Creative Classroom Online - Tech for Learning

Kathy Schrock's Tech Quest

Features of Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat 5.0, the most recent version, has many useful features. Here are just a few.

Archiving Web pages You can download and convert a Web site into a single Acrobat PDF file, with the links and graphics intact. Basically, you make a static copy of the site on your computer -- a useful feature when you are gathering research information, creating presentations, or want to keep a site exactly "as is" for future use. Make sure to get permission beforehand from the site's Webmaster in order to adhere to the copyright and fair-use guidelines.

Adding comments PDF Illustration Use Adobe Acrobat when creating documents that need to be reviewed and commented on by many people, such as group projects for a graduate class. Reviewers can add electronic sticky notes, text highlights, graphic mark-ups, audio, and more to Adobe PDF documents from within their Web browsers. You can then sort the comments by author, date, type, or page number.

"Repurposing" Adobe PDF content The latest version of Adobe Acrobat allows you to save entire Adobe PDF files to other formats, such as Microsoft Word, so that you can "repurpose" their contents. This comes in handy, for example, when you come across a PDF file that you feel adds value to a report you are creating for the school board. Rather than retype it, simply save the Adobe PDF file to the Rich Text Format (RTF), import the RTF file into your word-processing application, and add it to your report.

Kathy Schrock, a technology coordinator, created Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators at http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/. E-mail your Tech Quest questions to ccmedit@inch.com

Using PDFs on portable digital assistants If you have the Adobe Acrobat program, there is a piece of freeware called "PDF2Doc" which allows you to take an item already in PDF format and convert it to a file format which can be read by the Palm operating system. (See http://tinystocks.com/pdf2doc.html for details.) Ansyr has created the same type of program for the Windows CE devices. (See http://www.ansyr.com/products/mobileoffice.asp for details.) As more schools get portable digital assistants into the hands of administrators, staff, and students, this also becomes an effective way to share information.

Making eBooks If you are using eBooks (electronic books) in your school or district, you can use Adobe Acrobat to create them. Acrobat will retain the formatting, look, and feel of the original document, and they can be opened by anyone. Learn more about how to create Adobe PDF files for eBooks at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrdis/createbooks.html

Resources
Web sites
www.adobe.com/products/tips/acrobat.html
Log on for tutorials on using Acrobat.

www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=679
Access tips and tricks for using Adobe Acrobat.

www.pdfzone.com/products/software/
Learn about various PDF-related tools.

Books
Adobe Acrobat 5.0: Classroom in a Book (Adobe Systems, 2001).

This manual has lessons to help beginners learn how to use Adobe Acrobat.

PDF with Acrobat 5: Visual QuickStart Guide by Ted Alspach (Peachpit Press, 2001).

This book about Acrobat will be available later this month.

MEETING THE STANDARDS
This month's Tech Quest addresses ISTE standard I.D: Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging technologies; and V.D: Use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning.