Acrobat 6, despite its strengths, always gave the feeling of being a transitional product, intended to get users accustomed to the radically different interface, the concepts of secure PDFs and the whole collaboration idea. With the launch of Acrobat 7, that feeling has been pretty much confirmed. Without a doubt, we've now got the real thing.

Touted by Adobe as a key part of its Intelligent Document Platform, Acrobat 7 adds many new features and capabilities to an already comprehensive product. The Professional version reviewed here is aimed squarely at power users, be they corporate people or creative professionals.

The Standard edition is slightly cheaper and loses a few of the workgroup-oriented and enterprise features. There's also a new version of the free Acrobat Reader software.

It's difficult to know where to start, but the good news is that those familiar with version 6 will be instantly at home with the task-oriented interface. Existing users will also be happy to know that the program load time has been reduced noticeably and web-based PDFs seem to load faster too.

One feature that might not be so popular is the new activation procedure, finally implemented in Acrobat 7 after appearing in other Adobe products. You must activate the product via the internet or phone within 30 days of purchase, and you can install the program on two separate computers.

But Adobe has added a bit of a novel twist: if you install it on a third machine, you must deactivate one copy and transfer the activation via a simple menu command. The effect is immediate if it's done via the internet.

There's no limit to how many times you can activate and deactivate a copy. Adobe says that activation is moderately insensitive to hardware changes, but a full system rebuild or low-level drive format could force a re-activation.

The transfer activation feature will be welcomed by users with multiple computers at home and work, and we believe it's a good compromise between anti-piracy and user convenience.

PDF version 1.6 is the default file format, meaning the full features might not be viewable in Acrobat 6 or below, but Distiller lets you save in any previous version for compatibility purposes. Distiller itself has had a makeover, with a more friendly user interface. For archival work, support for the draft Pdf/A standard has been added.

At long last, Adobe has added an Organizer for managing your PDFs. This separate window gives you multi-page thumbnails of each document and you can browse your file opening history and add files to a Favourites list.

Collections are created by dragging PDFs from any location into the relevant collection. You can quickly merge a series of PDFs into a single file or send them for review. The workgroup collaboration features have been expanded to include those who don't have the full Acrobat package. A menu option allows those with Acrobat Reader 7 to participate in document reviews, using the commenting toolbar added to the new Reader 7.

The review Tracker is now a separate window that can accept RSS feeds, making it a handy RSS reader as well as keeping track of the reviewing process.

A welcome feature for power users is the inclusion of Acrobat Livecycle Designer (although only with the Windows product). Previously a separate application, this lets you design interactive XML-based forms in a Wysiwyg editor. With this powerful tool you can create interactive surveys for return via email, with the results returned in XML format for automatic collation in a CSV spreadsheet.

Finally, security has been augmented by the introduction of 'E-envelopes' and support for company-wide security policies using Adobe's Livecycle Policy Server. E-envelopes are encrypted wrappers for PDF files that let you send files securely via email. There's also the ability to create a self-signed digital ID for use in certified documents.

It's an impressive package, although many of the features won't appeal to casual users. For them, Acrobat Standard would be a more sensible choice. But for those who use the PDF platform on a daily basis, it's a must-have.

The addition of the form creation tools alone is worth the price if you've always wanted to create interactive PDF forms but couldn't justify the expense of Designer.

Prices:
£464.13 (£395 ex VAT); upgrade from versions 4, 5 or 6 £158.63 (£135 ex VAT)

Contact:
Adobe 0870 606 0325
www.adobe.com

System requirements:

• Pentium processor
• Windows 2000 SP2/XP/XP Tablet PC
• 128MB of Ram
• 460MB hard disk space
• 1,024 x 768 display
• CD-Rom drive
• Internet Explorer 5.5