If all you think Acrobat does is create PDF files, you're in for a big surprise! In this course, you'll discover how to bring together a wide range of content from dozens of programs that you can reuse and customize in Acrobat X Pro. Need to change some text? No problem. Create a new file? That's easy. Add a page from this file and an image from that file? Or add a new page? Not a big deal. You can do all that and more!
Bringing together content is just the beginning. You'll work with many features, such as backgrounds, bookmarks, and modified page sizes to help unify your documents. You'll see how to protect your work using password security, and dig into the metadata within your PDF file. You'll discover how to add more to your documents as you learn about bookmarks and links for navigation. You'll even master some JavaScript!
You'll learn how Acrobat X can automatically find and configure fields on a page to convert it to a form. Then you'll use form tracking to send your form to others to fill in and send back to you, and see how Acrobat X collects the data automatically in a specialized PDF Portfolio.
You'll also see how Acrobat X can help streamline the entire collaboration process and simplify how you conduct, control, and manage a document review cycle. You'll even find out how to work in real-time using a chat window in Acrobat X or online using a free Web conferencing room. Finally, you'll discover how to wrap a set of PDF files (and other documents, too) into a PDF Portfolio, complete with a Flash interface and display features, to create the ultimate in customized presentations.
In each lesson, you'll work with an important Acrobat X Pro feature or process using source files (available for both Mac and Windows) provided with the course. You'll soon see why Adobe Acrobat X has become the best-selling Adobe software of all time!
Syllabus
A new session of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
Imagine taking a document, a spreadsheet, an image or two, and a few slides from a presentation and then putting them all together into one fileâcomplete with page numbers, a custom footer, and even some animation. Does it sound too good to be true? It's not! Adobe Acrobat X allows you to do all this and more. By the end of this first lesson, you'll know how to make your way around Acrobat X and set different program preferences. You'll even make your first PDF file from an image (a logo for the fictional business we'll follow through the course).
Friday - Lesson 02
Where do new PDF files come from? To answer that question, we'll start Lesson 2 with a discussion on planning your project's workflow. You'll try out several different methods to create a PDF document using common programs including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You'll find out how to work with PDFMaker, a toolbar that Acrobat installs in some Microsoft programs that helps you choose settings and create PDF files automatically. You'll also work with the Adobe PDF Printer, which allows you to produce PDF files from programs that don't export them directly.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
Today, instead of using PDF documents converted from many different types of files, you'll see how to add a blank page to a PDF file. We'll try importing some text from another file, and format the text in Acrobat. Along with typing text in the page, we'll work with the editing tools to manipulate the content on the page and add some graphics.
Friday - Lesson 04
Mixing and matchingâmoving pages from one document to anotherâis a common way to edit PDF files. Acrobat X Pro offers a number of techniques for combining and changing page content. You'll start today with simple files, and then you'll see how to add and delete pages, as well as learn specialized ways to slip a new page into a document without disturbing any of the elements added to the page, such as links or bookmarks. You'll combine documents (and even specific pages from documents) into one PDF document, and you'll find out how to resize or crop pages so that they all match. You'll learn about metadataâthe information Acrobat X stores about a document. Finally, you'll discover how to add password protection that lets you specify whether users can print or use contents from your files.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
It's one thing to bring together content from different types of files. It's quite another to make the content look like it belongs together! In this lesson, you'll learn about Acrobat features that help make your document look more uniform. You'll work with backgrounds and watermarks that can be either text or graphics. You'll see how to use headers and footers that you can customize using your own text, choices of fonts, colors, and so on. You'll also use the Snapshot tool to create a new PDF document from a page segment. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to easily make all your documents look put together, whether they started out as two files or 10!
Friday - Lesson 06
When you work with a table of contents in Acrobat and many other programs, you click a link on the page to take you to a certain part of the document. But then how do you get back to the table of contents to find another topic? Acrobat X solves that problem by using bookmarks. Today you'll learn about building and displaying bookmarks in a separate pane that stays visible while the file is open. You'll discover different ways to create bookmarks and customize their appearance to match your document. Then we'll take a look at adding attachments to your PDF document. If you've ever had to send someone an email and had trouble remembering if you sent all the necessary attachments, you'll like this feature. We'll wind up the lesson looking at some ways to make your files more compact.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
Everyone knows how to use links on a webpage: Just click them to get to the linked page. In this lesson, you'll learn about using links in a PDF file. You'll start working with Acrobat JavaScriptâand you don't need to be a programmer to use itâto add multiple links and work with custom actions. Like Web links, links in Acrobat can open another PDF document, show another page, or send an email. Next, you'll find out about linking to webpages from a PDF file and downloading a webpage to create or add to a document right in Acrobat. And we won't just talk about text linksâyou'll also create a link from an image.
Friday - Lesson 08
Did you know that Acrobat X includes an Artificial Intelligence module? While it can't perform any science fiction magic, it can look at a document, decide where you'd like to have form fields, and then add and name the fields for you automatically. Today you'll see how it works with PDF forms, also called AcroForms. You'll learn about using the Form Wizard to produce a form for you, and then we'll look at some ways to add more form fields. You'll have a chance to calculate prices for different products in the form you create and even build a button that changes its appearance when you click it.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
Collaborating on a documentâsharing it with others and gathering their feedbackâis one of the most popular uses of Acrobat. In this lesson, you discover how to use common commenting tools and customize the program to make it simpler for you to work. We'll go through each group of tools and check out the corresponding group of commenting preferences along the way. You'll first learn about Sticky Notes and customizing how you view comments. Next, you'll use the Highlights and Callouts and decide how and where you like to read the comment contents. We'll finish by trying out Stamp comments and making a custom stamp.
Friday - Lesson 10
Once you've learned to add and configure comments, you need something to do with them. So today you'll work with a document review. You'll see how to start a shared review, send email invitations, and work online at Acrobat.com. You'll learn how to set up and manage a review, including different ways to work with comments.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
In this lesson, we'll take your collaboration skills to the next level. We'll start by adding another type of form field to our form, then you'll discover how to distribute the form you created in an earlier lesson. Along the way, you'll see how to use Tracker, an automated feature that monitors your form's distribution process. Acrobat X Pro also includes a PDF Portfolio feature that you'll work with as you collect form results. The PDF Portfolio includes some tools that let you filter and sort your data and export it to other programs. You'll also see how to create an Excel spreadsheet from the form data you collect. Then you'll find out how to work in real time with others using Collaborate Live, and see how to work online in your own ConnectNow Web conferencing space.
Friday - Lesson 12
Just when you think you couldn't possibly learn any more ways to combine and break down documents in Acrobat, we'll talk about Portfolios! We'll start by preparing the files for the final Portfolio project. You'll find out how to split a document into several parts using a couple of different methods, and then see how to automate some preparation details used actions. Once we've prepared the files, we'll start a PDF Portfolio. Then you'll try out different appearance features, add some images, and work with color schemes. Finally, you'll learn how to manage the content of your PDF Portfolio, such as adding folders and moving files. By the end of this lesson, you'll be ready to use Acrobat to combine, create, and collaborate on documents like never before!
Instructor Biography
Donna Baker is a freelance graphic designer and author of many books on design software and Web design. She produces custom tutorials, videos, and infographics. She's an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Community Expert. She edits several books per year as a technical editor for Wiley Publishing. And she loves sharing her knowledge about graphic design and Adobe products with others.
Requirements
⢠Internet access ⢠Email ⢠One of the following browsers: o Mozilla Firefox o Microsoft Internet Explorer (9.0 or above) o Google Chrome o Safari ⢠Adobe PDF plug-in (a free download obtained at Adobe.com .)
Note: Acrobat X software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins. Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Creative Suite programs such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator are used in preparation of the course materials, although they aren't necessary to complete the course. Access to these programs will be useful for personal project development.
Student Reviews
Thanks for solving my questions and providing me with enough knowledge to find answers on my own. Itâs much easier to stamp electronically and print multiple sets than to print multiple sets and have to stamp each of them by hand. Hundreds of sheets, issued for review, then approval, then fabrication, then revised, means lots of stamping, so thanks for saving me hours and energy.
I've been using Acrobat for several years, but I learned a TON of new things, beginning with the first lesson. I use this software at work, and have already implemented several of the new skills I learned through this course - creating portfolios for the various projects I am working on, using calculation fields in forms that I create, and, just for fun, I created a personalized "Approved" stamp. Halfway through the course I realized that I own Ms. Baker's How-to books, which I chose because they are well-written and easy to understand. I found this was true in this course as well. The lessons were easy to follow, and packed with a lot of information. I found this course both fun and challenging. Taking it was one of the smartest things I've done - both personally and professionally. Thank you!
I thoroughly enjoyed having Donna Baker as an instructor. It's nice and refreshing to have an instructor who is an SME in the subject. I enjoyed the class and her interactions with students. This was learning, encouraging and fun. I liked the structure in the lessons. They were very interactive and made me want to learn; they were fun and enjoyable. I also like how as this is an "Intro" class, Donna took you through the basics of virtually exposing the student to all areas of APX. It is not the usual type of intro course that I would have thought it to be. It was much more than I expected. Now, that I know the basics of many areas of APX, now I can explore more easily the content and know what I am doing. This course has made me feel comfortable with my abilities to utilize the lessons learned and explore further to broaden my knowledge.
REQUIREMENTS:
Fayetteville
Technical Community College (FTCC) offers eight-week online courses that
provide education and training in a variety of occupational areas! The courses
are designed by a team of professionals from each respective field who work to
provide you with an effective web-based learning experience. Prior to your
course start date, you will receive a reminder e-mail that includes
instructions on how to access the classroom website. Courses are hosted on
ed2go's learning management system (LMS). Each program includes a set of
lessons/modules and evaluations.
PRE-REQUISITES:
INSTRUCTOR: Ed2Go
Refund & Enrollment Policy
Refund Policy
The
refund policy for Fayetteville Technical Community College's Continuing
Education Division was established by the North Carolina Department of Community
Colleges, Raleigh on October 15, 1993. The full refund policy is listed in the
NC Administrative Code 23NCAC.2D.0203 (d) Brief Statement of Policy:
A pre-registered extension
student who officially withdraws from an extension class(es) prior to the
first meeting of the class (should be 24 hours prior) will be eligible for
a 100-percent refund by completing an official request form.
The refund will be 75 percent
if requested prior to the 10-percent date of the class(es) meeting.
No refunds will be given after
10-percent of class meetings.
Enrollment Policy
Deadline for registration is 5:00 P.M. (EST) Wednesday, a week before the
course begins.
*Please Note*
To be
officially enrolled in a course, students MUST log on and complete Quiz 1
by the first Friday of a course.
To
receive a passing grade for the course, students MUST complete 9 out of 12
quizzes and pass the final exam with a grade of a 70 or better. Failure to
meet both requirements will result in a grade of "U" or
unsatisfactory.
Double-check your receipt to make sure that you choose
the correct course title and date!
Once the home page pulls up, please type the course
name into the Search Catalog bar at the top of the screen and
press enter.
When the course description pulls up, please click the
red Add to Cart button.
Choose your course date from the listing of dates in
the "Session Date" drop down menu, and select the Continue
to Checkout button.
On the next page, if you are a returning student,
please enter your e-mail address and password in the appropriate fields.
At that point, continue through the steps until you reach the "Checkout"
page.
If you have never taken an Ed2Go course before, please
create a username and password by clicking the link for new students.
After creating your username and password, continue through the steps
until you reach the "Checkout" page.
Please click the "Checkout" button.
After clicking the "Checkout" button,
you will be taken to a page where you will read through the registration
and payment information.
If you have already registered and paid your
registration fee on the Learn FTCC website, you will not need to make a
payment for your course. At that time, please click on the "Enter
My Classroom" button.
If you have not registered and paid your registration
fee on the Learn FTCC website, you will be directed to the Learn FTCC website
to register and pay your registration fee. Afterwards, please click on the
"Enter My Classroom" button.
On the next page, please click the "Orientation"
button on the next page and complete it.
Write down your username and password in a safe location!
On the start date of your course, you will return to
the www.ed2go.com/ftcc home page, and click on the Classroom link to
access your course or courses.
Note: Acrobat X software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins. Microsoft Office programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Creative Suite programs such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator are used in preparation of the course materials, although they aren't necessary to complete the course. Access to these programs will be useful for personal project development
Computer Requirements
Internet
access
Email
One of the following browsers:
