by David R. Mankin
We all used to share documents by shooting them back and forth via email. Many people still do. Not me--not anymore. I signed up for my free Acrobat.com account right after Adobe made the amazing service available. I've written about it several times. From a browser on any computer in any office, train station or coffee shop, I can log in and access my online-hosted documents as well as any files that a friend or colleague has specifically shared with me. I can create a spreadsheet, presentation or word processing document from scratch as well. Nice.
This past week, Adobe has again upped the ante with its Acrobat.com service, and has integrated a new feature called Shared Workspaces.
Instead of sharing individual files with others, you can now set up an online workspace into which you upload or copy files. Instead of sharing these files one at a time, you can now share the entire workspace at once. The free service allows for one shared workspace (into which you can create your own folders), but Acrobat.com's pay service enables multiple workspaces. Mighty tempting!
Your colleagues can log in from anywhere and access the contents of the workspace. Working on a project with Bill from the San Francisco office? No problem. Share away.
Want to know if Bill has logged in to access the project's files? All that information is there for you to see. Any participant can upload and download files to utilize. If they make edits, they may upload the revised doc, but not to worry--they'll receive a rename/overwrite option before they can replace the online version with their edits.
Folks from all over the world who attend my Acrobat classes are always surprised at how flexible, interactive and useful a PDF file can be. Don't let your PDF files sit there and only ask to be looked at and printed. They can be much more useful in the workplace, and so can you--once you learn what Acrobat technology can do.
About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.
We all used to share documents by shooting them back and forth via email. Many people still do. Not me--not anymore. I signed up for my free Acrobat.com account right after Adobe made the amazing service available. I've written about it several times. From a browser on any computer in any office, train station or coffee shop, I can log in and access my online-hosted documents as well as any files that a friend or colleague has specifically shared with me. I can create a spreadsheet, presentation or word processing document from scratch as well. Nice.
This past week, Adobe has again upped the ante with its Acrobat.com service, and has integrated a new feature called Shared Workspaces.
Instead of sharing individual files with others, you can now set up an online workspace into which you upload or copy files. Instead of sharing these files one at a time, you can now share the entire workspace at once. The free service allows for one shared workspace (into which you can create your own folders), but Acrobat.com's pay service enables multiple workspaces. Mighty tempting!
Your colleagues can log in from anywhere and access the contents of the workspace. Working on a project with Bill from the San Francisco office? No problem. Share away.
Want to know if Bill has logged in to access the project's files? All that information is there for you to see. Any participant can upload and download files to utilize. If they make edits, they may upload the revised doc, but not to worry--they'll receive a rename/overwrite option before they can replace the online version with their edits.
Folks from all over the world who attend my Acrobat classes are always surprised at how flexible, interactive and useful a PDF file can be. Don't let your PDF files sit there and only ask to be looked at and printed. They can be much more useful in the workplace, and so can you--once you learn what Acrobat technology can do.
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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe's cloud service is incredibly useful. I try to sell the idea to people who still struggle with FTP to transfer work that's too large to email. Screen sharing and the new shared workspace are great for the document review process. I know of someone who travelled with three colleagues all day for the round-trip to a 45 minute review meeting. Adobe.com would have saved their employer considerable time and money, even if they subscribed to the paid service! I think people assume they need new, expensive software or perhaps, like Virtual Machines, the concept hasn't yet been explained in a way they can relate to.
Posted by: Haitham Razagui | April 08, 2010 at 06:16 PM