The Security tab in Adobe PDFMaker

The Security tab in the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box contains options that enable you to password-protect the converted PDF file (so that only the people you give the password can open the file) and set the file permissions (which control how the document can be edited and whether or not it can be printed). The options on this tab are identical to the ones found in the Adobe PDF - Security dialog box. Note that the Security tab options are exactly the same whether you are converting a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document to PDF.

Using the settings tab of Adobe PDFMaker

The Settings tab of the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box enables you to change the Adobe PDF settings (now called conversion settings in PDFMaker). As when using Acrobat Distiller to create your PDFs, the default preset job option is Standard when you first open the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box. You can use the Conversion Settings drop-down list to select one of the other preset Adobe PDF Settings (PDFX1a, PDFX3, Press Quality, Smallest File Size, or Standard) or to select any of the custom Adobe PDF Settings that you create. In addition to being able to select different settings in the Conversion Settings drop-down list, you have a number of check boxes in the PDFMaker Settings and Application Settings areas on the Settings tab. The following gives a rundown on the options that appear whether you’re using Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint:

• PDFMaker Settings: Select the View Adobe PDF Result check box to immediately view your converted PDF in Acrobat after distilling. Select the Prompt for Adobe PDF File Name check box to have the Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box open prior to converting your Word document. To convert the document-specific information (such as the Title, Subject, Author, and Keywords information found on the Summary tab of the document’s Properties dialog box) to metadata in the new PDF file that can be indexed and searched (see Chapter 13 for information on searching), select the Convert Document Information check box. Note that the PDFMaker Settings area also includes an Advanced Settings button. Clicking this button opens the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box in Acrobat 6 where you create customized Adobe Distiller conversion settings.
  
• Application Settings: Select the Attach Source File to Adobe PDF check box if you want to attach the Office source file as a comment in your converted PDF document. Select the Add Links to Adobe PDF check box to convert the hyperlinks in your Word document to Adobe PDF links. Select the Add Bookmarks to Adobe PDF check box to convert the headings and paragraph styles in a Word document to bookmarks in a PDF document. The Enable Accessibility and Reflow with Tagged PDF check box lets you create tagged PDF documents from the Word document structure. To customize one of the preset Adobe PDF Settings and thereby create a new custom job option, select the preset that uses settings closest to the ones you want in the custom job option in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and then click the Advanced Settings button to open the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box for the selected preset.

The Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that PDFMaker opens in your Microsoft Office program contain the same tabs (General, Images, Fonts, Color, and PDF/X) with the same options as the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box that the Acrobat Distiller opens when you select its Settings➪Edit Adobe PDF Settings menu command. As is true in the Acrobat Distiller, the particular values and settings that are selected on the individual tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box depend upon which preset you select when you open the dialog box with the PDFMaker’s Advanced Settings button (refer to Chapter 4 for detailed information on how to modify these settings). After customizing the settings on the tabs of the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box, you save these settings by clicking the Save As button and then naming the custom Conversion Settings. As with the Acrobat Distiller, any custom Conversion Settings you save are automatically added to the PDFMaker’s Conversion Settings drop-down list as soon as you close the Adobe PDF Settings dialog box.

Customizing the PDF conversion settings

PDFMaker enables you to change and customize the distilling settings used in any of your Office-to-PDF file conversions. To customize the distilling settings, you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings from the Office application program’s menu bar to open the Adobe PDFMaker. Note that the Adobe PDFMaker dialog box that opens when you choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings from the Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint menus has only the two tabs: Settings and Security.

A separate Bookmarks tab is unique to Microsoft Word and provides the ability to select specific headings and paragraph styles in your Word document that can be converted into bookmarks in the resulting PDF file. In addition, you won’t find an application-specific when using Excel or PowerPoint. Application-specific options in those programs are either minimal enough to include in the Application Setting area of the Settings tab (as is the case with PowerPoint) or as a new menu option (as is the case with Excel) when using PDFMaker.

Converting and e-mailing PDF files

When converting an Office document to PDF, the PDFMaker offers you the option to automatically send the converted file as an attachment to a new e-mail message. You can use this option to quickly send a PDF version of an important Office document to a coworker or client who needs the information delivered in the cross-platform PDF format.
To convert the document currently open in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint into a PDF document and immediately send it off attached to a new e-mail message, follow these steps:

1. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail or click the Convert to Adobe PDF and E-mail button (the second button) on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar. If you haven’t saved your Office document, Acrobat PDFMaker will prompt you to do so. After clicking Yes to save the current Office document, the Save PDF File As dialog box appears.
2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and select the folder in which to save it on your hard drive. If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same name as its Office counterpart but with the .pdf filename extension. If you’re using Office XP, the filename extension may not be displayed along with your title in the File Name text box, but PDF Files is automatically selected in the Save as Type list box below.
3. Click the Save button to convert the file and then launch your e-mail program.
4. Fill in the e-mail addresses of the recipient(s) in the To and Cc text boxes, as required, and then describe the contents of the message in the Subject text box in the message header before writing a memo to the recipient(s) in the body of the message.
5. Click the Send button to send the e-mail message to the designated recipient(s), complete with the attached PDF document, and then return to your Microsoft Office program.

Automatically viewing the converted PDF in Acrobat

If you’d like to view the converted PDF file automatically in Acrobat 6 as soon as the PDFMaker completes the Office-to-PDF file conversion in your Office application, select the View Result in Acrobat option before you invoke the Convert to Adobe PDF button or select the Convert to Adobe PDF item on the Acrobat menu. In the Office application, choose Adobe PDF➪Change Conversion Settings to open the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Select the View Adobe PDF Result check box on the Settings tab and click OK. When the View Result in Acrobat option is turned on, PDFMaker converts the current Office document, displays the Save PDF File As dialog box, and then automatically launches Acrobat 6 (if it’s not already running in the background) and displays the converted PDF file as the current document in the Acrobat Document window.

Using PDFMaker in Microsoft Office for Windows

With the release of Acrobat 6, gone are the days of having to select the Acrobat Distiller as the name of your printer in the Print dialog box in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint in order to convert the native Office document file format into PDF (although you can still make perfectly good PDF files that way).
All you have to do in order to convert the current document open in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint into a PDF document is follow these three simple steps:

1. Choose Adobe PDF➪Convert to Adobe PDF in the Office application or click the Convert to Adobe PDF button on the PDFMaker 6.0 toolbar. An Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears, telling you that PDFMaker needs to save the document before continuing and asking whether or not you’d like to save the document and continue. Click Yes. The Save Adobe PDF File As dialog box appears.
2. Edit the filename of the converted PDF file in the Name text box and select the folder on your hard drive in which to save it. If you don’t edit the filename, PDFMaker gives the new PDF file the same name as its Office counterpart but with the .pdf filename extension. Note that by default, filename extensions aren’t displayed in Windows XP.
3. Click the Save button.

PDFMaker does the rest. As it converts the open document in the Office application to PDF, an Acrobat PDFMaker alert dialog box appears to keep you informed of the progress in converting the document’s text and graphics in a progress bar. As soon as PDFMaker finishes the document conversion indicated on the progress bar, this Acrobat alert dialog box disappears. To view the PDF document you just converted, launch Acrobat 6, and then choose File➪Open and select the newly converted PDF file (or better yet, open the PDF file’s folder in the My Documents or the My Computer window and then just drag its file icon onto the Acrobat desktop shortcut).

Acrobat Core API Reference

The API Reference (CoreAPIReference.pdf) lists all the objects, methods, and callbacks available to your Acrobat plug-in. It is a reference, so it doesn't offer deep explanations. For explanations of the concepts behind the API, consult the Acrobat Core API Overview (CoreAPIOverview.pdf).

PDF Reference

The most important document is the PDF Reference (PDFReference.pdf). The one that comes with the Acrobat 5 SDK is old, so visit http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/pdf/specifications.jsp and download the latest version.

Check the "what's new" section of the reference to get a glimpse of what was added to the corresponding version of Acrobat. In the PDF Reference Version 1.5 (that was released with Acrobat 6), new PDF features are described in section 1.2.

The PDF Reference sometimes refers to the PostScript Reference. Download this venerable document from http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/ps/specifications.jsp.

Look under Acrobat's hood, and explore the possibilities.

The Acrobat 5 SDK for Windows includes more than 26 documents, 15 interapplication (e.g., OLE, DDE) examples, and 52 Acrobat plug-in examples. Acrobat SDKs are also available for Macintosh and Unix. This material is the foundation for all PDF, Acrobat, and Distiller programming. And, it is freely available from http://partners.adobe.com/asn/acrobat/download.jsp. For a fee, you can also access the Acrobat 6 SDK.

Download and Install the Acrobat SDK

The full Acrobat SDK from Adobe includes documentation, samples, and API header files. Presently, only (fee-paying) ASN Developer members can download the full Acrobat 6 SDK. So, we'll download the freely available Acrobat 5 SDK instead. This free download does require that you sign up for a (free) ASN Web Account.

Visit http://partners.adobe.com/asn/acrobat/download.jsp, and download the Acrobat 5.0 Full SDK Installation. For Windows, it is a zipped-up installer named acro5sdkr4.zip.

In addition to the Acrobat SDK documentation, you should also download the latest PDF Reference from http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/pdf/specifications.jsp.

Unzip, and then run the installer. Throughout this discussion, I'll assume you installed the SDK in a directory named C:\acro5sdkr4\.

Open C:\msys\1.0\etc\fstab in a text editor and add this line (note the forward slashes):

C:/acro5sdkr4 /acro5sdkr4

Mapping Windows directories to MSYS directories like this makes life easier in MSYS. Regardless of where you installed the SDK, its location in MSYS is always /acro5sdkr4. We'll take advantage of this fact in our plug-in sample project. It expects to find the Acrobat API headers at /acro5sdkr4/PluginSupport/Headers/Headers/.

Install GCC on Windows with MinGW and MSYS

You can get GCC on your Windows machine using a couple of different methods. I prefer using the packages provided by the MinGW (http://www.mingw.org) folks. They provide a set of installers that you can choose from according to your needs. They also provide software updates that you can unpack and copy on top of the original installation.

Visit http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml and download the following packages. Each file is named according to its version. If newer versions are available under the Current section of the web page, use those instead. For example, download MSYS-1.0.10.exe instead of MSYS-1.0.9.exe.

MSYS-1.0.10.exe
MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe
gcc-core-3.3.1-20030804-1.tar.gz
gcc-g++-3.3.1-20030804-1.tar.gz
First, install MinGW. Throughout this discussion, I'll assume you installed MinGW on the C: drive so that you ended up with C:\MinGW\.

Next, install MSYS. Throughout this discussion, I'll assume you installed MSYS on the C: drive so that you ended up with C:\msys\1.0\. The MSYS post-install script will configure MSYS to your environment. When it asks where MinGW is installed, tell it C:/MinGW (note the forward slash).

MSYS gives you many of the GNU (http://www.gnu.org) tools that are common on Linux systems, such as grep, less, and diff. MSYS also gives you a Bourne shell (a.k.a. command prompt) environment that makes a Linux user feel more at home. In fact, it creates a home directory for you; in my case it is C:\msys\1.0\home\Sid Steward\. When you run MSYS (Start Programs MinGW MSYS msys), a colorful command prompt opens, and it opens in your home directory by default. It is like a little slice of Linux, right there on your Windows machine. Run dir and it doesn't understand. Use ls instead. Run pwd and you'll see that even the filesystem looks different. Your current directory is /home/Sid Steward/, not C:\msys\1.0\home\Sid Steward\. You can access the traditional DOS drive names like so:

cd "/c/Program Files"


Test whether MSYS can find MinGW by running:

$ gcc --version


If it replies command not found, MSYS can't see MinGW. In that case, you will need to edit the text file C:\msys\1.0\etc\fstab so that it includes the line:

c:/MinGW /mingw


Note the forward slashes, and replace c:/MinGW with the location of MinGW on your machine.

To access the MSYS and MinGW tools from the Windows command prompt, you will need to add C:\msys\1.0\bin and C:\MinGW\bin to your Windows Path environment variable. Access environment variables by selecting Start Settings Control Panel System Advanced Environment Variables.

Finally, we'll apply the 3.3.1 updates to the installation. Copy the *.tar.gz files to your MinGW directory (e.g., C:\MinGW\). Open the MSYS shell (Start Programs MinGW MSYS msys) and then change into the /mingw directory (cd /mingw). Unpack the *.tar.gz archives like so:

Sid Steward@GIZMO /mingw

$ tar -xzf gcc-core-3.3.1-20030804-1.tar.gz

Sid Steward@GIZMO /mingw

$ tar -xzf gcc-g++-3.3.1-20030804-1.tar.gz

Now, test to make sure the upgrades worked by checking the versions. For example:

Sid Steward@GIZMO /mingw

$ gcc --version

gcc.exe (GCC) 3.3.1 (mingw special 20030804-1)

Success!

Compile Acrobat plug-ins on Windows using GCC.

The Acrobat API gives you the most powerful tools for accessing and modifying PDF data. The typical way to access the API is with an Acrobat plug-in.

A plug-in is a DLL (on Windows), and it is created from C or C++ source code using a compiler such as Microsoft's Visual C++ or the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). In this hack, we'll explain how to install the free (and fabulous) GCC compiler on Windows. Then, we'll install the Acrobat SDK. Finally, we'll build a sample plug-in using GCC.

You can also compile Acrobat plug-ins for Macintosh and Unix. Adobe provides separate SDKs for each platform. Typically, you compile Macintosh Acrobat plug-ins using Metrowerks CodeWarrior.

Linux startup JavaScripts

For Reader 5, the system-level JavaScripts directory is located somewhere such as /usr/local/Acrobat5/Reader/intellinux/plug_ins/JavaScripts. The user-level directory is located in the user's home directory: ~/.acrobat/JavaScripts. Create these directories if they don't already exist.

Mac startup JavaScripts

For Acrobat 6, the system-level JavaScripts folder is located inside the Acrobat 6 package. Right-click or control-click the Acrobat application icon, and choose Show Package Contents. The system-level JavaScripts folder is located at Contents : MacOS : JavaScripts.

The Acrobat 6 user-level JavaScripts folder is in the user's home folder: ~ : Library : Acrobat User Data : JavaScripts.

The Acrobat 5 system-level JavaScripts folder is located at : Adobe Acrobat 5.0 : JavaScripts. The user-level folder is located in the user's home folder: ~ : Documents : Acrobat User Data : JavaScripts.

Windows startup JavaScripts

For Versions 5 or 6 of Acrobat or Reader, the system-level JavaScripts folder is located somewhere such as C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat\Javascripts\ or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\Javascripts\.

For Acrobat or Reader 6, the user-level folder is located somewhere such as C:\Documents and Settings\Sid Steward\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\6.0\JavaScripts\. Both Acrobat and Reader use this one folder.

For Acrobat 5, the user-level folder is located somewhere such as C:\Documents and Settings\Sid Steward\My Documents\Adobe\Acrobat\JavaScripts\. Both Acrobat and Reader use this one folder.

Sometimes you must create a JavaScripts folder, if one does not already exist.

New features of Adobe Acrobat 9 revealed

Adobe Systems is expected to present the next version of its Acrobat platform under the name Adobe 9 during the summer of 2008, and details the features of the new version began to surface, according to sources.
Adobe Acrobat is a platform to view, create, manipulate and manage files in Adobe PDF format.
The company offers only one version of Adobe Acrobat 9 for Mac users, professional sources. The company is curbing the standard version on the Mac with the next version. However, Windows users will always have the possibility to choose the Standard or Professional version.
In addition, users gain Acrobat to create forms that can be completed electronically by users. This capability was previously available in Acrobat Professional. But with Acrobat 9, this capacity will also be in the Standard version, the sources said
Adobe has also been put on the market a stand-alone version of Acrobat called Acrobat 3D, which is intended to architecture, engineering and CAD / CAM / CAE market.
Acrobat 3D allows users to take three-dimensional drawings and integrate them into PDF files. 9 for Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat adding that 3D technology to the professional version of the upcoming release, sources.
In addition, Adobe is adding a capacity routing forms of data collection in Acrobat 9, according to sources. Users can work with Acrobat for creating forms and Adobe provides a hosted service where users can route data.
A similar service is available from the company FormRouter, which says its hosted service to reduce costs, save time and simplifies the deployment of online forms. With the FormRouter service using Adobe Acrobat 8, form designers can enable Adobe Reader users to participate in document reviews, digitally sign documents and fill out and save PDF forms.
Adobe is also expanding its support real-time document markup. 9 Acrobat allows users in real time, review and mark documents in a shared space, sources. This is essentially the technology Adobe Connect, which was previously a product called Breeze Macromedia, Adobe, which acquired in 2005.
In addition to these new features and changes in product, which are among the greatest features new version, according to sources, Adobe has also made a number of changes in user interface and expanded graphics capabilities for users.
Acrobat 9 represents the next major version of Adobe Acrobat technology since 8 was published in November 2006.

New techniques to hide PDF file

A researcher discovered a set of techniques that allows PDF-malware integrated change its appearance in an almost infinite number of .
The coverage of “Race to Zero” has focused, at least for a short time, on the very real problem with the polymorphism for those who are trying to filter all the different types of malicious software that can happen on the system a user.
In terms of information security, polymorphism is used to describe a sample file that may exist in several different forms (usually executable binary different) yet still has the same payload.
Because polymorphism is not a new concept, there were a number of techniques introduced over the years to morph software automatically to enable him to slip past protective software. Fortunately for those who write the detection tools, many of these first attempts left clear signatures that result in the files, making it simple enough to detect the payload, even if it was the first time the file with this byte exact structure has been created.
Over time, the code used to generate alternatives has become better and he started to take more efforts on the antimalware developers to follow, with many indicating that developers of malicious software are winning.
PDF files have been targeted in the past as a way of slipping past malware scanners, an approach facilitated by the fact that a PDF file is a set of instructions that can tell the PDF interpreter execution various autonomous actions through simple scripting commands, and not just the formatting of documents that most people are familiar. The general belief is that PDF files are a “safe” document format, but there are more and more levels of research are invested to discover vulnerabilities with this file format.
From Steven’s work, it seems that PDF interpreters are happier to interpret other channel coding (hexadecimal, octal and ANSI are the examples he used), as if it was good text. This should be fairly simple to check against, but it does force any scanning application to devote more resources to each file it is scanning. Extending the result is the discovery that they are unlimited amounts of space can be placed between each character and PDF interpreters always correctly interpret the content.
Probably the worst combination of the above is that it is then possible to hide the unlimited options encryption by the malware payload encryption using PDF.
The general belief is that PDF files are a “safe” document format, but there are more and more levels of research are invested to discover vulnerabilities with this file format
To counter these problems antimalware a scanner will no longer need to decipher all non-password protected encrypted content, chain reduce all representations in a PDF file type (canonicalisation), then strip all spaces file before scanning for malware payload. This has the opposite effect polymorphism, but it imposes a significant increase in the level of resources necessary to scan each PDF file. Stevens reassured that there is “nothing alarming” about what he found. What he considers important is that “you have to be careful with PDF documents from an unknown source (e) because you can not rely entirely on your AV, or NIDS antispam software to block malicious PDF documents.

Foxit PDF Reader 2.3

With a download size of less than 2.5 MB, Foxit is an extremely fast and light PDF reader with a virtually non-existent installation process.

It is therefore extremely portable, just drag it on a USB drive or CD and you can use it anywhere with no problem.

Unlike many great PDF readers, Foxit is not resident on your PC, so it will not use much memory. Obviously, it would mean fewer features, but its simplicity and portability easily compensates for this shortfall.

Please note it is much more than just a PDF reader. Among the new features include a designer, improved tools zoom, spellchecker for PDF forms, improved plug-in for IE and more.

The latest v2.3 comes with a host of new features, including support for audio / visual elements within your PDF document.
Download it here