Just by looking at the recent PDF technology releases, this summer is shaping up to be a good one for PDF interaction and usability. Now while you still can’t curl up comfortably with a computer screen in bed, you can now get a bit more comfortable using those PDFs onscreen.
Just last week, the complete
Adobe Digital Editions v.1.0 was released, pushing the electronic book experience further than its beta predecessor. Now if you need to write notes in the margins, dog ear a few pages or highlight passages as you would in a paperback, you can do so with an e-book as well. With Adobe Digital Editions v.1.0, you can add your own footnotes by adding a bookmark that also allows you to add a little note to the page you’re viewing. As well, there are options to adjust page views and to highlight specific text. This newest version can be opened from within the Adobe Reader, and comes with support for PDF, Flash SWF, and XHTML-based e-books, which ultimately means better text reflow and, by extension, a better viewing experience.
And while on the PDF-user-experience note, Adobe is further enhancing its forms generating software, LiveCycle ES. This ultimately means better user interaction with e-forms and businesses online. In collaboration with
StreamServe, Adobe is integrating an updated version of their software, Persuasion, with LiveCycle ES software. The result:
LiveCycle Production Print ES and
LiveCycle Output ES.
When integrated with LiveCycle ES, LiveCycle Production Print ES enables organizations to automate the production, assembly and delivery of high volumes of “production-ready� formats, such as the PDF, that are used for data processing. LiveCycle Output ES, on the other hand works on a smaller scale for a smaller number of users. It can assemble document packages from a combination of existing files and new PDF documents.
Both are limited releases right now, but if you’re keeping an eye out for them, you can find Production Print ES available in the fall of this year and Output ES next month. More information is posted up on the Adobe website.
PDF usability—especially for onscreen reading and e-form data input, has always been one of the format’s weakest points. But with the direction in which these new releases are going, it won’t be for too long. So what does this add up to? A reason for which you might want to try and get a little bit closer to the PDF this summer.
Stay tuned!
