Adobe Reader Video

Adobe Reader Video Transcript

First Look video: Adobe Reader *** Hi, I'm Seth Rosenblatt from CNET Download.com, and we're taking a First Look at Adobe Reader. Yeah, that Adobe Reader. It's SO well known, it doesn't get a fancy name. There are other PDF readers, of course, but since Adobe is the best-known, let's see what it's got. *** Staring with the Toolbar, this kaleidoscope icon is a link to FedEx Kinko's Print Online, which allows you to print photos and other hi-rez documents at your nearest Kinko's. Of course, the service costs money, but it's nice to know it's there if you need it. *** The next icon is? another service. This one is for Adobe's Connect feature, which bills itself as letting you and your colleagues exchange documents and comment on them in real-time. The rest of the features are boilerplate. Arrows to move forward and back by one page, a page-jump, zoom, scroll and search functions. *** The Toolbar is customizable, and here's where most of the secret functionality lies. *** Instead of drag-and-drop you have to check off the tools you want from a list. So you can replace the standard zoom function with a dynamic, click-and-drag one, or bring the Highlight tool to the ready-- it's just not intuitive. *** Other useful functions include an email link for sending off the PDF, an enormous selection of marking tools if you have the document rights enabled, a Pan & Zoom Window, and Loupe tool for focused zooms that open in a new window. You can also easily rotate a document to read it horizontally, using CTRL-SHFT-PLUS or -MINUS. Hotkey commands permeate the program, making quick viewing adjustments extremely easy. *** The notorious memory drain that Adobe Reader creates is the program's biggest flaw, especially compared to competitors. Stability was also an issue--Read Out Loud, a built-in audio reader for the visually impaired, crashed the program repeatedly. *** Adobe Reader might be everywhere, but it's far from perfect. For Download.com, I'm Seth Rosenblatt and this has been a First Look at Adobe Reader.