Been on hold with Adobe for over 2 hours...

[Tbirdkid]

They thoroughly suck. I wish I could find a decent pdf editing software that is not malware ridden, and I could learn it pretty quickly. This is absolutely absurd.

 

[Tbirdkid]

only to be told that they dont support acrobat 7 pro anymore, and they cant help me. NICE!!!

 

[Crusty]

Did you honestly expect them to support a product that was released over 5 years ago? Not to mention Acrobat 9 is out...

There is no way a company could support every product they release forever, it's just not practical.

 

[stash]

Save yourself some time next time: http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/policies/supported.html

 

[Red Squirrel]

Adobe support is a huge joke. Good luck even understanding the packie on the other end.

 

[bruceb]

I still have Acrobat 6 Pro .. and I won't consider paying for an upgrade to V9

 

[Red Squirrel]

I still have Acrobat 6 Pro .. and I won't consider paying for an upgrade to V9

Yeah it's a rediculous amount of money.

What exactly does writer do anyway? Like, what can you do with it, that you can't do with MS word or even Open Office? I really don't get why it's so expensive or what's so special about it.

 

[lxskllr]

They were probably waiting for Acrobat Reader to open, so they could read their troubleshooting guide :^P

 

[CurseTheSky]

Did you honestly expect them to support a product that was released over 5 years ago? Not to mention Acrobat 9 is out...

There is no way a company could support every product they release forever, it's just not practical.

IIRC you can still get Windows Xp and Office 2003 support. Perhaps even Windows 2000 and Office 2000, though they're expiring soon if they haven't already.

Considering how much Adobe's software products cost, I would expect support for more than 5 years. Then again, they seem to have done almost as good of a job as Apple at getting their customers to foam at the mouth and drop money instantly when they release a new version (aside from those that pirate it).

I have a copy of Photoshop CS2 that I used to use for most of my graphics work. I recently stopped using it when I ran into a problem with an animated GIF in ImageReady, and after searching the help documents, came across one that blatantly said "We no longer support old versions of Photoshop." I could have dropped $500-1000+ to upgrade to CS4, but it's a complete waste for me, since I only do "casual" image editing for web design. Instead, I'm using Paint.NET and GIMP now.

They were probably waiting for Acrobat Reader to open, so they could read their troubleshooting guide :^P

Ahahahaha, well played.

 

[zagood]

They were probably waiting for Acrobat Reader to open, so they could read their troubleshooting guide :^P

win!

 

[EarthwormJim]

Yeah it's a rediculous amount of money.

What exactly does writer do anyway? Like, what can you do with it, that you can't do with MS word or even Open Office? I really don't get why it's so expensive or what's so special about it.

It lets you edit .pdf files.

You can also print to .pdf which is handy.

If I want to send a hand-out or document (resume, scans of my homework) to someone that I do not want them to edit, it's useful for that. The OCR feature is nice when you scan text in.

It's quite honestly absurd that Acrobat Pro costs more than certain versions of Windows and MS Office (student). The above features I mentioned are really not essential to anyone's career. The whole world could survive without .pdf files.

For as much as Acrobat costs, Adobe should be providing support for older versions.

 

[daw123]

It lets you edit .pdf files.

You can also print to .pdf which is handy.

If I want to send a hand-out or document (resume, scans of my homework) to someone that I do not want them to edit, it's useful for that. The OCR feature is nice when you scan text in.

It's quite honestly absurd that Acrobat Pro costs more than certain versions of Windows and MS Office (student). The above features I mentioned are really not essential to anyone's career. The whole world could survive without .pdf files.

For as much as Acrobat costs, Adobe should be providing support for older versions.

Or you can install some free software, which 'prints' anything you want to pdf:
www.cutepdf.com/

You can use the free reader to read pdfs, so the only benefit of Acrobat Pro is that you can edit pdfs. Woopeedoo. I'm sure that must be worth the ridiculous amount of money they charge for Pro.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Or you can install some free software, which 'prints' anything you want to pdf:
www.cutepdf.com/

You can use the free reader to read pdfs, so the only benefit of Acrobat Pro is that you can edit pdfs. Woopeedoo. I'm sure that must be worth the ridiculous amount of money they charge for Pro.

Yeah pretty much. So use word, and print to PDF, and just keep the word copy, if you plan to edit it again. I usually do this for my resume, I just print to PDF and send it that way... not that I send my resume out very often or anything. :awe:

 

[EarthwormJim]

Or you can install some free software, which 'prints' anything you want to pdf:
www.cutepdf.com/

You can use the free reader to read pdfs, so the only benefit of Acrobat Pro is that you can edit pdfs. Woopeedoo. I'm sure that must be worth the ridiculous amount of money they charge for Pro.

We're in agreement. Acrobat Pro is way overpriced.

I wouldn't be using Acrobat Pro if I didn't get it for free through work.

I find it funny that a free reader like Foxit opens faster and acts all around faster than ~$400 software.

 

[dderolph]

We're in agreement. Acrobat Pro is way overpriced.

I wouldn't be using Acrobat Pro if I didn't get it for free through work.

I find it funny that a free reader like Foxit opens faster and acts all around faster than ~$400 software.

You're comparing two different things, a reader and a PDF editor/creator.

 

[lxskllr]

You're comparing two different things, a reader and a PDF editor/creator.

Even comparing the readers, Foxit is much quicker. It isn't like Adobe reader's any quicker than the full suite. The only compelling feature Adobe has, is the ability to edit PDFs. For the price, I can live without that feature. Foxit also sells a full package that'll allow you to edit PDFs. Their's costs too much for me also, but at least you'll get some speed with the program.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I still don't get why being able to write/edit PDFs is such a huge deal and the software for it has to cost so much. Funny thing is, it's suppose to be called "portable document format". If this was really the case, free readers AND writers would be readily available.

 

[EarthwormJim]

You're comparing two different things, a reader and a PDF editor/creator.

No not really. The reader portion of Pro should not be as slow as it is...

 

[Chiefcrowe]

One other thing I've found useful is that the Pro version is pretty good at creating interactive and email forms. I don't really know of any other alternative that is as good for that.

 

[olds]

I still don't get why being able to write/edit PDFs is such a huge deal and the software for it has to cost so much. Funny thing is, it's suppose to be called "portable document format". If this was really the case, free readers AND writers would be readily available.

Because not everyone had Word and the Adobe Reader is free.

 

[rivan]

Acrobat and Flash are the hated programs du jour. The people who used to bitch and moan about Windows Vista have refocused on Adobe.

The applications aren't perfect, but none are.

As ardent a defender of PDF as I am, I've always admitted the bloat since version 6 has been largely useless for me (though highly useful to other users of the product, in other industries).

 

[MJinZ]

I still don't get why being able to write/edit PDFs is such a huge deal and the software for it has to cost so much. Funny thing is, it's suppose to be called "portable document format". If this was really the case, free readers AND writers would be readily available.

Huh? What's not the get? PDFs are only dominant because uh... people create them. Having a reader is pretty useless if people don't actually ... make ... them... to be read....

 

[metalmania]

there are open source PDF writers and basic editors. I use it everyday.

 

[tk149]

Adobe can suck it. InDesign CS2 files are incompatible with CS4. And since Adobe exercises strict control over who sells their software, it's impossible to find a legal version of CS2. My old company had two copies of CS2 (purchased brand new within the last four years). We wanted to add one more PC to do graphics design, and found out we would have to buy THREE new CS4's if we wanted any compatibility. These programs aren't cheap.

As for Acrobat...that's almost as bad. The bloating, the constant "Your expensive previous version of Acrobat is incompatible with our newest even more expensive version of Acrobat" nag screens...what fun!

I use FoxIt at home.

 

[rivan]

Adobe can suck it. InDesign CS2 files are incompatible with CS4. And since Adobe exercises strict control over who sells their software, it's impossible to find a legal version of CS2. My old company had two copies of CS2 (purchased brand new within the last four years). We wanted to add one more PC to do graphics design, and found out we would have to buy THREE new CS4's if we wanted any compatibility. These programs aren't cheap.

As for Acrobat...that's almost as bad. The bloating, the constant "Your expensive previous version of Acrobat is incompatible with our newest even more expensive version of Acrobat" nag screens...what fun!

I use FoxIt at home.

InDesign incompatibility is super annoying. So is Acrobat's bloat.

That said, if a $600 expenditure is going to break your company, I think there are bigger issues that need to be handled.