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Adobe
Acrobat 5.0
"Great
Multi-Platform Program That Allows You To
Create, Review, Approve, Secure, and Share PDF Files!"
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Adobe
has released Acrobat 5.0.
Adobe Acrobat software is a desktop productivity tool that allows you
to create, review, approve, secure, and share Adobe PDF (Portable Document
Format) files. PDF is a universal file format that preserves all of the
fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document, regardless
of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files are
compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended
by anyone with the free Acrobat Reader. Version 5 offers some genuine
improvements for corporate and graphic designers: revamped interface;
better printing and color-management controls; batch processing capabilities;
form-generation tools; digital signatures; security settings; tighter
integration between Acrobat and Microsoft Office; and WebDAV and XML support.
Available
for both PC and Macintosh. Price: $249; upgrade $99. See following Web
sites for further information on Adobe Acrobat: ThePowerXChange: http://www.thepowerxchange.com.
Adobe Web site: http://www.adobe.com.
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Beginners, intermediate, and advanced computer
users. The program is appropriate for just about anyone. It is
so easy to use that a novice could learn the basics in a short time. Yet,
the features are robust enough for intermediate and advanced users. |
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Adobe
Acrobat 5.0--The
new and enhanced features in this version are:
Save
Time by Repurposing Content:
- Save
As RFT
- Extract
Images
- Save
as Images
- Open
as Adobe PDF
Protect
shared Documents:
- Add
Password Protection
- Add
Digital Signatures
- Restrict
Printing and Changes
- Precisely
Set Security Controls
Review
and Share Comments Online
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Work Within a Browser
- Share
Comments Online
Migrate
Forms to the Web
- Create
Live Electronic Forms
- Publish
Dynamic Forms Online
- Support
for XML Form Data
- Automatically
Calculate and Validate Date
- Spell-Check
- Digitally
Sign Forms
Make
Documents Accessible
- Support
for High-Contrast
- Support
for Screen Readers
- Keyboard
Shortcuts
Enhanced
Output and Color Controls
- Tight
Adobe Integration
- Print
Efficiently
- Advanced
Print Controls
- Preview
Overprinting
Work
Smarter
- Gather
Research Data from the Web
- Consistent
Adobe PDF Creation
- Customizable
Toolbars
- Powerful
Batch Processing
- Analyze
and Repair Documents
- Find
Comments
- Filter
Comments
- Enhanced
Navigation Palettes
- Create
Custom Search Criteria
Install
and Maintain Acrobat Across an Enterprise
- Easy
Deployment and Maintenance
- Configurable
Installations
- Enhanced
for Lockdown Environments
- Support
for Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services
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History
of Product |
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Since
there tends to be some misunderstanding as to what constitutes Adobe Acrobat,
I thought I would provide a brief history of the product. There are several
reasons for this confusion. Most individuals are familiar with the free
Acrobat Reader, and equate it with Adobe Acrobat. But the Reader is not
Adobe Acrobat. It's just a component of a much larger product that has
evolved through several versions. Also, the suite of programs, as well
as the individual components, have gone through name changes. And, some
components have changed from separate executionable applications to plug-ins.
In
1993, Adobe introduced Acrobat 1.0 to help the growing user base view
documents created on different platforms. For example, a PC user could
view a PDF file that was created on a Macintosh or UNIX and vice versa.
The Acrobat Reader was free and enabled the viewing and printing of a
document while maintaining that document's integrity. Fonts, graphics,
design, and layout were all preserved in a PDF file so that the end user
could view and print a document without needing any of the fonts, links,
or applications from which the document was created. The other two applications
released in Version 1.0, Acrobat Distiller and Acrobat Exchange were software
items that had to be purchased from Adobe. Acrobat Distiller enabled users
to create a PDF document from a PostScript file printed to disk. Virtually
any file created by an application with the capability to print to disk
could be converted to PDF. After a PDF was created, it could then be edited
in Acrobat Exchange.
The
product evolved, and with the Version 2.1, it was referred to as Acrobat
Pro. The Acrobat Reader was still a free application, and Acrobat Pro
was a bundle of several applications that had to be purchased from Adobe.
Acrobat Pro included Acrobat Distiller and Acrobat Exchange and it introduced
a new application known as Acrobat Catalog that enabled the user to create
searches from multiple PDF files and provided an organized index of all
the words used in documents. Version 2.1 also enabled the user to add
security to PDF files, which prevented other users with Exchange from
modifying the documents.
Then
with the release of Version 3.0 Adobe dropped the reference to Acrobat
Pro and simply called the Acrobat suite of software Adobe Acrobat. This
caused some of the confusion because many users referred to the Reader
as Adobe Acrobat. The Version 3 release of Adobe Acrobat included all
of the previous modules that were part of the 2.1 release, with new additions,
Acrobat Capture and Acrobat Scan, added to the bundle.
Release
of Version 4.0 added further confusion. Adobe Acrobat was used to refer
to the suite of applications but Acrobat Exchange was simply referred
to as Acrobat. The remaining applications of Reader, Catalog, Distiller,
and PDFWriter were included in the bundle.
With
Adobe Acrobat 5.0, Adobe has kept the name of Acrobat to refer to the
component that was earlier referred to as Exchange. So, now the suite
of programs is called Adobe Acrobat, and the powerful component with editing
features within the suite is called Acrobat. The suite has undergone further
changes, with some of the former separate executionable applications being
changed to plug-ins accessible from within the Acrobat component. The
Reader remains free and is used for viewing and printing. To have access
to all the options, you still need the complete suite. To centrally locate
functions in the suite, Adobe has reduced the importance of PDFWriter
and added a means of creating PDFs from within the Acrobat component.
Additionally, Acrobat Catalog is now a plug-in and also accessible from
within the Acrobat application. So this new release of Acrobat includes
two separate applications: Acrobat and Acrobat Distiller. Other components
are added as plug-ins, both Adobe and third-party.
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Components |
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During
the review of Adobe Acrobat, I looked at four books on the subject, and
each one had a different list of components because they included different
plug-ins in their list. Remember, in addition to the distinct applications
available with Adobe Acrobat, there are plug-ins developed by Adobe Systems
and many third-party manufacturers. Below is my component list, which
includes applications and a few plug-ins out of the numerous ones that
are available.
- Acrobat
Reader--A reader that allows you to read and print PDFs,
but provides no editing capabilities. You can use it to fill out forms
on Web sites and to select/copy text for use in another application.
It can also be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's Web site. Plus
it is usually included free with other Adobe products. There is also
an Acrobat eBook Reader, which is free from the Adobe Web site. It allows
you to read electronic books, and annotate and search their pages. You
can also lend and give away eBooks.
- Acrobat--Expanded
program used to view, print, edit, and customize PDF files. In addition,
interactive features such as movies, sound clips, actions, bookmarks,
links, and so on my be added.
- Adobe
Distiller--Converts PostScript files to PDF format, allowing
you to choose options for how fonts and graphics will be handled. Distiller
comes with sets of presaved job settings, but allows you to create your
own or import settings from another source.
- PDF
Writer--Printer
driver that generates PDF files within such applications as QuarkXPress,
PageMaker, or InDesign and is included free with many Adobe products.
Instead of sending your document to a printer, you create a PDF file
using the PDF Writer driver. The driver is not included with a standard
install of Acrobat 5.0. But it is available with a custom install. To
simplify matters, in Acrobat 5.0, Adobe has added the Open as Adobe
PDF menu command that serves as a replacement for the PDFWriter. You
can use either the simple PDF Writer or the more robust Open as Adobe
PDF command to create PDF files.
- PDF
Maker--This is an IBM-compatible component that automatically
adds a utility to Microsoft Office applications that permits direct
export to PDF. This feature works with Word 97, Word 2000, Excel 97,
Excel 2000, PowerPoint 97, and PowerPoint 2000. PDFMaker creates tagged
Adobe PDF files and maintains Web-link styles and bookmarks already
present in the original document.
- Acrobat
Catalog (Plug-in)--Allows
you to create a searchable index of PDF documents, which is perfect
for archiving purposes. This system can be used on a single computer,
over an intranet, or saved onto CDs for future use. Both Distiller and
Catalog are now accessible from within the Acrobat version 5 program;
they were separate in previous versions.
- Acrobat
Messenger--Allows PC users to e-mail PDF files using the
Adobe Messaging Application Program Interface. It works like a fax or
copy machine. You copy or scan the documents, convert them to PDF using
the Open As PDF command, and e-mail them right from Acrobat.
- Acrobat
Capture (formally called Paper Capture) (Plug-in)--Lets you
scan in documents and convert them to PDFs on the fly. The Paper Capture
feature had been included with Acrobat for the past several versions.
When Adobe first introduced Acrobat 5, they did not include it. After
hearing from customers, Adobe started shipping Acrobat 5 with this feature.
It is also available free for download from Adobe's Web site for the
Windows version of Acrobat. Adobe also markets a separate and much more
sophisticated version that is sold apart from Adobe Acrobat.
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Installation,
Manual, and Help |
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Installation
is a smooth process. If you want the PDFWriter, you need to do a custom
install. Also, I always recommend perusing Adobe CDs before installation
to determine what goodies are included. Adobe always provides additional
material such as Adobe tryouts, third party solutions, tutorials, PDF
files with various information, fonts, samples, etc. There is no printed
User's Guide, but the application CD includes complete documentation in
an accessible PDF-based help system that can be printed or read on-screen.
And there is more help and tutorials on the Adobe web site.
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Interface |
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The
interface has been enhanced in Acrobat 5.0, so that it now has a more
Microsoft Office style or feel. The document window is divided into two
panes: Navigation pane and Document pane. The Navigation pane, along the
left-hand side, provides controls for finding your way through a PDF document.
It now has tab palettes, such as Bookmarks, Signatures, and Thumbnails.
The Bookmarks palette can now differentiate bookmarks such as subheads
with color, bold, or italic. The Thumbnails palette generates thumbnails
of pages in an Adobe PDF file on the fly, making it easy to navigate lengthy
documents that didn't have thumbnails already embedded in them. You can
choose from the Window menu to open a palette or select one of these tabs.
In version 5, command icons have been moved to the top of the Navigation
pane. Also, Acrobat 5.0 provides additional menu options for each palette.
With the Thumbnails palette selected, for example, a Thumbnail drop-down
menu makes it easy to choose between small and large thumbnails; insert,
extract, replace, delete, rotate, or crop pages. You can choose to show
or hide the Navigation pane, depending on your needs. To the right is
the Document pane, which contains the file that you are working on. Running
across the top of the window is the Menu bar containing the drop-down
menus for various commands. And instead of a vertical Tool palette like
in version 4, the tools are now placed horizontally in multiple Microsoft
Office-like Toolbars just below the Menu bar. Toolbars can be hidden or
displayed, and you can drag a toolbar away from its default position to
relocate it on the main Menu bar or drag a Toolbar into the Document pane
to turn the Toolbar into a floating palette. New Toolbars include Commenting
and Editing. Along, the bottom is a Status bar that shows the size of
the currently displayed page and the current page number, as well as other
information.
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Save
Time by Repurposing Content |
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Acrobat
5.0 provides a more robust and flexible PDF format that enables you to
share your electronic documents, as well as the contents.
- Save
as RTF--Adobe
PDF files can be saved as a Rich Text Format (RTF) file, then incorporated
into other reports and presentations, and the text is fully editable.
- Extract
Images--You
can extract images from PDF documents and then save them as TIFF, JPEG,
or PNG files. These images can then be used in wordprocessing, presentation,
page layout, HTML, and other files. You can set options for compression,
format, color space, and resolution directly in Acrobat.
- Save
as Images--You
can quickly convert a PDF file into images simply by saving to the TIFF,
JPEG, or PNG formats. Acrobat converts each page of the PDF file into
a separate image file in the chosen format. You can also save PDF files
as PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript files. PostScript options
allow you to save to PostScript Language Levels 1, 2, or 3, convert
TrueType to Type 1 fonts, select a transparency level, and more.
- Open
as Adobe PDF--With
Acrobat 5.0, you can use the new Open as Adobe PDF command to quickly
convert BMP, GIF, HTML, JPEG, PCX, PNG, TIFF, and text files into new
PDF files or add them to existing PDF documents.
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Protect
Shared Documents |
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Acrobat
5.0 provides enhanced protection and controls so that you can securely
share sensitive documents online, such as legal contracts, competitive
bids, design proposals and other business documents.
- Add
Password Protection--The
program now supports 128-bit encryption, so that you can control access
to documents by assigning passwords. Plus, you can set encryption to
the 40-bit level, which allows a secure Adobe PDF file to be opened
with earlier versions of Acrobat.
- Add
Digital Signatures--This
feature offers you much more than the ability to "sign" PDF
documents to indicate that you've read or approved them. You can use
it to verify signatures, so that you can make sure that they're authentic.
The program supports a flexible digital signature architecture that
allows third-party digital signature and PKI vendors such as Entrust,
VeriSign, and CIC to seamlessly and consistently plug into Acrobat and
enable eSignatures on an Adobe PDF file. In addition, Acrobat provides
an out-of-the box Public-Private Key solution for workgroups in which
a third-party Certificate Authority is not required. New to Acrobat
5.0 is the ability to easily request and exchange your certificates
of authority with colleagues from within Acrobat via e-mail. Also new
is the ability to use your colleague's certificates (public keys) as
encryption keys so you can secure an Adobe PDF file so that only specified
people may open it.
- Restrict
Printing and Changes--With
the Acrobat Standard Security feature, you can block others from printing
a document and from repurposing or changing its contents, including
the addition of comments.
- Precisely
Set Security Controls--The
program offers highly flexible security settings that let you determine
exactly which actions, if any, viewers of an Adobe PDF file can take.
For instance, you could prevent others from changing a document, yet
still allow them to add comments or digitally sign the document.
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Review
and Share Comments Online |
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Multiple
users can view and add comments to the same Adobe PDF document from within
their Web browsers, which can accelerate the document review process.
- Work
Within a Browser--If
you have Acrobat 5.0 installed, you can open Adobe PDF files from within
a Web browser and access many Acrobat tools to comment on the document
in the browser.
- Share
Comments Online--Several
individuals can work online and add comments to a PDF document simultaneously
(requires a WebDAV, ODBC/SQL, or standard network server).
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Migrate
Forms to the Web |
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Acrobat
5.0 helps you securely move paper-based forms to a more convenient, reliable,
timesaving electronic process.
- Create
Live Electronic Forms--The
program allows you to create interactive business forms (such as employee-benefits
enrollment forms) that keep the look and feel of the paper version,
saving employee training time and expense. The Acrobat forms can be
linked to a database or to a Web server, enabling you to fill out forms
in a Web browser.
- Publish
Dynamic Forms Online--You
can create PDF forms on the Web or a server with fields that change
dynamically, depending upon the data that is input. For instance, if
an employee filling out a health-insurance form indicates that he has
children, the form could generate on the fly new fields for gathering
information about his dependents.
- Support
for XML Form Data--The
data from PDF forms can be submitted in the Web-standard XML (Extensible
Markup Language) format. This makes it easy to integrate PDF forms with
back-end systems.
- Automatically
Calculate and Validate Data--The
forms have the ability to perform automatic calculations such as addition,
subtraction, and multiplication. You also have the option to validate
data (such as a social security number) in a form before it is entered
into the database system.
- Spell-Check--You
can have Acrobat 5.0 spell-check individual form fields and comments
using a variety of dictionaries included with the program.
- Digitally
Sign Forms--You
can digitally sign forms which is useful for forms such as expense reports
that require multiple approvals and signatures.
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Make
Documents Accessible |
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With
Adobe Acrobat 5.0, you can create PDF documents that are accessible to
those with disabilities.
- Support
for High-Contrast--The
program fully supports high-contrast settings. This enables workers
with low vision impairments to more easily read PDF documents.
- Support
for Screen Readers--You
can create documents that are compatible with third-party, Windows-based
screen readers, such as Henter-Joyce's JAWS and Window-Eyes from GW
Micro, Inc. Screen readers synthesize text into speech.
- Keyboard
Shortcuts--The
software enables functionality to be controlled through keyboard shortcuts,
making it easier for people with a broad range of disabilities to take
full advantage of Acrobat.
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Enhanced
Output and Color Controls |
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The
program has a number of enhancements that are helpful to graphics professionals.
- Tight
Adobe Integration--The
tight integration with other Adobe programs, helps graphic designers
maintain consistency in documents. For example, Acrobat, Photoshop 6.0,
and Illustrator 9.0 support the Adobe Color Engine, Adobe's core color-management
technology. Sharing the same color management system provides a consistent
user experience and reliable color when converting files between programs.
Also, Acrobat 5.0 and the updated Adobe PDF version 1.4 support transparent
objects. Thus, you can view and print Adobe PDF files with transparencies
created in Illustrator 9.0 or Photoshop 6.0. And an Adobe PDF file can
be opened in Illustrator for further edits and enhancements.
- Print
Efficiently--The
program allows for tiling areas of an oversized page for printed output.
Thus, large documents such as posters or 11 x 17 spreads can be printed
easily on standard 8.5 x 11 or A4 paper for review and proofing.
- Advanced
Print Controls--The Print dialog box has been
enhanced so you can print odd and even pages; rotate and center pages;
specify overlap; print ICC colors as device colors; emit halftones,
transfer functions, and undercolor removal/black generation; and select
transparency quality.
- Preview
Overprinting--
You can preview the effects of overprinting either on-screen inside
Acrobat or by printing from Acrobat to a composite printer.
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Work
Smarter |
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Version
5 has a variety of enhancements and new commands that help you be more
productive in your work.
- Gather
Data From the Web--With
the Web Capture command in Acrobat, you can convert single Web pages
or an entire Web site into Adobe PDF files with all links intact. Once
the files have been converted, you can send the pages to individuals
for convenient, offline review and approval and create an archival record
of a Web site over time. Acrobat also lets you capture pages with Cascading
Style Sheets and JavaScript.
- Consistent
Adobe PDF Creation--When
you install Acrobat, the program puts a Convert to Adobe PDF icon within
Microsoft Office applications (on Windows PCs only). When you click
on this icon, it converts Office documents to Adobe PDF files using
the Acrobat Distiller. A second icon, Convert to Adobe PDF and Email
icon converts an Office document into Adobe PDF format and automatically
attaches the file to a new message in your default e-mail program.
- Batch
Processing--You
can apply virtually any Acrobat function to a large collection of Adobe
PDF files. You have the ability to easily create sequences of predefined
actions and to write your own actions using JavaScript. Acrobat 5.0
provides such batch processing options as: Create Thumbnails; Remove
File Attachments; and Save All as RTF. When you run a batch operation,
you can specify how the resulting files should be name; choose to overwrite
the existing files that are being altered in the batch operation; and
save the processed files in Adobe PDF, PostScript, EPS, TIFF, JPEG,
PNG, or RTF formats.
- Analyze
and Repair Documents--There
is a new PDF Consultant tool that provides easy access to Adobe and
third-party plug-ins designed to inspect, analyze, and repair PDF documents.
The PDF Consultant operations can be used with the Batch Processing
command and automatically applied to PDF files. Plus, you can write
your own PDF Consultant operations using JavaScript. The Consultant
operations included are: (1) Detect and Remove: searches for noncritical
or unwanted document elements, such as JavaScript actions, image alternates,
and file attachments, which can then be listed in a report or removed;
(2) Audit Space Usage: provides a report of the total number of bytes
used for specific document elements, including fonts, images, bookmarks,
forms, named destinations, and comments, as well as the total file size.
The results are reported both in actual bytes as well as percentage
of the total file size; and (3) Optimize Space: helps decrease the size
of a PDF file by removing any invalid bookmarks, links, or unused named
definitions.
- Find
Comments--The
new Find Comments command lets you search text in comments.
- Filter
Comments--You
can display comments in a document filtered by author, date modified,
and comment type (such as stamp or highlighted text).
- Create
Custom Search Criteria--You
can expand the ways a file can be searched by creating and embedding
metadata in a PDF file. For instance, eBook publishers could add a metadata
field that enables digital books to be searched by ISBN numbers. Metadata
is written in XML, which means the metadata in PDF files can be indexed
by Internet search engines.
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Install
and Maintain Acrobat Across an Enterprise |
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Adobe
Acrobat 5.0 has tools that help network individuals save time and effort
when deploying or updating Acrobat across a networked enterprise.
- Easy
Deployment and Maintenance--Adobe designed the installer
in Acrobat with the intent to work with network deployment tools, allowing
individuals to install Acrobat over a network to thousands of desktop
machines. Acrobat can automatically notify users if an update to the
software is available. Managers can configure the update notification
feature to work from a server inside their firewall or disable the feature
entirely.
- Configurable
Installations--You
can configure the Acrobat installer to determine the Acrobat functionality
and user preferences to be deployed to one or multiple users. Thus,
Acrobat could be installed in the accounting department configured to
add comments online using a specified server. The ability to configure
the installation of Acrobat provides users with greater control over
how their companies' resources are employed and reduces support time.
- Enhanced
for Lockdown Environments--The
program has been enhanced to work in lockdown desktop environments in
which users don't have full administrator privileges.
- Support
for Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services--PDF
files can be viewed and printed when Acrobat is run from a Server in
a Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services environment.
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Adobe
Acrobat has become a sophisticated tool that provides many capabilities
for organizing, displaying, and printing documents, and has achieved a high
level of respect and performance in office, Web integration, and publishing
environments. The release of Version 5, should solidify this opinion. |
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PC:
- Intel
Pentium class processor;
- Microsoft
Windows 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows
NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6, or Windows 2000;
- 32
MB of RAM (64 MB recommended);
- 115
MB of available hard disk space;
- Additional
70 MB of hard disk space for Asian fonts (optional);
- CD-ROM
drive.
Mac:
- Power
PC processor;
- Apple
Macintosh OS 8.6, 9.0.4, or 9.1;
- 32
MB of RAM (with virtual memory on) (64 MB recommended);
- 105
MB of available hard disk space;
- Additional
70 MB of hard disk space for Asian fonts (optional);CD-ROM
drive.
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Graphics:
Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Web Page Design: Macromedia Dreamweaver
4.0
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