The picture was cropped, the date added in the footer and a title added to the header. Development Challenges

This was not an easy program to learn, but once I learned how to use it, it was fun. The first challenge that I encountered was with uploading the program. Each time I tried uploading the program and then opened another window, the program's installation would stop and had to be resumed.

Next was the issue with discovering that my open source software, Open Office, is not compatible with Adobe Acrobat. I tried multiple times to open files that were saved as .doc, but none were recognized by the program. I finally figured out that the files must be saved as a more basic file type. I changed the file type to .rtf and the files easily converted.

I then discovered how unstable the program can be when it is not functioning properly. While trying to upload a file, the program froze. When I tried to close the program, it continued operating in the background and would not stop until I shut it down using the task manager. At one point, I finally just restarted the computer because the program had activated itself so many times in the background.

Recommended Improvements

A large improvement would be a better user guide on the Adobe website. The website offered three files to assist in creating a PDF and none of those files were applicable when I was having issues opening the files. It would have been much more helpful if Adobe had simply created a list of acceptable file types and placed this either on the first page of the program or the help page of the website.

Adobe Acrobat could also use greater stabilization. Most programs have a means of preventing the program from being opened more than once. This is also the first program I have encountered that did not have an automatic shutdown when the program causes errors. With as expensive as the program actually is, one would think that the programming would have even these basic safeguards in place.

Finally, it would be nice if the program was a little more user friendly. It takes some fiddling around to figure out how to use the background and other features, which can be frustrating to someone who is less technologically inclined. Some sort of tutorial would have been very useful.

Benefits

The program is obviously meant for use in the business setting. It was relatively simple to create sharp-looking documents and images. It is nice that once the document is saved as a PDF file, it cannot be changed at all. The alternatives to this software includes Microsoft Word, which allows for all the same image editing. Word even has a "read only" feature which prevents editing of the document. Adobe Acrobat had more fonts, but Word has...

Overall, I cannot conclude that Adobe Acrobat is a better solution, as it is more expensive, but offers similar features as a less expensive program such as Word.
Overall Recommendation and Application Example

As with all Adobe software, Adobe Acrobat seems to be meant for those with a higher software skill level or specific business needs. It is not as user friendly as the Microsoft programs, but does offer greater versatility with regard to creating documents and images.

The best setting for Adobe Acrobat, and one where it is commonly used, is the legal field. In the legal field, documents such as contracts and evidence must be able to open on any type of computer and be ideally incorruptible and unchangeable. Adobe Acrobat also offers great legal features including the ability to place a digital signature on a document and the ability to bate stamp the document.

Future Outlook

I don't think that Adobe Acrobat is likely to grow much more in the next few years. The reason is that there are so many open source programs that can accomplish the same tasks. The only market that I can see Adobe thriving is the professional world where specialized programs such as Adobe Acrobat save businesses time.

Bibliography

Adding rich media to PDF files. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/adding-rich-media-your-pdf-files-november-2011

Document Management Software. ZDNet. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://downloads.zdnet.com/search.aspx?q=document+management+software

How to add date stamps to PDF forms. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/how-to-add-a-date-stamp-to-a-form

How to add text to a PDF File. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/how-add-text-pdfs

How to Create a PDF file in Microsoft Office. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/how-do-i-create-a-pdf-file-in-microsoft-office

How to Edit Objects on a Page. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 fromhttp://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/how-do-i-edit-objects-on-a-page

Masters, David. Adobe Acrobat for Legal Professionals. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://www.casesoft.com/download/Acrobat8forLegalPros.pdf

Tutorials. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/

File Format Options. Adobe. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://help.Adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/Standard/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7ef2.w.html

Watch how EchoSign works. Acrobat Users. Accessed 3 April 2012 from http://Acrobatusers.com/tutorials/watch-how-echosign-works