Upgrading to Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional: What’s in it for legal professionals?

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional promises a number of new and useful tools for legal professionals. According to Adobe’s New Features for Legal Professionals page, features that will be beneficial to lawyers include:

•           Permanently remove sensitive information (redaction)

•           Metadata removal

•           Built-in support for Bates numbering

•           Easier, more accurate export to Microsoft Word and other formats

•           Enable forms saving in Adobe Reader 8 and auto-recognize form fields

•           New, intuitive user interface

•           Combine multiple files into one PDF package

•           True batch printing

•           Support for PDF/A archiving standard

•           Archive Lotus Notes e-mail

•           Manage shared reviews

•           Faster Adobe PDF creation and rendering

•           Improved OCR engine

The built-in support for Bates numbering is worth the $159 upgrade price from previous versions just by itself in my own opinion.  From my own use of Acrobat 8 Professional, this new version has a much “cleaner” user interface and on program launch, opens much faster.

A word of caution before you upgrade: do not upgrade to Adobe Acrobat Version 8 Standard: you will not be able to create me numbers, permanently remove sensitive information, create billable forms for use in Adobe Reader 8 and the other items shown in the list of legal features at the top of this post.  For a comparison of the various versions of Adobe Acrobat click here.

For those of you considering this upgrade, or for those of you who've already made this move, the latest Adobe Acrobat Legal Resource Guide contains the links posted below.

These resources include a white paper on Acrobat 8 for lawyers authored by attorney David Masters (author of the ABA Book The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat); links to online web seminars and recordings demonstrating the new features (including those specifically for lawyers), and much more.

Free Downloads & Trials

Acrobat 8.0 Professional Trial Download –

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/tryout.html

Acrobat 7.09 Update for Faster PCL Printing – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3566

Adobe Document Center Free Trial – http://www.adobe.com/products/onlineservices/documentcenter/features.html

Acrobat Connect Free Trial –

http://www.adobe.com/go/freewebconferencing_2006

Acrobat 8.0 Customization Wizard Download – http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3564

Adobe Reader 8.0 Download –

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

Adobe Reader 8.0 Enterprise Edition (for Enterprise Deployment) – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrdistribute.html

Training

Acrobat 8.0 Teaching & Learning Resources – http://www.adobe.com/education/instruction/teach/acrobat.html?tab:acrostdpro=1

Acrobat 8.0 Experience Flash Demo –

http://www.adobe.com/go/acrobat8exp_uk

Acrobat 8.0: What's New for Legal Professionals OnDemand eSeminar (recording) – http://seminars.adobe.acrobat.com/p17441268/

Acrobat 8.0 For Legal Podcast (20 minutes) –

http://www.lawbiz.com/podcasts/rick_borstein_final.mp3

Acrobat 8.0 for IT (Deployment and Adobe License Manager) – https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a227210/p50379167/

Acrobat Online Legal Events –

http://www.smallurl.info/?r=vh

Adobe Events in Your Area –

http://www.adobe.com/events

Resources

Acrobat 8.0 Enterprise Deployment; Step-By-Step Instructions – http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2007/01/enterprise_depl.html

Adobe Solutions for Legal Professionals Website –

www.adobe.com/go/legal

Acrobat 8.0 Pro – New Features for Legal Professionals – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/solutions/legal/productinfo/features/index.html

Acrobat 8.0 for Legal Professionals Whitepaper – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/solutions/pdfs/Acrobat8_foLegalPros.pdf

Acrobat 8.0 Product Family Detailed Comparison Matrix – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/acrobat8_matrix.pdf

Acrobat 8.0 Professional Feature Overview – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/pdfs/acrobatpro_overview.pdf

Acrobat 8.0 Professional Datasheet – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/pdfs/acrobatpro_datasheet.pdf

Acrobat Connect Resources –

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnect/

Support

Acrobat for Legal Professionals Blog –

http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/

New Adobe Annual Support Plans –

http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/

Free Acrobat Support, Tutorials and Forums –

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

Acrobat Developer Center –

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/

Adobe Support Knowledgebase –

http://www.adobe.com/support/

Licensing

Adobe License Manager –  

http://www.adobe.com/elicensing/licensemanagement/alm/

Volume Software Licensing Programs –

 

 

 

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