by Cyndie Shaffstall

By some accounts, today's output providers are getting up to 80% of customers' projects as PDFs. In-house publishers are often 100% PDF workflows. With all these PDFs floating around in cyberspace and ethernet, what's in your arsenal to ensure that what you see is what you output? pdftoolbox 4 is more than just a bigger hammer.

pdfToolbox 4, Mac and Windows, US$799, is a Plug-in for Adobe® Acrobat® 8 and 9, and while this upgrade is not to be missed, you can still get pdfToolbox for earlier versions of Acrobat.

Lots of people in this industry are familiar with Acrobat Plug-ins such as Quite Imposing for impositioning and Enfocus Pitstop for preflighting, but pdfToolbox 4 provides impositioning (printer's spreads) AND preflighting AND a whole lot more — for a whole lot less.

PDFToolbox	PDFToolbox

I heard a quote the other day that really resonated with me, "Plug-ins and XTensions are not about saving money or saving time — they are about making money." I think this is right. Virtually every application in which you invest is going to save you time and money by automating a part of your workflow, but how many applications actually enable you to make money? To offer a service you haven't before — such as preflighting or impositioning — something that produces billable hours? That's what extensible technology does and that it does it for less is simply icing on the cake.

Getting up and running

Installation could not be easier. The auto-running installer that does all the work, including locating your copy of Acrobat, and dropping the manual on your desktop. Once installed, you'll have a new menu option in Acrobat's Plug-ins menu.

The switchboard

The pdfToolbox 4 has a very simple and clear user interface that will make it easy for you to become productive immediately. Launch this by choosing pdfToolbox 4.... from the Plug-ins menu.

In the main view, known as the switchboard, actions are grouped by functionality. You display the actions within a group by clicking the icon.

When you select an action group, the display pane of the switchboard will change to provide you with the actions within that action group.

At the top of the updated display you will also find a short description to help you understand the function of the action.

A great deal of thought has gone into not just the intuitive interface, but also into the number of clicks that it takes you to actually invoke an action. This is one of the most streamlined interfaces you will ever come across. I am confident that you will become productive immediately.

Figure 1 pdfToolbox 4's switchboard is the control panel for action groups and actions within those groups. Click an action group's icon to see the actions embedded there.

While the switchboard is extremely handy and provides you with quick access to actions, you can completely customize it to your specific needs; thereby making it even more efficient and crucial to your workflow.

Along the top of the palette, you will find the previous and next buttons to quickly return to the last view or to go to the next view, the home button to return to the primary view, and the magnifying glass icon for finding a particular action in the list view.

On one hand, adding so many options is a great benefit, but without this easy-to-use find utility, you could waste valuable production time digging around through action groups. Although, I have to say that you'll adapt to the organization right away.

To find an action, type in the find field. As you type, every action that matches will be displayed. Continue typing until what you have typed is unique enough to display the desired action.

Figure 2 The list view provides a scrolling text view of the actions. The icons to the left of the action indicate the action group under which it is found. The color coding, large icons, and user friendly interface make this product seem even simpler than it is.

Next »

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5