What is Adobe Acrobat 5?

 

We may have a hard time understanding their choice of computer platform, but we still need to share files with our PC cohorts. Exchanging plain-text or image files is a simple affair, but swapping documents that use both can lead to a lot of wasted time as you try to open unreadable files. Luckily there’s Adobe Acrobat. Acrobaf s Portable Document Format (PDF) is already the unchallenged standard for cross-platform document sharing, and this latest version is a significant upgrade that reinforces that dominant position.

Acrobat’s primary function is to transform documents created in other applications into the PDF file format. PDF files are viewable with a free application. Acrobat Reader, available for most operating systems, including Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and variations of Unix. Acrobat works by acting as a virtual printer. To convert a document to PDF, select Acrobat in the Chooser, print your document from its originatingapplication, and save the resulting PDF file to your hard drive. Acrobat retains your original document’s appearance, with graphics and formatting intact.

As expected from a $249 program. Acrobat does more than just convert documents to PDF. With its extensive editing and annotating features, Acrobat allows users of different platforms to collaborate on documents. It's also a versatile publishing platform, offering extensive printing and color-management controls for four-color printing and the ability to create forms that users can fill out using Acrobat Reader.

So what's new in version 5.0? A revamped user interface, for one. Modeled after Microsoft Office apps, Acrobat 5.0 sports familiar-looking toolbars and tear- away tool palettes, but the new look just made us shrug. The previous interface had some confusing tools and labels, which remain mostly unchanged in 5.0.

Version 5.0 also supports Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning, which lets multiple collaborators use their Web browsers to annotate a single PDF document located on a LAN or Web server. After some initial setup problems, this feature worked well for us, and it offers some advantages for workgroups with widely dispersed members. However, it is not supported for Mac OS 8.6 users. Acrobat 5.0 also supports digital signatures with 128-bit encryption and features automated extraction of images and graphics from PDF documents, customizable toolbars, XML support for PDF form data, and a nice Compare command that graphically highlights the differences between two versions of a document.

This new release also enhances some existing features, including printing and color-management controls, form-generation tools, and security settings. Advanced users, especially those who print PDF documents on four-color presses or do a lot of document collaboration, will appreciate these tweaks.

Acrobat was already a well-designed program, and version 5.0 offers some genuine improvements. If you create documents that must be viewable on almost any computer, you need this program.

Hickey, Eamon. (July 2001). Acrobat 5.0. MacAddict. (pg. 38).

Serial number: KMW500E7113765-795

P.S.1 You are recommended to update the app to 5.0.5 before updating it to 5.0.10

P.S.2 If you need a PDF printer, you may need http://www.jwwalker.com/pages/pdf.html

Download Adobe Acrobat 5 for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 8.6 up to Mac OS 10.4

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver