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Select,Arrange.: Controlling What Goes Into Your PDF

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 16:58:15 -0400

Whether you think about it or not, most of the web content you save in a PDF is excess material you don’t ever really need. Did you really need those 7 extra paragraphs? The picture of an ugly toad in the corner? The web page ads?

If you ever wanted more precision with Web to PDF converters, Select,Arrange. is just the thing you’re looking for. With the many Web to PDF applications out there, Select,Arrange. might not sound like anything special.

But what catches the eye about this converter is that Select,Arrange. lets you select the fragments of web text or online images you want in your PDF. How?

How To Select and Arrange Your PDF Online

This online application works in conjunction with a Firefox browser extension that once downloaded, will give you the ability to select sections, paragraphs or individual images from any website.

You can then save these fragments with titles and tags in an online Select,Arrange. user account until you’re ready to start "arranging” them together in a book project that results in a printable PDF.

To create your PDF, you need to be logged into your account where you can then drag and drop and put your collected image and text fragments in order using the designated “Drag Your Fragments Here” box. You can then use the Select,Arrange. layout templates to customize the content’s appearance.

You can start surfing the web and creating your custom PDF online by signing up for an online account and downloading the extension.

A.nnotate Your PDFs Online For Free

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:09:03 -0400

The digital trend these days is about doing everything—even the littlest things, online. You want to do everything you do on the desktop on the Internet, charge-free, plug-in-free and software-free.

If you’re one of the many who are looking to expand your PDF work online, you might want to check out A.nnotate.

A.nnotate is a handy online service that lets you annotate your PDF files. The service is perfect if you review PDFs on a regular basis, need a backup solution for desktop PDF software or need constant access to annotation functionality.

Because the service is focused on annotating and adding notes, A.nnotate gives you power features to customize how you work with the notes you attach to your PDF. You can add tags to your notes, adjust display options, highlight text, colour categorize, and search your notes by index in either a single PDF or across all documents in your account.

Moreover, A.nnotate doubles as a collaborative tool. Your documents and the notes created for them can be shared with others. And to keep track of group reviews, PDF notes are signed, dated and, for workflow purposes, are attached with a history of changes made to a tag.

To start annotating your documents, you’ll need to create an account. A.nnotate has a free version available and a monthly subscription service if you need more document space. After that you can start uploading your PDFs for fast, on the fly reviewing.

If you want to add more online tools to your PDF toolbox, check out the site for more details.

Create Scanned PDFs On The Go With ScanR

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:34:11 -0400

Reading PDFs on your mobile device is one thing. But being able to create them is another. If you’ve got a cell phone or PDA that has a built in digital camera, then you’ve got the essential tools needed for creating a PDF file on the go.

What Is scanR?

With the online service of US based company, scanR, you can create scanned PDFs from photos of whiteboards, business cards and paper documents taken with your cell phone camera or a digital camera.

So instead of manually recording information, copying out complex whiteboard diagrams or relying on scanning devices and desktop software, you can simply take a picture of it.

Before and after shots of a document conversion

(Images from scanr.com)

After you take the picture, all you have to do is send in your digital image to scanR via the scanR Mobile application, email, or MMS (multi media messaging), and you’ll be sent an email containing your scanned PDF file.

If you're interested, the scanR service provides support for scanning letter and A4 sized documents, colour PDF creation, 15 photos per message processing, auto-tagging and more PDF handling options (eg. online sharing) through the scanR mobile website. You can even have your documents faxed to both national and international numbers.

Getting Mobile PDF Creation On Your Phone

In order to start creating your scanned PDFs on the go, you can download the scanR mobile application onto your phone. Or you can start by signing up for an account. A simple trial plan is available in addition to the scanR Pro plan that offers monthly and annual subscription options.

For a listing of supported platforms and devices, you can check out the scanR site and blog for more downloading and application details.

If you want to get more productivity, convenience and functionality out of your mobile device, a mobile PDF creation app is definitely one handy tool to have.

Acrobat.com Reviews You Can Use

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:16:14 -0400

Everyone is looking for software alternatives these days. It’s a given fact with postings in the blogosphere like ”10 Alternatives to (enter software here)”. Well, Adobe has been busy this month with new releases and one of them is Acrobat.com, a website that may be the alternative you’re looking for.

Acrobat.com is a bundle of online services of Adobe software tools you use every day- file sharing and storage, PDF converter, online word processor and even web conferencing. So how does Acrobat.com online stack up against Adobe
desktop software?

If you haven’t gotten around to checking it out or committing to it with an account, here are some links on resources, user reviews and commentaries to see what users are saying about this major online alternative and what it’s all about.

*TechCrunch gives you a brief rundown of Acrobat.com.

*See what other blogs on Technorati had to say about the news.

*A few user weaknesses you should know about Acrobat.com that ars technica made note of.

*If you need a bit of orientation on what the major components of Acrobat.com do, PC Advisor looks at each of them in turn: Buzzword, ConnectNow, Adobe Share and access to online PDF creator.

*Check out the Acrobat.com blog written by the Acrobat.com designers themselves. See what they have in mind for the site.

*Don Fluckinger, writing for PDFZone, takes an interesting look at the implications of Acrobat.com as Adobe’s competition against. . .itself?

*And no online service is complete without an Acrobat.com forum to connect with other users. The discussions and questions have already started.

Whether you look at Acrobat.com as a godsend, a competition killer, or a reason to change the way you work, you have to admit you can’t get any better alternative to Adobe desktop software than Adobe software online.

Speeding Up Adobe with Adobe Reader SpeedUp

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:41:52 -0400

If asked to name your number one pet peeve about Adobe Reader or Acrobat, chances are you’d single out the large download size and slow start up speed for both.

Acrobat with all its advanced features is crammed into 320 MB. The Adobe Reader size itself is currently at 22.4 MB from the Adobe download page (and that’s without the Adobe Media Player addition of 12.3 MB). These sizes can mean the difference between a quick couple of seconds or a couple of seconds to get a cup of coffee.

For those of you who are looking to speed up the launch time of your Adobe Acrobat and Reader applications, there’s a handy utility you might want to take a look at—Adobe Reader SpeedUp.

This utility is designed to help speed up your Adobe PDF software by disabling the plugins that are irrelevant, useless or otherwise unneeded. Basically, the less you have to download, the faster your PDF applications work.

Here’s a quick look at what to expect.

When you download the utility, it’ll come in zip file format. So, you’ll need to extract the files into a new individual folder and execute the Reader SpeedUp.exe file, which should start the set up process.

When it begins, the Welcome dialogue box that appears will give you the option of a quick briefer with an included Readme txt file. If you want, you can skip it and begin customizing the functions of your applications by setting up changes in both the Tweaks and Change Settings options at the bottom of the dialogue box.

In the next few steps, you can then view and select the plugins and the SpeedUp Mode you want to enable. Once that’s done, your applications should be launching faster than a speeding bullet—or something near to it.

The utility supports Adobe Reader v.6.0-8.0 and Acrobat v.3.0-8.0, and will also allow you to switch back to your old configurations if needed.

To check it out or try it out, you can find the download on BootBlock.co.uk.

How To Convert RSS Feeds To PDF

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:01:21 -0500

As computer users, we’ve become overly concerned with turning paper work into digital files that we sometimes forget that there are documents and written content that have never been paper to begin with.

For instance, the RSS feeds you check in with on a daily basis, although treated and read like newspapers, were never meant to be made into newspapers. Or were they?

Whether its Computerworld, TechCrunch, Reuters, or the Investintech blog you subscribe to, as long as it has an RSS feed, FeedJournal can turn it into your own personalized PDF newspaper.

It may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but if you’re simply nostalgic for old school newspaper columns, or just can’t sit down and relax with the morning “laptop” to read your favourite subscriptions, then it’s a site worth checking out. Here’s a quick overview.

There are two versions of FeedJournal to choose from—FeedJournal Reader and FeedJournal Publisher.

After creating a free account with FeedJournal Reader, you can submit the link of any valid RSS, RDF or Atom Feed to your Feed management page. Once the RSS feed is added, you get to select which feeds and which postings you want to publish.

The Investintech Blog With A Newspaper Look!

If you’re looking to create a newspaper of your own content, you can do that as well with a FeedJournal Publisher account (for a monthly subscription). As an author, you can publish your content with each new posting as a separate story, divide PDF articles into sections and even brand your PDF newspaper with your company logo, header and copyright information.

FeedJournal also offers a widget to add to your site, creating a thumbnail view for users that hotlinks to the full PDF file. You can even update your PDF newspaper with your latest postings so users get the most updated content.

Made for hard copy or not, RSS content is just a bit more accessible now. You can check out more details on this at the FeedJournal site.

PDF Publishing The Lulu Way

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:56:19 -0500

Every Wednesday night I go to a writing seminar held by Canadian novelist, film critic and journalist, David Gilmour, who is the Writer in Residence at the University of Toronto this year. The seminar is made up of 16 aspiring writers willing to share and discuss their own pieces of fictional prose with tips and advice from Mr. Gilmour himself at the head of the table.

I mention this because these seminar discussions require that we first email our work to the entire group before we meet, some of which are sent in the PDF file format.

After a session one night, while on the topic of opening PDFs, editors, and publishing (people can actually talk casually about such things!), someone mentioned Lulu.com. So I decided to check it out.

It looks like Lulu has just about all the resources you’d need to publish and distribute your PDF content, whether you create your own PDF yourself or have Lulu do it for you. At Lulu, you can publish anything from DVD movies to photo albums.

Business wise, Lulu is a more heavy duty publishing site than Scribd is. For one thing, they accommodate both corporate and individual publishing. They’ve also got marketing resources that include sales tools and distribution packages that include ISBNs for your publications.

What’s more, when you set up an account with Lulu, you can make use of their print publishing tools and services that include help for formatting, layout, and binding, and even scanning services for converting hard copies into the PDF format.

As a community of user generated and published content, Lulu has a webpage with user groups and forums you can visit. Moreover, you’ll find the Lulu marketplace where you can where you can get your own publications posted up for sale as a download or printed book. You can also buy, share and browse their database of digital ebooks published by other registered Lulu users.

While this site sounds like the site that can get your work noticed, these are just the basics. For more details visit lulu.com.

Free PDF Mags For The Digitally Creative

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 17:29:13 -0500

Looking for something to read? A magazine perhaps? If so, then you might be interested in checking out PDF-mags.com.

Devoted entirely to supporting PDF magazines from all over the world, PDF-mags.com is a web portal with a good resource of links and information to different PDF magazines and the companies that publish them.

But a bit of a warning--their magazine stock isn’t exactly your the run-of-the-mill news stand collection that includes The New Yorker, People, GQ, Rolling Stone, Fortune and Times. On their site, you’ll find PDF magazines from all over the world that focus primarily on art, graphic design, illustration and urban culture.

However, PDF-mags.com’ s categories also range from cars and Linux to poetry and travelling. So finding a PDF magazine to suit your taste buds shouldn’t be too hard. If you look around, you’ll even catch a glimpse of the Adobe Magazine for Creative Professionals.

PDF-mags.com is also a site dedicated to connecting its visitors and its contributers. They post up regular updates, offer RSS subscription feeds, and regularly post submission calls from PDF magazine publishers looking for new and innovative content.

If you're interested in getting your work published, visit the site’s submission page.

‘Til next time!

Publishing PDFs With Scribd

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:10:20 -0500

The great thing about the Internet is that there are so many ways in which you can easily gain your 15 minutes of fame. Whether you post a video to Youtube, create your own website, or sign up for Facebook, you can get yourself out there easily and for free.

The same goes for publishing PDF files. For this, there’s Scribd.

Huh? Scrib-what?

If you haven’t heard about it, here’s a section quoted from the website:

“Part of the idea behind Scribd is that everyone has a lot of documents sitting around on their computers that only they can read. With Scribd we hope to unlock this information by putting it on the web.”

Now although this statement may sound a bit paradoxical when you think about it in terms of your own protected PDF files, it may be just what you‘re looking for if you need to get some PDF content out on there on the Internet.

Scribd is a convenient online publishing resource that’s basically a collection of uploaded user content that can range anywhere from sheet music and poetry to health reports and political essays.

And unlike most online sites and services, you don’t need to sign up for an account to publish your documents. You can publish them anonymously. However, in doing so you’ll be forfeiting any ownership over the posted material.

By signing up with a Scribd account, you can specify copyright licenses for your material. In addition, because linking in documents is prohibited, having an account is also a way of posting up your contact information for viewers interested in the files you’ve uploaded.

Getting Online Exposure

In terms of online exposure, the files that are uploaded are indexed by major search engines, such as Google, with a designated public URL. Also, documents are organized by categories, tags, ratings and reviews, which make your documents easily accessible in a variety of ways on the Scribd website itself.

This accessibility also extends to file formats. The PDF content published on Scribd can be automatically converted and made available in other digital formats (.doc, .ppt, xls, .txt, .jpg, .gif, etc.). You can even convert other documents you want to view and download into the PDF format.

The fun part about this site is that it’s a social network. As a user community, Scribd has the usual networking bells and whistles— RSS feeds, emailing and messaging features, the ability to bookmark and flag your favourites, spaces for adding groups and friends, and even shareable options for digg, reddit, stumbleupon, and del.icio.us.

It’s a publishing service, user community and content resource centre in one.

Check out Scribd for yourself.

Sharing Your Documents With Adobe SHARE

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:12:35 -0500

Always on the look out for anything that has to do with Adobe and the PDF, I am almost never disappointed.

New in the Adobe Labs is Adobe SHARE, a web service application that allows you to organize, publish and share your documents online. With all the buzz about shifting desktop functionality to the Web, here is one service you get to see developing in the works.

I gave it a quick test drive and found it simple to use and easy to navigate. Adobe users will be happy to know that the Interface contains the same sleek black look and easy feel as the Digital Editions, Reader and Acrobat Interface.

The usage is also simple: browse for and upload a file, type in the recipient’s email address, type in the message and click on Send. The recipients will receive an email—not with an attachment, but with a URL link to your application (read: account page) where they can access and download them.

Here are a list of key features:

• Support for PDF, Word, HTML , JPG, GIF, PNG

• Send your file to any number of recipients

• Organize received and sent documents into collections

• Create a contacts list from the recipients you’ve sent documents to

• Quick access thumbnail views of your documents

• Apply access restrictions that allow open or limited access to regular and secured files

• Library file search

• Post document links or Flash previews of documents on wikis, websites and blogs

• Basic viewing tools for image files

• 1GB of storage space

If there is one pet peeve I have, it’s not being able to have access to the files I need. I am ridiculously dependent upon my USB key that comes equipped with a little holder/clip that I attach to my keys. If I forget my keys, I’m done for. So having access to a service like this when I’m online and can share files with myself makes things a lot easier.

This web service is worth checking out whether you’ll need it or not, though you’ll need an Adobe ID in order to access and make use of the current beta version. It’s free of charge and brought to you by a wiki development site-- meaning you can share and discuss your comments and opinions on the service with the development team.

And saving the best for last, according to the SHARE page and SHARE Beta blog, another thing to watch out for in the future with SHARE is the ability to create and convert documents to PDF!

All for now.

Al Gore, The PDF And The Paper Reduction Act

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:02:46 -0400

Is it a weird question to ask what Al Gore has to do with the PDF? The answer: not at all.

Throughout his political career, Al Gore has been a long time supporter and advocate of environmental issues. He is to Global Warming what Martha Stewart is to homemakers, raising environmental awareness since the late 1970’s.

Since then, he has participated and supported countless environmental events. With programs such as GLOBE in 1994, his Digital Earth in 1998 and the cable television network, Current TV in 2005, Al Gore has kept up to date with growing use of technology and media.

And to his credit, media technology and the Internet have proven to be a huge factor in raising climate change awareness and, more importantly, in providing a way in which it can be improved.

The Paperwork Reduction Act And The PDF

As an early pioneer of the “Information Superhighway” (his coined term), Al Gore’s push for The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 was ultimately a push for digital workflows within the government. The act aimed to make government information economically and efficiently accessible through information technology, and thereby lessening the consumption of paper documents.

Keep in mind that in 1995 Adobe’s first version of Acrobat had already been out on the market for two years. And with Adobe’s vision for the technology to integrate people, information and processes across a spectrum of industries, it’s easy to see how the PDF format could be used as part of that strategy to prevent Global Warming.

So, with his support of policies such as this one, Al Gore is also essentially a supporter of the PDF format’s basic goals as well.

Putting It All together

Lately, Al Gore has moved from political candidate to celebrity figure. In addition to his political career, he’s been appointed director of Apple Inc. and Senior Advisor to Google (during a time of Google Maps and iPods, that’s big), and made TV appearances on shows such as the Tonight Show, Oprah and Saturday Night Live.

And now, an Academy Award winner, his appearance at the Adobe Acrobat & PDF Conference will bring a little more to the PDF, which will definitely help in making a not so exciting format. . . well, exciting.

One PDF To Go, Please: A PDF In The Palm Of Your Hand

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:02:25 -0500

The portable document format does live up to the word “portable”. Whether you’re a busy entrepreneur, a workaholic or a web surfer, location doesn’t seem to really matter anymore. Everything is going mobile.

And you’re probably seeing a lot of technology moving from the desktop computer to the handheld device, which adds yet another category of decisions about your working habits that change with along with the trends.

So if you’re interested in joining the iddy-biddy-sized mobile world with your PDF work, here’s a briefer on some details surrounding PDFs on mobile devices .

Creating A PDF Optimized For Handheld Mobile Devices

First of all, regardless of what PDF creation software you have, you can create PDF files specifically optimized for mobile browsers by paying attention to a few details about your PDF.

1) File size. Use the Save As command to save the PDF. This will re-write the entire file and not just append the changes made to it, making it a more compact size that won’t ruin the integrity of the PDF.

2) Images. For images, use the best compression settings to ensure that you don’t include unnecessary pixel data. Using a lossy compression (JPEG and ZIP) or downsampling will help to decrease this.

3) Fonts. Don’t embed many, unnecessary fonts as embedding fonts also increases file size. Mobile devices importing the PDF may already have the fonts needed to render the text.

4) Tags. One of the key differences between desktop PDFs and mobile PDFs is file structure. Just as structure is important for reflowing the text to fit screen readers, it serves the same purpose for mobile browsers. Ensure that only the necessary tags for smooth textual reflow are included with the PDFfile.

For other tips for optimizing a PDF from other applications, check out Adobe’s white paper on optimizing PDFs .

Software For PDF Mobility

Palm OS, Symbian OS, Black Berries, and MS Pocket PCs are the most popularly used mobile OSs. The OS’s compatibility will play a factor in your mobile PDF research as some PDF software for handheld devices won’t support all platforms.

But for starters, there’s Adobe Reader LE . Downloadable from the company’s website, the software is supported by Symbian OS, Windows Mobile (Pocket PC 2.0), and Palm OS. Reader LE comes pre-installed on some mobile devices and supports scrolling, zooming and decryption for viewing your PDFs. As well, the software can support text search, bookmarks, and links within the document. In addition, Adobe has a user discussion forum for users with any tech support topics or tips regarding the software.

Features for different mobile devices vary. For instance, for Symbian OS devices, such as Nokia Smartphones, you can view a PDF as either a tagged PDF or in its original formatting. With Pocket PCs, you can directly print wirelessly from your handheld device to a remote printer. Adobe Reader LE on Palm OS devices allows you to view and transfer your Digital Editions e-books to your device. And another thing to note, there are a different variety of language options for you to choose from with each individual download.

Other mobile software supporting PDF viewing includes Dochawk Platinum 2.0, Repligo Professional 2.0, mBrainsoftware, DataViz’s Documents To Go v.9.0. Add them to the research list as it might come in handy as well.

Why Would You Need Mobile PDFs?

Now many users already complain about the usability of the PDF because of the long periods of time that can be spent in front of a screen. And handheld mobile devices have viewing and interactivity problems of their own (how small can a keyboard get?).

So why would you need PDFs on the go? One major reason is that, light and compact, handset devices are ultimately a matter of convenience. And when working away from your desktop, you need to have access to all the important documents you need—even PDF documents.

Checking emails on the way to work has perhaps become a daily routine for some. And undoubtedly, opening email attachments that are in the PDF format may be part of that. Or, for a PDF workflow that is almost essential to niche industries, such as publishing, for instance, emergencies that need attention don’t anticipate (or care) where you’ll be when they happen. And unfortunately, for others, going on vacation or getting ill doesn’t mean they stop working altogether-- not with a PDA in hand and thumbs poised in the air.

Going portable with portable documents. . . . It does add a nice spin to the name, Portable Document Format!

Another Thing To Look Out For In 2007: Digital Editions

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:47:48 -0500

We all know that there are just some things that can’t be comfortably done in front of the screen, one of them being able to read entire books. As an approach to tackle this problem, Adobe, in October 2006, unveiled Digital Editions, a beta web application aimed at creating a more user-friendly experience with digital reading material. And it’s expected to be available in full form sometime early this year.

To help fill you in with a brief summary (or refresh your memory), Digital Editions is a light weight Rich Internet Application for downloading, managing and, most importantly, reading digital publications, such as newspapers, magazines and books, on-screen. Sound like Adobe Reader? It does, except it isn’t.

The complex enterprise uses for the Reader make it inadequate for long periods of viewing and/or reading. The Digital Editions, on the other hand, is designed for performance and on-screen readability outside the browser, giving the user a Flash-based user-experience.

This easy-on-the-eyes user-experience is more enhanced because it further develops the eBook capabilities in earlier versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat and incorporates support for Flash. And with support for an “XHTML-based reflow-centric publication format designed to represent dynamic content” as well, you can ultimately adapt and adjust your digital publications to different reading displays more smoothly.

Giving It A Brief Look

One word came to mind as I fiddled around with the application a bit: simplicity. Navigation buttons in this RIA are discreet and the task bar is hidden, “hovering” when you interact with the document. The black sleek interface actually minimizes the distraction around the document you’re reading. Of course, it includes page viewing options, a library for all your downloaded ebooks, and a text search function for the page that you’re viewing. Adobe also has an eBook sample library up with a mixed handful of novels, software guidebooks and literary classics for you to try out.

You can see it for yourself if you haven’t already. The 2.5 MB download is available from the site and you can get more tech information from the Labs page as well. If you’re looking for an easy digital read, Digital Editions is another thing to look out for in 2007.

Adobe’s PDF Document Centre

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:21:21 -0500

With the latest super-advanced Acrobat 8, you may be wondering what else Adobe has in its back pocket for the near future. Well, next in line is a PDF Document Centre , a web based service that allows users to control the PDFs they create and send out. And this is an understatement.

With the hosted service, users can customize access settings and modify the use of their PDF documents by retaining control over the files regardless of where they go. This control includes setting expiration dates on documents, updating an older file version with a newer one and tracking what the recipients have done with the file. Through the PDF Document Centre, PDF authors can even restrict only certain users to access the document that are signed up with an Adobe ID and email address as ‘passwords’.

Users can work and view Document Centre controlled PDFs with the latest Adobe Reader 8, which is now currently available for download. In addition, a plug in will be made available for protecting Word and Excel 2003 documents. For these files, the same plugins as well as the Reader will be needed to access those files.

With all the talk about securing your files, this monitoring service is aimed at giving PDF creators a hands-on sense of security that they can weild from the desktop.

For all of you that are interested, a free trial version is currently available on the Adobe website until the end of the calendar year. After that, the service will be available on a per user and per month subscription price. Check out the Adobe site for more details.

Adobe Going XML With Mars

nospam@example.com (Reena) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:16:53 -0500

Mars. A planet? A Roman God? Yes, but to the PDF world it’s the name of Adobe’s XML development project.

Mars: The Red Planet or Adobe Planet?

Hosted on Adobe Labs, Mars is a wiki project, building the technology around developer feedback and reviews. The project is geared towards integrating XML workflows and regular off-the-shelf XML tools with PDF technology.

Adobe is working on an XML-based representation of PDFs and they’re calling the format a Mars Document.

And according to the information posted, the end result will be a plug-in that, when used in conjunction with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8, will allow users to create, view and interact with the documents.

A Quick Look Around

These Mars documents are, of course, similar to the PDF in looks. However, the construction will be similar to the files you get when you save a webpage. Basically, Mars documents are XML, SVG and ZIP file combined. Page structure is represented in XML, page content in SVG. Both are then bundled into a zip file consisting of separate file folders which contain other document components, such as fonts, colours, images etc.

It appears that a Mars document will be simpler to process because of this zip file structure. Being broken down into different individual components, a Mars document allows access to certain parts of the document, independent of other content.

In addition, it is said to have improved the creation and manipulation of supplementary PDF content which includes bookmarks, fonts, metadata, attachments, JavaScript, annotations etc.

With the plug-in and the latest Acrobat version, you’ll be able to save a PDF file as a Mars document and vice versa.

Mars Is Coming. . .

The plug in will be compatible with both the Professional and Standard versions of Acrobat. And if you’re interested, discussion forums are still going on. For those working with an XML-based information systems, the download will be available on Adobe Labs in December.