Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional

Secure PDFs using policies

You can apply either an organization policy or a user policy to a PDF. You must be online with a connection to your Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server host to apply an Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server policy to a document. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server security policies must be stored on a policy server, but PDFs to which the policies are applied need not be. You can apply policies to PDFs using Acrobat, server-side batch sequences, or other applications, such as Microsoft Outlook.

To remove a policy from a PDF, you must be the one who applied it. Similarly, only the person who created the user policy can edit it. To edit organizational policies, you must be the policy administrator. For details on editing security policies, click the Secure button in the Tasks toolbar, choose Adobe Policy Server > Manage My Account, and then click Help in the upper right corner.

Apply a security policy to a PDF

 Open a PDF, and do one of the following:

  • Click the Secure button  in the Tasks toolbar and choose Adobe Policy Server > Refresh Security Policies to ensure that you have access to the most up-to-date server policies. Then, click the Secure button in the Tasks toolbar and choose a policy. Click OK to any warnings about changing the security for the document.

    In the Secure menu, you can identify organizational policies by the Enterprise Policy icon , and user policies by the Personal Policy icon  .

  • Choose Advanced > Security > Manage Security Policies. Select a policy, and then click Apply To Document.

Apply a policy to attachments in Outlook

You can send different types of files as secure PDF attachments in Microsoft Outlook. This option is available only if Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server is set up and available in Acrobat.

  1. In Outlook, choose File > New > Mail Message.
  2. In the toolbar, click the Attach As Secured Adobe PDF button .
  3. Select the file you want to attach by typing the file path or by clicking Browse.
  4. Specify how you want to secure the document, and click OK.

    The file is converted to PDF and encrypted using the security method you choose.

  5. Complete the email message, and then click Send.

Remove a user security policy from a PDF

 Click the Secure button in the Tasks toolbar, choose Remove Security, and click OK.