Adobe Acrobat 7 TIPS and TRICKS THE 100150 BEST [Electronic resources]

Donna L. Baker; Kristin Kalning; Becky Morgan; Judy Ziajka

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  • TIP 137: Watching Folders

    Another Acrobat tool for enhancing productivity is Acrobat Distiller 7, which lets you create a special folder system of "watched" folders and then have Acrobat look for and process files in these folders automatically. You don't have to install Distillerit is installed as part of the overall Acrobat 7 installation process.

    Watching in Windows or Mac

    Windows and Mac operating systems have different behaviors when it comes to watched folders.

    In Windows, watched folder settings are unique to each user except for the Adobe PDF settings files, which are shared. If the Windows system is non-NTFS (Windows NT File System), custom settings files are read- and write-accessible by all users of the system. If you are using an NTFS system, your files are read- and write-accessible to you, and settings files created by other users are read-only; Distiller's default settings files are read-only and hidden.

    In Mac OS, your settings and preferences are your own. If you want to share a watched folder, you must be logged into your system, have Distiller running, and then set permissions on the In and Out folders, which lets others copy files to the In folder and retrieve files from the Out folder. Users you want to share your files with must be logged in remotely to access the watched folder and process files.

    How would you like Acrobat Distiller to automatically look for PostScript files in an In folder, convert them to PDF according to specified settings, and send the finished documents to an Out folder? In some workflows, an automated process like this could save you a lot of time.

    Add a folder you want to use as a watched folder to your hard drive. Then open Distiller and follow these steps to set up watched folders:

    1.

    Choose Settings > Watched Folders to open the Watched Folders dialog (Figure 137a).

    Figure 137a. Configure a set of folders to watch for and process PostScript files automatically.

    [View full size image]

    2.

    Click Add Folder; locate and select the folder you want to use (you can't create a new folder through this dialog). Distiller adds In and Out subfolders automatically.

    It Isn't Polite to Share

    Don't set up watched folders to act as a service for other users on your system. Everyone who creates Adobe PDF documents needs a separate Acrobat license.

    3.

    You can add security, custom settings, or both to a folder. Distiller adds an icon to the left of folders you have customized, as shown in Figure 137a. Select the folder and then:

    • Click Edit Settings to open the Settings dialog (Figure 137b). Modify the settings and click OK; Acrobat saves the file to the individual folder as folder.joboptions.

      Figure 137b. Configure custom settings that are applied to the contents in the watched folder.

      [View full size image]

      Develop a System

      You can create up to 100 watched folders. If you have different conversion settings, instead of generating PDF files on a file-by-file basisvery time-consuming when you work with a large number of filesset up a folder for each .joboptions file you need to use. As you finish working with a file, drop it in the appropriate watched folder. According to your specified time settings, Distiller checks the folder and processes the files. Make sure the folder names are descriptive to prevent adding files to the wrong folders. For example, instead of naming a file watched_5, name it W_Bob_Menu if you use the folder to process documents for Bob's Pizza Emporium.

    • Back in the Watched Folders dialog, click Edit Security to add password protection to the folder; if you change your mind, click Clear Security.

    • Click Load Settings to locate and attach .joboptions files from your system.

      Note

      You can delete a folder from the Watched Folders list by clicking Delete on the Watched Folders dialog. Deleting a watched folder does not delete the In and Out folders, contents, and the folder's .joboptions files from your computer; you'll need to remove them manually. If you delete or move a folder from your computer that you have designated as a watched folder in Distiller, the next time you open the dialog, you see the Missing Folder icon to the left of the folder's name.

      Which Is More Secure?

      Be aware of the settings applied to a folder and the settings used in Distiller. If you specify security in Distiller's settings, the settings may or may not be the same after the file is processed. In fact, the file may not be processed at all. If a folder's .joboptions file is read-only, Distiller won't convert the file. If Distiller's settings include security options and the watched folder doesn't, the file is processed and the security settings are in place.

    4.

    Choose options to manage your set of watched folders:

    • Specify how often to check the folders in seconds. You can check every 1 to 9999 seconds; 1 hour is 3600 seconds.

    • Specify what to do with the original PostScript fileit can be moved to the Out folder with the PDF document or deleted; log files are copied to the Out folder.

    • Specify how long to keep the PDF documents in the folder in days, up to 999 days. You can also specify to delete the PostScript and log files.

    5.

    Click OK to close the dialog.