overt attempts at creating a product that rivals the unique and forward thinking paradim shift that Acrobat could have been developed into. They are now a corporate mill, set on satisfying stock holders and content to reap rewards in roulette wheel fashion. Meanwhile ignoring what compelled them to be unique and revolutionary in the first place.

Final Analysis? Better interface, searchable Bookmarks. But wait before you buy, 6.5 may be the version to hold out for. If you currently own 5.0 it'll be fine til the fixes for 6.0 start cropping up!

I would have given this product a higher rating, but I encountered a problem that I didn't have when I used version 5.05. The problem has to do with the way the document looks after it has been scanned. I've tried improving the resolution of scan but results were the same. The document comes out blurry so if you're saving it to disk for future viewing, you might have problems viewing it on a monitor. The adobe support people said to install the latest hardware drivers but that didn't correct the problem. Fortunately, the installation went without a hitch. I was able to convert webpages directly to pdf without any problems. Adobe has redesigned the appearance and feel of it windows, and it looks and feels much better. The new version installs its icons on the various tools bars (word, ie, excel just to mention a few apps). This new version also allows you to save you newly generated pdf documents in older pdf formats so they can be viewed by older versions of acrobat. I know a lot of people have had problems installing & running this program with W2K, W98 and WMe. If you purchase the upgrade version, you'll have to remove the previous version. This is not one of those traditional upgrades where the new software loads on top of the old one, and the intructions don't really tell you anything. I had to call tech support just to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong. The tech support was ok, but I would keep in mind that they charge an arm and a leg for support after the warranty is up. I have since gone back to version 5.05 because of the low quality document scans I got with 6.0. I'm plan to install it on my laptop and see if I encounter the same problem. I would strongly encourage people to visit the Adobe Acrobat Forum @ //www.adobe.com// before purchasing this software. I was amazed by the large number of problems that have been posted on adobe's forum for this new version. New software tends to come out with bugs. My hope is that adobe will come out with some maintenance releases like it did for version 5.05. I wouldn't get rid of the previous version until you actually feel comfortable with the new version.

This is the newest version of Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat installs as a printer under Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Creating a PDF file is as simple as selecting the 'print' command from any application and choosing the Adobe Acrobat printer. Also, Adobe Acrobat install shortcuts inside MS Office programs (word, excel, etc) through which you can convert any file to PDF format. There is also a spelling check tool in addition to PDF optimize tool which minimize the file size while marinating the PDF quality, also you can add different background to your PDF file in a way that is much easier than Word. There are a lot of other features you can find without read the user manual. There is other programs that can create PDF files, like Win2PDF, EasyOffice with PDF Filter 6.0, SolidConverter PDF 2.0 PDF runs as a standalone utility, with Adobe Acrobat or Reader not required, and pdf ghostscript tool. Some of them are free, while other cost about $25-$50. The only problem some of them can only convert a certain file type while other doesn't give you the ability to edit already created PDF files (extract pictures or text). Also, if you use an equation editor like Mathtype, it's better to use Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat 6.0 is slightly faster than Adobe Acrobat 5, with some extra features. If you have Adobe Acrobat 5 you don't have to upgarde.

If you create PDF's for the web, then this is a must have for three reasons; first reason is due to compression. A 3.16 MB Word file created a 6.27 MB PDF in Acrobat 5. With Acrobat 6, that unaltered file is now a 3.06 MB Acrobat file. Second, that same file needed almost all links recreated in Acrobat 5 since they did not convert properly from Word. In Acrobat 6, all links were successfully converted, which saved me about 30 minutes. Third, you can create a PDF from within Internet Explorer.

This software Create PDF files from almost any word processing or html programs with very effective compression ratio almost 1/10 the original size. You can also convert post script ps files into PDF files. You can extract pictures, text from any already created PDF files as well.
With this version you can also create an interactive electronic forms similar to the tax forms. This upgrade version will only install on your system if you have Adobe acrobat 4 or 5 installed. This version only works with windows XP, 2000, NT with latest service package.
The difference between the acrobat 6.0 and the acrobat 5.0 is not so big. The new version is optimized for intel P4 systems and it's slightly faster than the old version.

Be very, very careful before you buy this product. Kept getting error 1303 about 3/4 of the way through when I try to install Acrobat 6 Pro on Windows XP Home Edition. Acrobat indicates in the error pane, that I do not have sufficient privileges for the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users area, and that I need to be an administrator. I am an administrator. I shut down all stuff that might be running in the background that might be accessing the above directory. The only thing I left running was the "Windows System installer" from the MSCONFIG program that comes with XP. Still no help. I even tried to install to another hard drive "H:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6, and the error comes up again saying the same thing and says it was trying to install on drive "C". What the heck's going on here? No help from Adobe or Microsoft!!! I'm going back to Version 4.

As a Realtor who is pushing the envelope, attempting to move to digital file keeping, digital recording, digital faxing, and digital signing, the concept of Adobe Acrobat is extremely helpful. I've been using Adobe Acrobat since version 4. Version 5 was a very useful upgrade, worth every cent. Version 6 was a grand waste of money and has turned into a waste of time. Files take longer to save in Adobe Acrobat 6, but they do end up being smaller, so maybe there is a more advanced compression algorithm at work. Nevertheless, files do take about twice as long to save in the new version.

Furthermore, at least for my line of work, I see no useful additions to the software. The interface looks a little fancier, and a little more advanced with more curved lines and a splash screen with transparency...(everybody together now, "Oooooh, aaaaaaah"). But, at least for my line of work, I have not seen any productivity or security upgrades which make the investment worthwhile. Save yourself the money and stay with version 5.0.

Unfortunately, it seems that the other reviewers' negative comments are right on the money.

Yes, I've suspected as much. Adobe have been the main drivers for microsoft and intel in their battle for "hearts and minds" to get you to upgrade old equipment. The argument goes "Well I kn ow its slow but I just need a faster processor, extra memory etc" to run photoshop, or adobe product x.

I have previously been running acrobat 5.0 on a 800MhZ pentium in windows 2000 with 256 MBytes memory and it was working pretty fast. So now that I have the latest centrino with 1GB memory and XP and Acrobat 6.0 professional is it unreasonable to expect things to work a little quicker!??

Well I have just converted a 55 page *text* document (note - no images) and it has taken 10 minutes on this latest hardware. Thats not impressive! As soon as I start the conversion *everthing* else stops (I have been unable to achieve this level of hammering on my machine with 3D rendering, scientific numerical equation solvers you name it). It eats the whole ram to do the conversion so *nothing* else can work while it does its business. The processor is not flatout but somehow is unable to do much else for 10 mins while we wait for Mr. adobe and his latest products.

What are abode playing at? How can you release upgrades that work that much slower than the previous version?!! I get it, now I know that adobe are conspiring with wintel to make us buy faster computers, it just cannot be this slow.

Dont waste your money.

There are other (low budget) products that can make PDF files, but nothing beats the real thing. I've now moved on to version 8, but any version is good.