# Adobe Acrobat, opinions and advice **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379 "2007-12-17T21:04:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/1 "2007-12-17T21:04:04Z")
Have you worked with Acrobat to creat PDFs? How easy was it to use? I need to make a PDF with chapters and images. The text is simple and I have the images. How hard is it to set up chapters? Basically I need to make a parts catalogue. I have photoshop but I think I can only make single page pdfs from there. I can get Acrobat, but, will it be hard to use? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/2 "2007-12-17T21:31:02Z")
Acrobat won’t do what you’re thinking of. You need a desktop publishing or word processing program. Acrobat is just a pdf generator. If you want a professional tool, buy and learn to use inDesign; if you don’t want to do the whole desktop publishing route, try microsoft Word or Publisher (publisher requires some rigamarole to make pdfs, though). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/3 "2007-12-17T21:45:04Z")
OK, So I can just lay it out in MS Word and use something to turn that into a PDF. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/4 "2007-12-17T22:17:32Z")
Acrobat lets you pdf 5 docs for free on their website. There’s also free pdf makers around, though I haven’t used them. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/5 "2007-12-17T22:44:50Z")
Open Office lets you create documents and PDF them, but I haven’t used it for the kind of graphics-heavy uses that InDesign is intended for. On the other hand, it’s free, so give it a whirl! ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/6 "2007-12-17T22:47:44Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] OK, So I can just lay it out in MS Word and use something to turn that into a PDF. Thanks [/QUOTE] There are a bunch of PDF printers out there. I used two different ones, the most recent being [CutePDF](http://www.cutepdf.com). I don’t recall what the other one I used was, but it doesn’t work under Vista, so it had to go. 😛 It’s fairly straightforward (they all are): You set it up, and it shows up as a printer. You “print” using it, and it saves the PDF to wherever you specify. A general note regarding creating PDFs: You generally want to stick to “basic” fonts, as your users may not necessarily have the same fonts you’re using, and substitution fonts can be wonky. (It has something to do w/ the way fonts (don’t) embed, but I’m not quite clear on the technical details.) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/7 "2007-12-17T22:49:39Z")
I think the issue here is creating the chapters. It is easy to create a PDF document from any program on Windows or the Macintosh. On the Macintosh, it’s built into the operating system. On Windows, you can easily find free .PDF generators. But these work from the Print Dialog box (instead of sending to the printer, you send to the .PDF generator). You want the chapters to show up when someone views the document with Adobe Acrobat Reader, correct? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/8 "2007-12-17T22:52:32Z")
What **Gaudere** said. Acrobat generates the PDFs, and lets you make very limited edits to PDFs that are already created, but you need something else to set the documents up in the first place. [Planet PDF](http://www.planetpdf.com/) has a lot of info, even if their [Introduction](http://www.planetpdf.com/learningcenter.asp?ContainerID=1511) is slightly dated (Acrobat Reader is at 8.1.1, not 6, for example). There are a lot more PDF generators out there than I thought; among other things, basic PDF generation is built into Mac OS X. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/9 "2007-12-17T22:58:43Z")
Do you mean that you want chapter bookmarks to show up when the PDF is viewed? Or that you want to separate your text and images into chapters? If the latter, that’s a function of your text-editing/publishing/layout/word processing program (whatever you want to call it). I use FrameMaker and Acrobat at work, and FrameMaker has all sorts of settings for which kinds of paragraphs or headings get passed to Acrobat to be inserted into the output PDF as bookmarks, and how they will be laid out. Presumably other programs have similar features. (I haven’t actually tried it on OpenOffice yet, as I’m using OO to mostly write letters and do spreadsheets.) Acrobat itself will let you create bookmarks in an existing PDF. I don’t know what other programs will let you do that. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/10 "2007-12-18T14:29:19Z")
Ok, I want chapters. So it is basically a parts catalogue. Lets say that the chapters are 1 O-Rings 2 D-Rings 3 Buckles In each chapter there will be sub-chapters 1 O-Rings \_\_\_no logo \_\_\_with logo 2 D-Rings \_\_\_\_Solid \_\_\_\_Open 3 Buckles \_\_\_\_Men’s \_\_\_\_Women’s \_\_\_\_\_\_\_Sping \_\_\_\_\_\_\_Fall That sort of thing. I want the end users to be able to jump to where they want to go by clicking on the chapter heading/subheading. I want people to be able to search. Type in 20mm and the Search displays the results with that and they can jump to it. I’m doing this on a PC, so is using MS Word the way to go? ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/11 "2007-12-18T15:35:18Z")
Yes, you can do this in MS word. You’ll be able to search the pdf without doing anything special. To allow people to jump by using chapter headings/subheadings, when you create the doc you must use word’s embedded styles: heading one for the chapters, heading two for the subsections, heading three for the sub-subsections. (that’s under “styles”). Then at the beginning of your doc, autogenerate the table of contents…if you’ve done the heading styles right, the table of contents will have all the categories you have. When you export as a pdf them the table of contents will be clickable and will jump people to that section. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/12 "2007-12-18T15:43:45Z")
[QUOTE=Gaudere] Yes, you can do this in MS word. You’ll be able to search the pdf without doing anything special. To allow people to jump by using chapter headings/subheadings, when you create the doc you must use word’s embedded styles: heading one for the chapters, heading two for the subsections, heading three for the sub-subsections. (that’s under “styles”). [/quote] Yes, that’s what FrameMaker does as well. > [@Gaudere](#): > > Then at the beginning of your doc, autogenerate the table of contents…if you’ve done the heading styles right, the table of contents will have all the categories you have. When you export as a pdf them the table of contents will be clickable and will jump people to that section. Does Word also do PDF bookmarks? ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/13 "2007-12-18T15:59:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Does Word also do PDF bookmarks? Yeah, either by setting the styles as I mentioned, or you can do some custom stuff. The “jumpable” table of contents is generated automatically, and in the settings for your pdf maker (whether in word or an outside one) you can tell the pdf maker to make the various headings bookmarks. How to do it depends on what you use to make pdfs, though (and it may do it automatically on some). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/14 "2007-12-18T17:28:29Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/15 "2007-12-18T17:35:55Z")
This sounds like something that would be a lot easier in LaTeX than in Word (depending upon the size of the document). LaTeX also generates PDF’s natively, and nearly always looks a 1000% better than a document created in Word. Unfortunately, the learning curve is a bit steep, but generating a simple document with chapters is pretty simple: ```auto \documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{book} itle{Catalogue} \author{Zebra} \date{ oday} \begin{document} \maketitle \makecontentspage \chapter{D-Rings} \section{Section 1} \subsection{Subsection 1.1} \chapter{O-Rings} \end{document} ``` etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adobe-acrobat-opinions-and-advice/430379/16 "2007-12-18T18:45:58Z")
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan] This sounds like something that would be a lot easier in LaTeX than in Word… [/QUOTE] OOO! LaTeX! Another thing I barely know about. I downloaded a freeware version to my Mac, so all I need to do is experiment…