Creating PDFs from scratch

[theEclipse]

Hello,

I am fairly new to adobe, and I might be going about this the wrong way, but I cant for the life of me seem to figure out how to create a new document. I can get word to export to pdf and I can use the distiller.

Is creating a blank pdf not a feature of this program? I am using Acrobat 5.0.

Robert

Robert Carpenter
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

robert (at) robertcarpenter (dot) net

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[jmgalvin]

Acrobat does not create blank documents. It only creates pdfs from documents created in another application.

You can combine pdfs by opening one pdf and then going to Document menu/Pages/Insert. You then select other pdfs to insert in the first pdf.

 

[theEclipse]

thats wierd. I dont think that I would have expected a company to make their software completly dependant on other software.

So, whats the point in PDFing a document in the first place? (Besides the guy up the ladder told you to)

[reworking sense of normalcy to adapt for adobe...]



Robert Carpenter
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

robert (at) robertcarpenter (dot) net

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[tgreer]

PDF is a file format. The original concept was brilliant, and has become considerably more muddled over time.

The idea was for a truly "Portable Document Format". All fonts would be contained, and the document would have high graphical fidelity. In other words, it would "look right" and "print right". A step toward the mythical "paperless document".

So the idea was to enable any application on any platform to "render" their output to a PDF. Exactly analogous to "printing" a document.

However, there are always last minute tweaks, and post-processing, that needs to be done. Acrobat is the product that allows you to perform such maintenance on a PDF.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[tgreer]

I should add, if you want to create a "PDF from Scratch", look at InDesign and/or Illustrator.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[Murgle]

If I may add to Thomas' comments, one excellent advantage of using pdf format is that anyone with free reader can view the output of virtually any application, but without needing the source application installed themselves. This saves my company a fortune in unnecessary license fees for applications that would only be used to view files, and therefore also reduces the costs of supporting this software.

The most valuable way which we use Acrobat is for the production and control of paperless documents - since we introduced this we have far greater visibility of the flow and progress of these documents, and we have reduced overall time consumption by approximately 2 man years.

So a few more reasons than 'my boss told me to'....

"If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?"
- Steven Wright

 

[lpatton]

Robert, maybe an example of how I use Acrobat might help you.

Once installed Acrobat is just another of my output formats. i.e. Acrobat Distiller shows up as if it were a printer.

I can then create a PDF from any windows software I happen to be using and distribute that PDF on my web site or through e-mail and the recipient only needs Acrobat reader to view the file. No worrying about if they have the correct font or even the original application.


Hope that helps.
Lyndon