Windows NT
4.0
Reviewer’s Guide
1.0
Adobe
®Acrobat
®Messenger
™version
A paper-to-digital
dispatch center
Imagine that you’ve just returned from an out-of-town trade show. Your suitcase is bulging with business cards, product brochures, datasheets, legal contracts, and other papers accumulated during the three-day meeting marathon. Tomorrow afternoon, you’re expected to brief your boss and colleagues on the highlights of the trip: the new products you saw, the agreements you signed, the important contacts you made. Ideally, at this briefing you’d distribute copies of the most important materials you collected, complete with your annotations. But such an undertaking would require a major chunk of time shuffling, collating and coordinating pages at the photocopy machine, all the while hoping to avoid a paper jam.
With Adobe Acrobat Messenger software, you can bypass that ordeal just by scanning your paper documents, assembling them into one Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file, and adding electronic annotations to the file. When all your important trade-show materials are in one compact electronic document, you can simultaneously deliver the file to everyone on your list via e-mail, intranet, fax, or other methods.
Convert Paper Documents into Digital Files
The above scenario is just one example of how Acrobat Messenger can simplify the process of distributing paper-based information. A strategic component of the Adobe Systems ePaper® solution, Acrobat Messenger is based on Adobe Acrobat 4.0 and Acrobat Capture® technology. Ideal for workgroups and departments, Acrobat Messenger software turns a Microsoft® Windows® NT system equipped with a scanner or digital copier into a dedicated, shared, walk-up workstation that fits neatly into a copy room.
Acrobat Messenger converts paper documents into digital files and delivers them immediately via e-mail, the Web, fax, and more, saving time and money and enhancing office productivity. The streamlined, intuitive Acrobat Messenger interface enables any office worker familiar with a photocopying machine to use the soft-ware. At the same time, its standards-based architecture makes Acrobat Messenger easy to install, maintain and support. The same technical support personnel that install network and e-mail connections can config-ure Acrobat Messenger. No specialized software or manual address configuration is required. Acrobat Mes-senger reads and verifies e-mail addresses and passwords directly from the corporate servers.
Three-step process Acrobat Messenger lets you transform paper documents into searchable electronic files and deliver them at Internet speed in three easy steps:
Scan—Creates an Adobe PDF file from a paper document and includes an OCR option for creating search-able electronic documents. You can also scan photos (for non-prepress applications) and create JPEG files to share with others or include in other documents.
Preview—View an Adobe PDF document onscreen before distributing. Rotate, delete, or rearrange pages without rescanning. Mark up the document with electronic sticky notes, pencil drawings, rubber stamps and other annotations.
Deliver—Provides one-step distribution to everyone on your list. The six delivery options include (1) sending an Adobe PDF file as an e-mail attachment; (2) posting the file to an internal Web site and automatically notifying others with an e-mail containing the file’s URL; (3) sending the file directly to a desktop PC on the
company network; (4) saving the file to a floppy or other removable media; (5) printing to a local printer; and (6) faxing. For maximum efficiency, you can deliver a file using all delivery options at once.
Target users—Acrobat Messenger is ideal for large companies with multiple sites; departments that rely heavily on paper communications, such as sales, marketing communications, event marketing, purchasing, human resources, in-house research libraries, legal and engineering departments; and businesses in paper-intensive industries (financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical). Medium to smaller companies can also benefit from the productivity gains, convenience, and cost savings that Acrobat Messenger software provides.
Key Benefits
Acrobat Messenger lets anyone working in an office transform paper documents into electronic files and deliver them to others as easily as they would send an e-mail message.
Improve productivity—Quickly convert black-and-white or color documents from paper to cross-platform, electronic files that preserve the look and feel of the original. Distribute the files simultaneously via e-mail, fax, intranet and other methods in a fraction of the time it would take to send the same information on paper.
Save money—Acrobat Messenger cuts photocopying, courier, overnight delivery and other expenses associated with distributing information on paper.
Ease of use—Acrobat Messenger features a streamlined, intuitive user interface. The user simply clicks a few buttons, such as ‘Scan.’ There are no decisions for them to make or preferences to set, thus making it easy to get the job done with little or no training.
Make scanning widely available—Acrobat Messenger provides a practical, cost-effective way to offer scanning to every user in the office.
Deliver documents to anyone, any time—You can distribute documents quickly to colleagues, clients, and others on your distribution list, whether they’re down the hall or across the globe.
Unlock critical information—Transform the knowledge confined to paper documents into rich digital content that can be searched and retrieved easily.
Annotate documents—Acrobat Messenger lets you add text notes, draw with a pencil, add a stamp such as ‘Confidential,’ and make other electronic annotations to an Adobe PDF file. Handwritten notes and signatures added to paper documents are also retained when the document is scanned and converted to Adobe PDF.
Create large searchable archives—Acrobat Messenger uses OCR technology to convert scanned Adobe PDF documents into full text-searchable digital content.
Web-based repository—Acrobat Messenger has its own embedded Web server with a repository for docu-ments created at Acrobat Messenger stations within the company. Anyone with access to the intranet can post, search and retrieve the documents. The Acrobat Messenger intranet Web site also contains an extensive help page with tips and techniques for users.
Easily deliver documents across a network—Sending a file to multiple recipients across a busy network can add to a network’s traffic congestion. Using the Email (Web Address) delivery option, Acrobat Messenger deposits the Adobe PDF file you create into the document repository within its own embedded Web server and sends those on your distribution list an e-mail message containing the Web link to the file. As a result, recipients can access the document at their convenience, and the impact on network traffic is minimal.
Supports widely used e-mail standards—Acrobat Messenger uses the same protocols typically used for desk-top e-mail services, such as SMTP for message delivery. As a result, it’s easy for technical support personnel to
set up Acrobat Messenger and for office workers to send Adobe PDF files as e-mail attachments from Acrobat Messenger stations.
Minimal administration required—Acrobat Messenger runs efficiently and independently on a Windows NT workstation, requiring little if any technical support administration.
Full faxing capability—Using the Fax option, Acrobat Messenger automatically creates a header page, faxes the document to the recipient, and tells the sender if the fax was sent successfully via e-mail notification.
Uses a standard fax modem—Acrobat Messenger uses a standard fax modem, which is easier to install and configure than network fax servers. One fax modem can support multiple Acrobat Messenger stations on a network.
Easily track usage—Acrobat Messenger can create a standard tab-delimited file that contains station activity by user name, making it easy to track usage such as fax transmissions.
Supports double-sided scanning—When used with a scanner that supports double-sided scanning, Acrobat Messenger software prompts you when to turn over a document so that the other side can be scanned.
A full view of the Acrobat Messenger interface, with the Scanning and Delivery panels at left and the document preview window, complete with thumb-nails and annotation tools, at right.
Important Notes for the Reviewer
To fully explore Acrobat Messenger, you’ll need a worksta-tion running the Windows NT 4.0 operating system and a scanner or digital copier (ISIS drivers are preferred). See the ‘System Requirements’ sidebar at the end of this guide for full details.
If you don’t have access to a Windows NT system pre-configured with Acrobat Messenger, contact your company’s network administrator or technical support staff for installation assistance. Consult the
‘Config_Checklist.pdf ’ file on your reviewer’s CD for fur-ther help.
About This Reviewer’s Guide
This reviewer’s guide includes four step-by-step projects to guide you through your exploration of Acrobat Messenger. An additional project at the end of this guide is designed to show you how to use Acrobat Messenger to
create an Adobe PDF portfolio of your own articles or other materials.
Project 1: Scan, Annotate and
De-liver a Legal Document
Most companies receive legal documents from vendors, clients, and partners on paper. With Acrobat Messenger, you can easily scan, annotate, distribute, search and archive those paper legal documents. In this project, you’ll scan a signed legal document (you can use the Adobe Non-Disclosure Agreement), add a few annotations, and use the e-mail attachment and print delivery options.
Step one: Scan
1. Go to the Acrobat Messenger station. Log in by typing your e-mail address and pass-word. Note: Your password is only required if user authentication has been enabled on your Acrobat Messenger station.
2. Insert the pages of a signed legal document (such as the Adobe NDA) into the scanner’s automatic document feeder.
3. In the Acrobat Messenger Scanning panel, select B/W Document and Single Sided. 4. For Media Size, choose the appropriate page
size (such as Letter, Legal, or A4). 5. Type ‘Contract’ to name the document.
To begin an Acrobat Messenger session, type in your e-mail address and, if required, password.
6. Place the cursor on the Scan button and click once to initiate the scanning process.
7. When the scanning is finished, the arrow to the right of the Scan button will blink. Clicking on it takes you to the Delivery panel. For now, though, ignore the blinking arrow.
Step Two: Annotate
1. In the horizontal menu in the right Preview panel, click on the Stamp tool. Hold down the cursor and drag and draw a box at the top of page 1.
2. In the Stamp Properties dialog box, click on Confidential, then click OK. 3. Double-click the thumbnail for Page 2 in the Thumbnails pane.
4. Click to select the Pencil tool from the vertical toolbar. Using the tool, draw a circle around the signature lines at the bottom of the page to highlight the lines.
5. Select the Notes tool in the vertical toolbar. Click the cursor to the right of the paragraph you just high-lighted. Type a brief message in the Notes window, such as ‘Here’s a copy of the signed contract for your records.’ Click in the left-top corner of the Notes window to close the window.
6. Decide where you want to save the downloaded file and click Save.
7. After the utility has downloaded, double-click the file to begin the installation process.
8. During installation, you’ll be asked for the host name of the Acrobat Messenger station from which you want to send files. The host name is the same name as the Web site URL but without the “http://” prefix. If necessary, ask the person who set up the Acrobat Messenger station for the host name and type it in. 9. Continue the installation process and be sure the ‘Start allowing messages’ option is selected. Click Finish. 10. Click on the system tray icon for Acrobat Messenger Express to confirm that ‘Enable Express Deliveries’ is
selected.
11. Verify the information, click Open Using Application, and browse to find Adobe Acrobat and select it. Note: Acrobat Reader, if installed on your computer, will automatically pop up and display an Adobe PDF file sent to your desktop via the ‘Express to’ option. If you have Acrobat Reader installed, you can skip this step.
Project 2: Install Acrobat Messenger Express
One of the six delivery options Acrobat Messenger offers is ‘Express to,’ in which the Adobe PDF file you create at an Acrobat Messenger station can be sent directly to a Windows desktop. In addition, a file sent using the ‘Express to’ option can be displayed automatically on the recipient’s computer in Acrobat 4.0 or Acrobat Reader.
‘Express to’ is an ideal delivery choice if you want to send an Adobe PDF from the Acrobat Messenger station to your own computer for further processing. In order to send a file to a Windows desktop, however, the recipient computer must have Acrobat Messenger Express, a client software utility, installed. Acrobat Messenger Express establishes a direct connection between the Acrobat Messenger station and a Windows desktop. It allows you to set up a directory on any networked Windows PC to receive files directly from the Acrobat Messenger station. In this project, you’ll download and install Acrobat Messenger Express on your own Windows 95/98/2000 computer. Downloading and installing Acrobat Messenger Express is only required if you plan to test the ‘Ex-press to’ delivery option as described in Project 4. Note: Before you attempt this project, Acrobat Messenger
The Pencil tool
The Notes tool The Stamp tool
must be running on a Windows NT workstation on your network. You’ll also need the appropriate URL for the Acrobat Messenger Web server on your company’s intranet. If you don’t have the URL, ask the person who set up the Acrobat Messenger station or check the upper right-hand corner of the screen saver. 1. On your Windows PC, launch your Web browser.
2. Point the browser to the appropriate URL for the Acrobat Messenger Web site on your company’s intranet.
3. On the Acrobat Messenger Web page, take a moment to review the Tips and Techniques content. The Acrobat Messenger Web page provides extensive, easy-to-understand user help.
4. Scroll to ‘Acrobat Messenger Express Client Software’ and click to select ‘Get Client Software.’ 5. Decide where you want to save the downloaded file and click Save.
6. After the utility has downloaded, double-click the file to begin the installation process.
7. During installation, you’ll be asked for the host name of the Acrobat Messenger station from which you want to send files. The host name is the same name as the Web site URL but without the “http://” prefix. If necessary, ask the person who set up the Acrobat Messenger station for the host name and type it in. 8. Continue the installation process and be sure ‘Start allowing messages’ is selected. Click Finish. 9. Click on the system tray icon for Acrobat Messenger Express to confirm that ‘Enable Express Deliveries’
is selected.
10. Verify the information, click Open Using Application, and browse to find Adobe Acrobat and select it. Note: Acrobat Reader, if installed on your computer, will automatically pop up and display an Adobe PDF file sent to your desktop via the ‘Express to’ option. If you have Acrobat Reader installed, you can skip this step.
Project 3: Scan Multiple Documents into one Adobe PDF
Acrobat Messenger lets you combine multiple paper documents easily into one compact Adobe PDF file and deliver the electronic document in mulitple ways. If you’re evaluating a new product proposal, for instance, you may have several different documents—such as a spreadsheet, color graphics, a business card, and so on—that you’d want to combine into one electronic file. For delivery, you could post the Adobe PDF file on the Acrobat Messenger Web site repository; send it directly to your desktop so you’ll have a copy for your records; and fax it to your manager, who’s currently traveling and has access only to a hotel fax machine. In this project, you’ll scan a five-page business proposal, complete with color graphics; a business card; and a two-page color marketing brochure. The final Adobe PDF will be posted on the Acrobat Messenger Web site repository, sent directly to your own computer using ‘Express to,’ and faxed. Note: You should have received a printed version of this document with your reviewer’s kit. If not, the source file for the document,
‘LineASight.pdf,’ is included on your reviewer’s CD. Open and print the file, then scan it.
1. Insert the five-page ‘LineASight’ business proposal (includes a cover letter, one-page product descrip-tion, two-page feasibility study, and a spreadsheet) into the scanner’s automatic document feeder. 2. In the Acrobat Messenger Scanning panel, choose Color Document and Single Sided. For Media Size,
select the appropriate page size (such as Letter or A4). 3. For Document Title, type ‘Business Proposal’ and click Scan.
4. Once the scanning is complete, double click to select the spreadsheet page in the Thumbnails pane to the right of the Scanning panel. Click the ‘Rotate currently viewed page clockwise’ icon on the horizontal menu to rotate the page from a vertical to horizontal layout.
5. Place a standard business card face down on the scanner’s glass surface. In the Acrobat Messenger Scan-ning panel, select B/W Document and Single Sided, choose Letter for Media Size, and click Scan. Acro-bat Messenger will add the business card as the sixth page to the ‘Business Proposal’ document. Remove the business card from the scanner.
6. Make the business card the first page of the document by clicking on its thumbnail and dragging it to a spot in front of the current page one.
7. Insert the first page of the double-sided Adobe ePaper Solutions document into the scanner’s document feeder.
8. In the Acrobat Messenger Scanning panel, select Color Document and Double Sided. Choose the appro-priate page size for Media Size and click Scan.
9. When prompted, turn the document over to scan the backside.
10. When the scanning is finished, click the flashing right arrow to go to the Delivery panel.
11. Select Email (Web Address), type your own or someone else’s e-mail address in the ‘to’ field, and add a brief message to the Message field. This delivery option will automatically post the Adobe PDF file you created to the Acrobat Messenger Document Repository and send an e-mail message containing the URL link to the file.
12. Click to select ‘Express to.’ A drop-down list of recipients will be displayed. Select yourself as the recipi-ent. Click Send to send the documrecipi-ent. Note: To send this document to your own workstation via the ‘Express to’ feature, you must first have completed Project 2 to install Acrobat Messenger Express client software.
13. Click Fax. Type in the recipient’s fax number and name and a brief message. Note: Remember to enter a ‘9’ or other code for outside dialing, if required.
14. Confirm that ‘Make Document Searchable’ is se-lected and click Send.
15. In the Delivery Status window, click Restart.
Project 4: Scan a Color Photo
Acrobat Messenger lets you scan color photos and save them as JPEG files. Because the JPEG format compresses images for compact storage and easy transmission, it’s a popular choice for sharing photos online or importing them into HTML and other documents. You can open JPEG files with any standard Web browser or image editing software or import them into office applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint®. In this project, you’ll scan a color photo, edit it with the
Crop tool, and save the file to a disk. The Photo mode in the Scanning panel lets you choose
from Screen, Print, or High resolution. Acrobat Messenger
lets you rotate one or all pages counter-clockwise or counter-clockwise.
System Requirements • Intel® Pentium® II processor 400-MHz or faster • Dedicated workstation with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or later • 128MB of RAM • 4GB hard drive • CD-ROM drive
• Adaptec PCI-based SCSI card (if connecting a scanner via SCSI interface)
• Modem or modem card (if fax is desired as a destination) • Ethernet card, monitor, keyboard and mouse • PostScript® language printer (recommended)
Network Requirements • TCP/IP
• Fixed IP address for Acrobat Messenger
• DNS or WINS naming service • SMTP mail services for email delivery
Optional Services • POP3 service to authenticate users by email name and password (login by email name and password) • LDAP To lookup an email address by name
1. Place any color photo on the scanner’s glass surface.
2. In Acrobat Messenger, click to select Photo under Original Document. For resolution, select Print reso-lution.
3. Name the file ‘Color Photo’ in the Document Title field and click Scan.
4. Select the Crop tool from the vertical toolbar. Draw a box around the central part of the photo in order to eliminate the rest of the picture.
5. Double-click inside the box to perform the crop. 6. Click the gray right arrow to go to the Delivery panel.
7. Click Save to save the file to the removable media storage format (such as a floppy disc) supported by your Acrobat Messenger station.
8. Click Goodbye to exit this Acrobat Messenger session or click Restart to perform the Optional Project that follows.
Optional Project: Create an Adobe PDF Portfolio of Your Work
Writers, analysts, and other professionals can use Acrobat Messenger to easily create electronic portfolios of their published work in Adobe PDF format. Here’s how:
1. Go to the Acrobat Messenger Scan panel, choose the appropriate settings (B/W Document and such), and scan printed samples of your work—magazine or newspaper articles, newsletter reports, and so on. Consider scanning a recent resume as well. Note: Remember to select Double Sided if needed.
2. Once the documents have been scanned, place your business card on the scanning surface and click the Scan button in Acrobat Messenger.
3. If desired, click and drag the business card thumbnail so that it’s the first page of the Adobe PDF file. 4. Click the flashing arrow to go to the Delivery panel. Choose the delivery method you want, such as
Ex-press to (to send the file directly to your desktop) or Email (Attachment). Or select all six delivery op-tions.
5. When finished, click Goodbye to exit this Acrobat Messenger session.
Contact Information
If you have further questions regarding Acrobat Messenger, please contact: Mark Heisten
Adobe Public Relations 408-536-3421
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA
Adobe Systems Europe Limited
Adobe House, Mid New Cultins Edinburgh EH11 4DU Scotland, United Kingdom
Adobe Systems Pty. Ltd.
Level 5, 18–20 Orion Road Lane Cove, New South Wales 2066 Australia
Adobe Systems Co., Ltd.
Yebisu Garden Place Tower 4-20-3 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku Tokyo 150 Japan
World Wide Web
http://www.adobe.com
This document was created with Adobe PageMaker® software and font software from the Adobe Type Library. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Acrobat Messenger, Acrobat
Capture, ePaper, PageMaker, and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and PowerPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. © 2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. 2/00
