1. PDF Reaches for the Cloud

Cloud computing is once again in the forefront of technology early in 2009. For those who don't know what it is, according to Galen Gruman and Eric Knorr at InfoWorld,

“Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.�

The official Wikipedia page for Cloud computing states that it is     

“. . . a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are  provided as a service over the Internet.â€?

Essentially what it comes down to is a host of services that are spread across multiple servers but look from the outside to be one larger service. You might think of companies like Amazon and Google. Neither of them is using just one server to process all the transactions and information that the company handles on any given time scale. But what does this have to do with Adobe's PDF?

Well, Adobe recently announced the Adobe LiveCycle ES Developer Express software. It's a full version of the LiveCycle ES software but it's hosted in the Amazon Web Services cloud. This software and setup gives developers an instant testing and development environment without the need to invest time, energy and money into building their own.

The LiveCycle software uses Adobe's PDF format as well as Reader and Flash “to help users create, review, update, manage, store and distribute documents all while engaging in dynamic business processes. (eWeek.com)�

Essentially the software has now become a service and is provided via the Internet. Less investment of resources in today's less-than-fantastic economic climate is a huge bonus, which puts this trend at the top of the list.

2. The PDF Format Expands

As you may have noticed, more and more capabilities are being put into the PDF as each new version of Adobe Acrobat is released. The big news in 2008 was Adobe Acrobat 9 which implemented a host of new features. One of the most useful of these new features is online collaboration.

Some of the new abilities of online PDF collaboration include:

*Bringing together all the necessary content for a project in a single organized file

*Using familiar commenting tools to share feedback and respond to one another's comments 

*Including virtually anyone in your shared reviews using free Adobe Reader software (version 8 or later) 

*Quickly resolving issues by synchronizing screen views as you walk someone through your document in real time 

*Minimizing confusion between revisions by highlighting the differences in text and images when comparing PDF files

You can bet that at one point or another,  you'll find yourself involved  with online  document collaboration if you're constantly immersed in report or presentation creation using the PDF format.

3. On the PDF Horizon

Speaking of expansion, Adobe Labs is continually creating new Adobe AIR applications. AIR is a runtime environment that lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.

In English it's a way to use Flash on the desktop without a browser. This means you can connect to online services via desktop-based applications and it already interfaces with AJAX, Adobe FLEX and Flash and handles the PDF format quite well.

They're patching into LiveCycle ES for PDF creation in particular via the Hub application. It allows you to use LiveCycle ES to create, export and even combine PDFs without ever leaving the desktop or opening a browser.

4. Rich Media PDF

Adobe Acrobat 9 also gave users some new tools in regards to media embedded in a PDF. It allows you to embed files (audio, images, video, etc...) and then play them right in the PDF thanks to a built-in Flash runtime.

This means that the PDF is no longer a static, electronic version of paper but a truly interactive, multimedia format capable to producing sound, video and 3D technical drawings for example. In other words, the  PDF could conceivably take over almost every facet of business communication due to its maximum flexibility.

With Flash right in the PDF now, the sky is the limit on what can be done to make the documents useful and interesting—which leads directly into the next PDF trend for 2009.

5. PDF in Social Media

Being a useful and interesting communication tool is one of the main backbones of social media today.  If you use the Internet everyday, then you know  that social media is one of the most economic and most efficient ways of communicating with your audience, friends and networks. The PDF niche is slowly breaking into that arena.

Over at PlanetPDF,  contributing editor, Netti Hartsock wrote an article entitled “What do PDF and social Media Have in Common?â€? . In it, she makes  a very good point:

 It's no longer useful to ask, "Why would we need to know about social media?" Instead, one must ask, "How should we be using social media?"

It address the same issues and questions that PDF developers have asked and answered.  Now the question is how can we use social media with the PDF format and make it an even bigger communication springboard than it already is?  

So far, it comes in the form of PDF company blogs, micro-blogging threads about trying PDF software, PDF news stories being voted up on sites like Digg and users sharing YouTube video tutorials on creating PDFs.  

Even if the PDF format isn’t at the center of attention,  some, like Mark Seltzer, founder of WhitePaperSource, are actually using the PDF to help average users on how to use social media as a marketing tool. With PDF users getting more into the social media scene, the PDF's presence tin social media circles will definitely grow.

But will there  one day be a PDF world where almost no other form of communication is required? Doubtful, but the  PDF format is certainly paving the way to a brighter, more vivid and lively streamlined way to communicate anytime, anywhere.