Okay. Let us put Distiller because we are done creating PDF files. Let us focus on the process of combining PDF files. And before I do that, I just want to point out quickly that there is an interface change. Adobe has done some really good work making the interface of Acrobat even cleaner than it was in Acrobat 7. It is one of those things that is so obvious that I don’t necessarily need to bring it up in its own topic, but I will point it out in case you are wondering.
On the interface, we have a new task button called combine files. And the reason that we have a new button is because we have two choices. The first choice is to merge PDF files into a single PDF and that is very much what we had in Acrobat 7 except there are some additions so I will select it and you will see that the combined files dialog box is different than it used to be. First off, I can add files so I will select that. If you look in your lesson two folder, you will see that there are some files and I will select the R5 Proposal, I will hold the shift key down and click these two files. Logo and proposal finished and click add files. Nothing much new here except the different look and feel until we come over to add folders. Now, I can add an entire folder full of information to the document by selecting add folders. I will look inside that lesson 2 folder. It is in the part one folder and I have a folder called additional files. I want to add that to the next.
Now, Acrobat is not going to create a sub PDF of any sort. It is just going to add the contents of that folder to this project. Now of course, I can still non PDF information to my document and Acrobat will convert it. When converting it though, I have the option of choosing from among smaller file size, default file size and larger file size options for that conversion. I will choose default file size but this is just a way to control the size of the PDF of the PDF that I am going to get from the process.
And here is a new button, if I click reuse files, watch what happens. These are some recently combined files that I created. In those files are documents. And for those files that have been collected, not merged as I am doing with this project, I can actually reuse information found within them. Now, I will explain to you in a moment what collected versus combined means. But, the ability to reuse files this way is sort of a way to very quickly find some work that you know you used but you cannot remember where you put it. The organizer still exists in Adobe Acrobat 8 as it did in 7. It is still as useful. However, there are times where I cannot even begin to imagine where it might be but I do know that I used it for a particular collection and therefore, I can very quickly find a file that way. I am going to cancel because I do not want to actually use that. Once I am done, I will click on next. I am going to talk about assemble files in just a moment but this is the merging files functionality that is exactly the same as it was in 7. It will merge the files together. I will click create but it just gives me a little feedback about the process as I go and it allows me to quickly preview the result before I click save.
Another nice feature is the fact that I can back up to the process. And yes I want to go ahead and back up but I do not want to save this file so I will say no because perhaps I forgot a file or maybe there is a file here that I do not want added to the next, not a problem. I am comfortable with this so I will select create. But, it is nice to know that I can back up without having to throw a file away and start over. Once I am done, I will click save and then Acrobat will use the standard binder filename that it had before. I will file this one on to the desktop and click save. Of course normally, I will probably want to save it under a different name, but from here, the process is no different than it has been in 7. So the combined files functionality has been improved to allow you some more flexibility and also to allow you a way to find files that you might have been missing.
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