eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Adobe Acrobat 8 Beta 1

eWEEK Labs installed Adobe Acrobat 8 Beta 1 on a Hewlett-Packard xw9300 workstation running Windows XP Professional. The software requires 256MB of RAM and at least a Pentium III or equivalent processor. The app also requires Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4

The Getting Started window provides users with a central starting point for all the things they can do in Acrobat 8. The window can be used to get more information about Adobe features; launch tasks, such as creating a new PDF; or start an online meeti

Adobe Acrobat Connect and Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional are new additions to the Adobe Acrobat line of products. Sold separately, the two products allow users to launch and partake in online meetings. Neither app was available at the time of testi

In Acrobat 8 Professional, users can take various proprietary-format documents and make them into PDF files. The files can either be merged together into one document or, in a new twist, assembled into a PDF package that groups the files together bu

PDF packages can preserve the individual digital signatures and security settings of each individual document.

Acrobat 8 Professional gives users a live preview of how elements such as headers, footers and watermarks will appear as changes are made.

Acrobat 8 Professional can scan a document and automatically create fields where the application guesses they should be.

Once a PDF is created, it can be shared with reviewers via e-mail for comment. Users of the free Adobe Reader 7.0 or later can be given the ability to comment on PDFs by Adobe Acrobat 8 PDF creators. Users with Acrobat 6.0 or later are automatically el