Adobe® Acrobat® 9 Pro – Forms & Accessibility
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research
Presenter: Sara Settles
Instructional Technology Systems Manager
SL-Settles@wiu.edu
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
1
Objectives:








Understand Adobe® Acrobat® Products
Understand the Acrobat Toolbar
Create a PDF (Portable Document Format) file
Share Documents for Comments and Edits
Combine Multiple Documents into one PDF
Create Forms
Create Accessible Documents
Create ePortfolios
Adobe® Acrobat®
Adobe Acrobat creates PDF (Portable Document Format) files. A PDF maintains
the exact fonts, images, and print layout of a document across browsers and
operating systems. Traditionally, PDF files are read-only and viewable online,
which allows easy printing and on-screen viewing. However, using Adobe
Acrobat PDFs can be annotated, edited, saved with accessibility standards, and
more.
Types of Adobe Products
1. Adobe Reader (free): Allows for PDFS to be viewed, printed, and text may
be copied.
2. Adobe Acrobat Standard: Includes features of the Reader plus the ability
to create, annotate and secure PDF documents.
3. Adobe Acrobat Professional: Includes the Standard along with Fill-in Forms
and editing such as commenting.
4. Adobe Acrobat Distiller: high-quality printer and converter, includes
AdobePS printer driver.
Adobe Acrobat Toolbar
Open an existing file
Print PDF
Save PDF with changes
Email PDF
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
2
Upload PDF to Acrobat.com
Create a PDF
Combine two or more files into one PDF
Share the PDF and collaborate
Secure PDF document with a password
Sign the PDF document
Create a form with fields
Add 3D elements, Flash, Sound, or Video
Add comments and markup for sharing and editing
Create a PDF
Create a PDF from a Word document, select File > Create PDF > From File. Select
the document and choose Open. This will create a PDF with the same name as
the original document and in the same folder with the extension .pdf.
Or
From an existing Word document select Print or Save As… and select PDF. This will
create a PDF with the same name as the original document and in the same
folder with the extension .pdf.
Task Pane
The left Task Pane will have the following options:
(If the Task Pane is not viewable select View > Navigation
Panels > Bookmarks)
View Thumbnails of pages
View Bookmarks
Verify Signatures
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
3
Sharing Documents
o Comments/Markup
Share your PDF documents with others for comments and editing.
First, make sure the Comment & Markup tools are viewable. From
the menu select View > Toolbars > Comments & Markup.
Use the Sticky Note to add comments
anywhere on a page
Use the Text Edit tool to add, delete, or
create new text
Use the Stamp tool to “stamp” approved,
confidential, reviewed, revised, or create
your own custom stamp
Highlight text
Draw a Callout box to point to a place and
add text
Create a new text box on the page
Drawing tools, click and drag to use
Choose what comments are shown and
how they appear
Combining Documents
A single PDF may be created by combining several existing PDFs into one
document.
o From the File menu, select Combine > Merge Files into a Single
PDF…
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
4
o
o
o
o
Select Add Files… to add as many files as you would like to
combine into one PDF.
The entire PDF can be added or selected pages, if you want to
extract one or two pages select the Choose Pages button.
Enter the page numbers to extract from the PDF document, select
OK.
Each combined document will be automatically Bookmarked.
Creating Forms
Forms can be easily created with Adobe Acrobat from an existing template,
document, PDF, spreadsheet, or a scanned document. Create forms from either
using the Form Wizard which will walk you thru step-by-step, or from an existing
PDF. Below are instructions to create a form using an existing document.
o
Open the existing document you want to add fields to.
o
o
Select
Forms > Add or Edit Fields… from the toolbar.
It will ask if you want Acrobat to detect fields. Use this option when
there are blanks or lines for such things as signatures, etc.
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
5
o
Select Add New Field from the Toolbar. Choose the type of field;
Text Field, Check Box, Radio Button, etc.
o
Click and drag to draw the form field box. There will be a checkbox
to select if this is a required field.
Continue adding all fields to complete the form. When the form is
complete select Preview. Make any necessary changes and Save.
The form may now be sent as an attachment to an email, or sent
o
o
thru Adobe Acrobat Distribute button. Using the
Distribute Form button allows the form to be sent and collect
responses.
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
6
Creating Accessible Documents
Thru the advanced settings the PDF document can be checked for accessibility
along with specific settings setup. To setup the accessibility options go to the
Advanced menu, select Accessibility > Setup Assistant…
The setup assistant will walk you thru a series of screens and settings for
accessible colors, text, and screens.
Acrobat can check the PDF to see if there are any accessibility problems with
the document. There are two ways to check the document, a quick check or a
full check. The quick check reviews the searchable text, structure and
accessibility settings; the full check, reviews the entire document for all
accessibility items. Each check will create a report which delivers a summary,
detailed report, and how to repair. To run the check, select the Advanced
menu, Accessibility, and either Quick Check or Full Check…
Accessible Form Fields
To make form fields accessible choose Forms, Add or Edit Fields. Use the
selection tool
and double-click on the field. The Text Field Properites
window will appear, on the General tab enter the Tooltip, this is the
description a screen reader will
read for this form field. Close to
close the window and save.
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
7
Accessible Links
To add links in Acrobat which are accessible select the text for the link,
right-click. Select Create Link, choose the Link Action type, Next. Enter the
needed information, select OK.
Link Action Types:



Go to a page view – links to a page within the same pdf.
Open a file – links to any file (Word doc, PPT, Excel, etc).
Open a web page – links to an outside web page.
Creating Portfolios
There are numerous ways to create ePortfolios; however, Adobe Acrobat makes
creating a safe portfolio to share with others a snap! With Adobe PDF Portfolios a
collection of documents, pictures, and multimedia are easily created. To begin
creating a portfolio with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro go to the File menu > Create PDF
Portfolio.
Select a layout from the list on the
right. Then, simply drag your files or
folders to add them to the portfolio.
Continue on by adding a Welcome
page and editing the colors thru
the menu buttons on the bottom right.
Finally, select Publish and
Save, Email or Share on
Acrobat.com.
Congratulations! You have completed the Adobe Acrobat exercise!
Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research • Malpass Library 637 • Phone: 309.298.2434
8