The newest version of Adobe Acrobat Professional probably should have been called the legal edition. While Adobe Acrobat long has been a popular tool for lawyers, version 8.0 adds some features that should make more lawyers consider purchasing the full version.

Most people are familiar with Adobe Acrobat Reader, the free program that can be downloaded from Adobe’s website. Many people assume they have “Adobe” when, in fact, they have the free reader, which allows them to open and view files saved as PDF documents. Depending on the security options selected by the PDF creator, viewers may be able to print such files. The Adobe reader alone, however, doesn’t allow you to edit the file or convert it to text, nor can you create your own PDF documents. While you get a lot of functionality at no cost, you still may want to consider purchasing Adobe Acrobat.

It can be purchased in three versions: standard, professional and 3D. In the past, the standard version was sufficient for most law offices. This time, however, you should strongly consider paying for the professional version, which includes a redaction tool and the ability to create blank forms from scanned documents, existing PDFs and Word or Excel documents. Only the professional and 3D versions allow creation of forms that can be completed using Adobe Reader. The 3D version is intended for businesses using computer aided design software like Auto CAD, Visio and Microsoft Project. For the complete list of differences between the standard and professional versions, look at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/matrix.html. The list price for Adobe standard is $299 and the professional version is $449. If you have an earlier version of Adobe that qualifies for an upgrade, the list price to upgrade to professional is $159. The street price should be lower.

Enhancements

For years, there’s been an aftermarket selling add-on functions and utilities for Adobe, such as adding Bates numbers to the pages of a PDF document. Version 8 builds in a Bates numbering tool from which you can select from different options to add Bates numbers to a single PDF or all open PDF documents. Bates numbers are used in litigation matters to sequentially code documents received in discovery to make them easy to relocate. As more information is stored electronically, the ability to attach a similar number to PDF documents becomes increasingly useful. Other companies also produced redaction tools and enhancements to digital capturing tools that convert PDFs into text. If you have an earlier Adobe version, you may find a utility to perform a similar task to some of the new features on version 8. For a link to many add-ons, visit www.adobe.com/products/plugins/acrobat/.

The Bates stamping option allows you to determine the format and placement of the numbers so that they don’t interfere with the original document’s content. The numbers can span over a series of documents and can be set to appear as either a header or footer.

Redaction

Often when sharing a document, you don’t want the recipient to see certain information. In the past, you could manually use a marker on a copy and rescan it or use built-in drawing tools to cover the information. One of the major new features in version 8 is a redaction tool to permanently remove visible text and/or images from PDFs. You can choose the redaction marks to show either as boxes or blank areas. If block certain words or phrases, you can use the Search and Redact tool to locate each occurrence and redact them as you wish. The redacted items aren’t removed until the document is saved, usually under a different name than the original.

Many version 8 enhancements continue to improve the ability to share and collaborate on the creation and use of PDF-formatted documents. For example, you can create PDFs from multiple documents at once. There also are enhancements to the integration with Outlook. With Outlook and Adobe version 8, you’ll have an Adobe PDF button to either create a PDF of a document to attach to an e-mail or create a PDF of the e-mail itself.

For firms with a document management system, the ability to save an e-mail or group of related e-mail messages as a PDF so it can be incorporated into the firm’s document management system is an important feature. Another nice touch is the ability to set Outlook to automatically archive e-mail in PDF format instead of as part of an Outlook file. Outlook has an additional button — “Create Adobe PDF from folders” — that lets you make a PDF of e-mail within selected folders.

Excess data

This version of Adobe has improved tools to remove metadata from Adobe documents. According to Wikipedia, metadata is “data about data.” Essentially, every file, not just PDFs, contains information about the author, date and time created, date and time last modified, etc. When sending files to court or adversaries, it’s important to remove extraneous information you don’t want to share, whether it’s visible or not. Metadata removal tools, particularly for Microsoft Word, have become a major add-on to the word processing market.

Who hasn’t wanted to convert a scanned document into a word processing document so it can be edited? In the past, the save options from within Adobe were limited. Version 8 (standard and professional versions) lets you save a PDF as a Word document, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting and tables, and streamlining document production in many offices. Version 8 adds a onetouch button to Word, Excel and Powerpoint to easily create PDF versions from those applications. For those using the Corel WordPerfect suite, similar functionality has been included within WordPerfect for years.

Creating documents

Adobe 8 adds several features intended to expedite document creation. Digital signatures, which have been a part of recent versions of Adobe, involve creation of public and private keys, and are used to ensure the authenticity of an electronic signature. Digital signature capability has been enhanced in version 8. Documents can be certified and digitally signed by people who have only the free Adobe Reader software. With version 8 professional, a number of PDFs can be combined into a package that is searchable and sortable. Each PDF maintains its own digital signatures and security settings within the package.

With the professional version, PDF forms can be created that can be filled in by people with only the reader version. These are certainly worth a look. There are many built-in templates for quickly creating personnel and administrative forms, such as time sheets, vacation forms and employee applications.

Online meetings

Another new button within Acrobat is a “start meeting” icon, which links to Adobe Connect. Like Webex, LiveMeeting and GotoMeeting, these products enable you to set up a meeting online. As a consultant, I’ve used these products to offer online training as well as remote support for clients. As the meeting organizer, you can invite others to see information on your desktop or switch to someone else’s desktop.

The Adobe Connect service allows you to convene an impromptu meeting, paying for it as needed. Adobe offers a pay-per-use service similar to Webex. The advantage of Adobe’s service is that it uses a familiar software product, Adobe Acrobat, as the viewer environment and includes the commenting tools of Adobe for annotating shared documents. Connect uses Flash technology, which generally has been installed on most computers in connection with websites. As a result, Connect is easy for attorneys to use and doesn’t require an application to install before beginning the meeting. Adobe Connect, because of its accessibility within the Adobe Acrobat software, may prove an ideal tool for lawyers who review documents with people in other offices. Connect can be used on a pay-per-use basis (32 cents per minute per user, comparable to Webex’s 33 cents plus an additional 20 cents if using its teleconference service). There’s an additional per minute charge based on the number of participants.

Adobe’s website includes a meeting cost calculator to estimate the cost for an anticipated remote meeting. For example, a meeting of three people including the organizer for 60 minutes would cost $57.60, while an hour meeting of 10 participants would cost $192. All the companies offer monthly and annual pricing, although there are differences in their policies. If you anticipate regular use of these facilities, you may find it advantageous to purchase a pay-by-month or annual contract. Again, some of the companies offer flat rates for unlimited use with a limited number of participants. For example, Citrix’s GotoMeeting offers a flat monthly or annual rate for unlimited number of meetings for up to 15 participants in addition to the organizer. Adobe Connect is priced by the number of concurrent remote users; for example, for $375 monthly, five computers can be connected. It pays to shop carefully to best match a plan to your firm’s needs.

Even if you don’t anticipate using Adobe Connect, you’ll find many of the other enhancements to Adobe Acrobat 8 worth consideration.

Carol L. Schlein is president of Law Office Systems in Montclair, a training and consulting firm specializing in law firm automation. Copies of her previous columns are on losinc.com, which also lists upcoming meetings and training classes. For information, e-mail info@losinc.com or check the website. Schlein formerly chaired the Computer and Technology Division of the ABA Law Practice Management Section and can be reached at carol@losinc.com.

Questions for Carol L. Schlein on law office technology may be e-mailed to New Jersey Lawyer at news@njlnews.com or faxed to (908) 226-0165.