Create and collaborate on PDFs



You can use Acrobat.com to create PDFs from any of the following types of files: Microsoft Word (DOC), Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT), Microsoft Excel (XLS), text (TXT), Adobe PostScript® (PS), image (bitmap, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG), Corel WordPerfect (WPD), and OpenOffice and StarOffice presentation, spreadsheet, graphic, and document files (ODT, ODP, ODS, ODG, ODF, SXW, SXI, SXC, SXD, STW). You can create up to five free PDFs.

You can browse for a file on your computer, or drag a file that’s already in your organizer into the Create PDF pane. While the PDF is being created, you can select or preview other files in the organizer. When the conversion is done, you can share the PDF file or preview it.

You can also create Buzzword documents and export them as Adobe PDF. For more information about Buzzword, see What can you do with Adobe Buzzword?.

    Create PDFs

    To convert a file to Adobe PDF:

    • Click Create PDF at the top of the organizer window.

    • Click a file in the organizer, then click the menu button to open the context menu. Choose Convert To PDF.

    Collaborate live on PDFs

    Use Collaborate Live to review a PDF with one or more remote users in an online session. In a Collaborate Live session, the participants view a document with a live chat window. When you share a page, its magnification is shared with all participants, so that everyone sees the same part of a document. Acrobat 9 or Adobe Reader 9 is required to participate in a Collaborate Live session.

    Initiate a Collaborate Live session

    1. Upload the PDF to Acrobat.com, or create a PDF on Acrobat.com.

    2. Click the PDF in the organizer, then click the menu button to open the context menu.

    3. Choose Live Enable. Acrobat.com creates a copy of your PDF and adds “_collab” to the existing filename. For example, if your original PDF is titled project.PDF, the collaboration version is titled project_collab.PDF.

    4. Share the collaboration copy of the PDF with other users.

    5. Download the PDF from your organizer to your computer and open it using Acrobat 9 or Reader 9.

    Participate in a Collaborate Live session

    1. In the e-mail invitation you receive from Acrobat.com, click the URL or type the URL in the address box of a browser. If prompted, log in with your Adobe ID and password. The PDF opens with the Collaborate Live navigation pane open.

    2. If prompted, sign in as a guest or with your Adobe ID and password.

    3. While participating in a Collaborate Live session, do any of the following as needed:

      • To communicate with others in real time, type chat messages in the box at the bottom of the pane. Click the color box to choose a different color for your chat text.

      • To share your pages so that the same page view appears for all participants, click the Start Page Sharing button. During page sharing, the button changes to Stop Page Sharing, and you can stop sharing at any time.

      • To save the chat history, from the Options menu, choose Save Chat.

    Disable live collaboration

     Do one of the following:

    • (If using Acrobat 9) From the Options menu, choose Disable Chat & Page Sharing In My Copy, or (initiator only) Disable Chat & Page Sharing In All Copies. If you disable live collaboration in all copies, then users cannot log in to a live collaboration session with any copy of the document.

    • (If using Reader 9) In your Acrobat.com organizer, click the PDF collaboration file, then choose Live Disable from the context menu.

    Note: Only the owner of the PDF file can disable collaboration. The PDF remains in your organizer after live collaboration is disabled. However, you can no longer chat or synchronize page views in the PDF.