Unlock flexibility for your team by creating PDF documents.
Creative collateral comes in a wide variety of formats, such as images, publications, videos, and web content. All of these need to be reviewed and approved by clients with various computer skills and device-types. PDF is the one format that unites them all. The built-in tools for edits and comments create a perfect collaboration and distribution platform between designers and clients, project managers and teams, government entities and individuals, and the list goes on.
Identifying the challenges
Ling is a freelance designer working on a project for a law firm. She's designing a variety of social media images for the launch of their new marketing campaign.
As a creative professional, she uses several design and word processing programs to develop the content. Usually, Ling would send a flurry of emails with attachments to all of the partners at the firm for approval. Based on which program she used to create the artwork, her attachments could include JPEGs, a PowerPoint presentation, an Excel spreadsheet, and other PDFs. Ling would manage the feedback from each partner for each individual document. She would have to print out every email reply, marking them off one-by-one as she incorporates the requested changes. Throughout the project, there were several instances where one of the partner’s comments were missing. In addition to upsetting the partner, this oversight increased the number of back-and-forth emails, adding to the project timeline.
Optimizing workflow by creating and combining
Now, imagine Ling taking advantage of PDF as a single file format while using the Document Cloud to manage the approval process. This scenario looks quite a bit different now.
Ling uses the Export as PDF feature within Photoshop for her images and artwork, as well as the Save as PDF feature within Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel for her budgeting documents. And rather than attaching individual files to an email, she merges them together in a single PDF presentation. She uploads the PDF to the Document Cloud for comments and approval. She is able to send one universal link to all of the partners. Each partner is then able to add their comments to the single PDF where Ling can see all of the comments in one place, color-coded by name. Ling makes the revisions, marking each comment as complete as she works her way down the list. Once finished, she uploads a new PDF for final approval, where each partner can sign off. Not only does the campaign launch on time, but Ling looks like a rockstar and the client is happy!
Reformat — don’t redo
Ling is also asked to provide the law firm office admin with the text content of the social media posts she designed. The admin has requested an editable text document so she can craft a marketing email to go along with the social media campaign. Ling simply exports the PDF to a Microsoft Word document, where she is able to retain the text flow and document layout.
Acrobat users can create, assemble, or export content seamlessly from any operating system to streamline the creation process. Combine multiple files, split documents, swap images, and make edits on the fly. With tools like this, it is easy to see how Acrobat is the platform that unifies and simplifies the client–creator relationship.