Earlier this week I pointed to a podcast about working with PDFs. One of the guests was Ernie Svenson from PaperlessChase.
What I should have mentioned was that Ernie has a new book out this week called PDF Essentials for Lawyers. Even though I am not a lawyer, I thought I’d channel my inner Lionel Hutz check it out anyways.
Even though the book is marketed to lawyers, it is really a deep dive into the free (!) Adobe Acrobat Reader tool that is available for Mac and Windows and would be relevant to anyone that uses that tool. As Ernie says:
Escaping the burden of managing paper is not difficult, as many lawyers can already attest. But the linchpin for creating a paperless practice lies in PDFs, specifically: learning how to do more with PDFs. You need to become as comfortable with PDFs as you are now with paper.
I’d say there are a lot of professions that would fit into that statement.
Anyone who has used a computer for any length of time, especially a Windows computer, will undoubtedly be familiar with Acrobat Reader. I have to admit – I didn’t fully realize how far Reader has come and how much you can do with the free tool.
I learned quite a bit from Ernie’s book. Some of the highlights for me were:
- The customizations you should make to the Reader preferences pane.
- The best way to use Comments and Annotations, especially when working with other people.
- The ability to write text onto a PDF to fill out a non-fillable form (I have to admit, I thought you needed the full Acrobat for this).
There’s obviously a lot more, and some helpful videos to demonstrate the main concepts. You can check out the book page to see some samples.
If you’re a lawyer or someone who works with PDFs a lot and wants to use a free tool, PDF Essentials for Lawyers is a great kickstart.