Adobe® Acrobat is a program to create .PDF files, fill-in forms for and from the US Patent and Trademark Office and courts and to prepare electronic filings.

To Open a .PDF

Choose File|Open to access a profiled .PDF file in the document management system.
– OR –

Choose Shift File|Open to access the native Windows directory.  (Hold down the Shift key when you choose File|Open.)

To Save A .PDF

Choose File|Save As to save and profile a .PDF file in the document management system.

– OR –

Choose Shift File|Save As to save a .PDF file in the native Windows directory.  (Hold down the Shift key when you choose File|Save As.)

Convert a Word Document into a .PDF

1. File|Print
2. Select Adobe PDF and choose OK
3. Save to the native Windows directory

Toolbar Tips

There will be times when you will need to work with different functions in Adobe.  Some of these functions will be accessed from Toolbars.

All the Toolbars you’ll need are under in the Menubar.  For our purposes we will open the Forms Toolbar to size and format fields so that we can fill them.

Editing fields in forms

Where are the editing tools?  They are buried inside each field.  To see the fields, choose the proper field on the Forms Toolbar.  Start with text fields: When the fields are visible, simply Double Click on the field you want to edit and you will see the Object data for each Field:

Appearance

NB:  To fit all the text into a field, reduce the Font Size under the Appearance tab.

Options

NB:  To get more than one line of text into a field, check the Multi-line option under the Options tab.

NB:  To Bold and/or Underline text in a field, check the Allow Rich Text Formatting option under the Options tab and then use the Select Tool

NB:  To squeeze in a few more characters, increase the number in the Limit of characters field or deselect the option under the Options tab.

Working with interactive forms

When working with interactive forms knowing which areas of the form are fields and which of those fields are required is very important.  When you open an interactive form, you will notice two check boxes.  These two check boxes are:  Highlight fields and Highlight required fields.  If these are checked, you will see a red highlight around the required fields and a blue background on all the fields.

Not all blanks are fields.  Some areas of the form are left empty and will be filled in according to other information in the form.  It is important to identify the regular and required fields in the form.  Fill in the fields only.

Document compiling

Pull documents together into one file for sending to a client, to a court or for submission to the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).  Extract pages that are not relevant.  Some PTO forms have a page of instructions that are unnecessary when filing the document.  You may want to delete the page of instructions.  You may want to extract certain pages of one file and bring into a new file.  You may also need to make a .PDF “searchable.”  And when you send documents via email, remember, size matters!  It’s all under in the Menubar.

Insert/Extract Pages

Choose , then select .  Don’t forget the shortcut keys!

Choose , then select

NB: Extract is not the same as Delete Pages.  The Pages remain in the original document.

NB: Also, you can Replace Pages in a document with pages from another document.

NB: And, you can Rotate Pages if the scan comes in upside down.

OCR (“Searchable” Text)

, then choose

Choose File|Open to access a profiled .PDF file in a document management system.

– OR –

Choose Shift File|Open to access the native Windows directory.

To Save A .PDF

Choose File|Save As to save and profile a .PDF file in the document management system.

– OR –

Choose Shift File|Save As to save a .PDF file in the native Windows directory.  (Hold down the Shift key when you choose File|Save As.)

Toolbar Tips

There will be times when you will need to work with different functions in Adobe.  Some of these functions will be accessed from Toolbars.

All the Toolbars you’ll need are under in the Menubar.  For our purposes we will open the Forms Toolbar to size and format fields so that we can fill them.

Optimize It! (“Remember, size matters!”)

Reduce file size by Optimizing it!

1. OCR the document, if it’s not “searchable” already.
2. To Optimize, choose
3. Select from the dropdown menu.

These are the proper settings:

Tools of the trade

Here are a number of tools to make your work-life easier in Acrobat.

Copy Image

Copy images from a .PDF file directly into Word.

1. Click on the Capture tool (pictured above)
2. Select the image to be copied by Click and Drag.  The image is automatically saved in the Clipboard.
3. Paste in Word (Ctrl v)

Typewriter Tool

Note: This is a very limited tool.  You cannot change the font of the text, only the size and the line spacing.  Most of the time you will need to use the text tool.

NB:  Type text on a “nonfillable” .PDF where there are no text fields.

Select Tool

is used to Select “searchable” text.  Then Right Click to do the following:  Copy&Paste, Underline, Bold, etc.

Redact

Redact is when you want to see BLACK marks over text so that the text is unreadable.  If you do this in Word using the Highlighter tool and choosing Color: Black, make sure to print the file and create the .PDF using the Copier/Scanner.  Do not use the Adobe PDF printer because that will capture the actual text.

Capture Flash on the Web

NB:  Save your web pages – even flash web pages – appropriately for filing, say, at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

1. In your web browser choose File|Print and select the Adobe PDF printer.
2. Save as .PDF to your Home drive.
3. When the .PDF opens in Adobe, choose Shift File|Save As (hold down the Shift key when you choose File|Save As.)
4. Change the Save As Type: option to JPEG and Save.

Embedded Fonts

When specific fonts are not required, navigate to Adobe PDF Settings:

File | Print | Adobe PDF Properties | Adobe PDF Settings tab and deselect the option Do not send fonts to “Adobe PDF.”

Document and Markups

Markups and comments  needs to be made visible on the printout.

Here is a sample of a document sent to print without selecting Document and Markups:

Here is a sample of the same document sent to print selecting Document and Markups:

You get the picture!

That’s it.  Good luck.