Using Other Features and Functions - Adobe Acrobat and PDF for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction - page 185

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Using Other Features and Functions
Acrobat includes a range of advanced features that are a bonus for AEC. Although many practicalities and
applications of these features may not be readily evident, we will show you their importance. The features
range from document contents to ways of streamlining your workflow to using multimedia.
In this Chapter
In this chapter you see how to apply several of Acrobat's advanced features to your workflow, including:
x Adding and manipulating metadata and other document properties
x Using video, multimedia, and Flash
x Creating presentations
x Building batch scripts
x Writing and using Droplets.
Managing Document Data
Acrobat allows extensive data to be added to a PDF file. On first thought, you may have a difficult time
understanding how additional data are of value to you in AEC. Here is an example: imagine having 10,000
important images for a project, and then imagine being able to search for a particular image based on a part
number, a date, or a combination of variables.
Metadata is descriptive information about a file that is searchable. Acrobat uses Adobe's eXtensible
Metadata Platform (XMP) to embed metadata into a file. Applications that support XMP share the
information across file formats, databases, and platforms. For example, metadata added to a source image
in Photoshop is converted along with the image data to PDF. It takes some time to develop a structure for
defining and including metadata, but it will take only seconds to find a specific image in an emergency.
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