PDF Hacks by Sid Steward - Page 2

If you create PDFs, you'll want to check out Hack 24, which explains the difference between smart, dumb, and clever documents. (This isn't some red state/blue state thing — a document is smart if it uses tags to help define its content.). Hack 29 talks about how you can create either print-on-demand or e-books using Acrobat, if you want to get into the self-publishing business. And Hack 41 is a good explanation of the compatibility and incompatibility problems you get from moving between different versions of Acrobat. As a webmaster, I'm always looking for ways to save bandwidth, and Hack 60 shows how you can optimize, or refry, Acrobat files to make them smaller.

The final section of the book covers some fairly advanced topics, things that really do deserve to be called hacks. These include integrating tools like Perl, PHP or Java with Acrobat, controlling Acrobat with scripts, or using the Acrobat Software Development Kit.

On the other hand, there were a number of sections that made me think of the "If you are a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" saying. While you can create HTML front ends for PDFs, or use PDF forms for data collection, there's probably other solutions that may work better — such as HTML front ends for HTML pages, or HTML forms. But the section at least shows the breadth of Acrobat's usefulness.

Even if you are someone, like me, that thinks Acrobat PDFs have a clearly defined but limited role, you will still find lots of tips in this book. If you are looking to maximize your investment in Adobe Acrobat, you'll find even more.

Article Author: Bruce Kratofil

Bruce Kratofil blogs on bugs and other things that can go wrong with your computer at The BugBlog, and writes about computers and economics at BJK Research

Visit Bruce Kratofil's author page — Bruce Kratofil's Blog