Adobe Systems Inc. on Monday launched new server software that allows enterprises to centralize the creation of PDF documents.
Adobe Acrobat Elements Server, which will be available at the end of the month, expands Adobes Acrobat PDF creation software beyond the desktop. It was created in response to enterprises seeking to expand the use of PDFs and standardize on the format but that do not want to add the burden of managing desktop software, Adobe officials said.
“Its a fairly ubiquitous format, and the benefit of that is that PDF allows you to standardize on a secure and reliable way to share files inside and outside the firewall,” said Marty Krasilczuk, product marketing manager in Adobes intelligent document business unit.
End users can access the PDF conversion capabilities of Elements Server through both e-mail and the Web. Using e-mail, a user can attach a document such as a Word document and send it to an alias for the server. Elements Server then will convert the file to a PDF and e-mail it back to the user, Krasilczuk said.
Companies can also incorporate PDF creation on a company intranet, so users can submit a file for conversion and have a PDF sent to them by e-mail.
Another option is for an enterprise to use the “watch folders” feature within Elements Server. Through the feature, users can drop and drag files into an “in” folder for conversion and then retrieve a PDF from an “out” folder.
Elements Server is Web services enabled so developers can incorporate it into an enterprises workflow and ISVs can embed the conversion capabilities into applications like content management software, Adobe officials said.
Elements Server supports Adobe PDF conversion from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint; Corel WordPerfect; Adobe Photoshop; and many popular image formats. It runs on Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP Professional and is available through Adobes Open Options licensing programs. It is offered either as a per-user or a per-server license. Pricing begins at $28 per user for a 1,000 user license or at $22,500 per server.
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