The window you see when you launch Acrobat viewers is the Getting Started window. Depending on the viewer you launch you’ll see Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional (or Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard—Windows, or Beyond Adobe Reader).

When you first launch Acrobat 8 Professional you see the Getting Started window, as shown in Figure below. The same welcome window with some different options appears in all Acrobat viewers in Acrobat version 8. Figure below shows the screen opened in Acrobat Professional.

When you first start using Acrobat 8, you’ll want to take a look at the options available to you in the Getting Started window to access some help information. At some point, though, you’ll want to bypass the screen when engaging in an Acrobat editing session.

To stop the screen from opening on startup, check the box in the upper right corner where you see Do not show at startup. The next time you launch Acrobat, the Getting Started window won’t open. If at any time you want to reopen the window, select Help >> Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat.

The Getting Started window always opens on top of the Acrobat Document pane. The Getting Started window contains eight task buttons that are links to other panes in the Getting Started window. When you click one of the buttons the second pane opens and displays information about the respective feature available in Acrobat.

On the second pane for any one of the eight individual task topics you find different icons and buttons that include:

• Task action. Click this button or the text adjacent to the button and Acrobat launches a dialog box or menu command to perform an action.

• Task description. Adjacent to this icon you find a short description explaining certain features available with the respective task.

• Task help. Click the icon or the text description adjacent to the icon and the Adobe Help Viewer opens displaying help information related to the respective task.

• Home. Click the Home button and you return to the first pane in the welcome window.

Tasks Buttons

The eight tasks panes describe various options you have with the related topic and include buttons you can click to find help on the related task and buttons to get you started working with a given feature. These eight features include: Create PDF.

The Create PDF task provides you with help information as well as links directly to dialog boxes used for PDF creation. A description is provided in the central pane, as shown in Figure below.

Clicking Learn How to Create PDFs from Other Applications opens the Adobe Help Viewer where creating PDFs using the Adobe PDFMaker is explained.

Clicking Learn How to Create PDF with the Adobe PDF Printer links you to the Adobe Help Viewer where creating PDFs by printing to files is explained. Clicking one of the task action buttons opens menu commands found in the Create PDF task button pull-down menu.

• Combine Files. The new Combine Files feature is a great new addition to Acrobat 8. In the center of the Combine Files task pane shown in Figure below you see a list of descriptions for how combining files can be helpful for people working with legal documents, CAD drawings, Project Binders, and Sales Proposals.

This is only an abbreviated list of descriptions for why you may want to use the Combine Files feature. The Combine Files task links open the Combine multiple files into one PDF file dialog box. At the bottom of the task pane, you see a link to help information on creating PDF Packages.

• Export. The Export tasks pane describes some file formats that you can export from Acrobat and several links to help information related to file exporting. All the links in this task pane relate to providing help information. (When you see the text link begin with Learn how to . . ., the link is made to the Adobe Help Viewer document.)

• Start Meeting. Start Meeting tasks shown in Figure below are related to Acrobat Connect sessions. You find help information related to Acrobat Connect and a link to the Welcome to Start Meeting dialog box where you can sign up for a free Acrobat Connect trial account.

• Secure. The Secure task pane contains information on securing PDF files. Information is provided in the center of the pane for the many options Adobe offers you with PDF security and some links to help information that describes how to secure PDF files. Also, a link is made to the Create security envelope dialog box.

• Sign. The Sign tasks pane provides you with information links to help files related to digital IDs and digitally signing documents.

• Forms. A number of different links appear in the Forms task pane to pages in the Adobe Help Viewer and to dialog boxes for creating and editing forms. You can see options for Browsing a template library (Windows), Convert an existing document, Scan a paper form, Create a new form, track forms, Distribute forms, and Compile data.

All these links open dialog boxes or launch another program. On Windows, links to Create a new form and Browse the Template library launch Adobe LiveCycle Designer. On the Mac, you won’t find the Browse the template library link, because Designer isn’t supported. Other links are made to help files that provide more information on creating and editing forms.

• Review and Comment. The last of the tasks panes is the Review and Comment pane. Here you find links to help information related to commenting and review sessions. The Start a shared review features action button opens a wizard that walks you through steps to create a review session.

The task actions buttons at the bottom of the E-mail and Shared columns open wizards that walk you through steps for starting n e-mail-based review or a shared review.

If you look at the Tasks toolbar at the top of the Acrobat window you’ll see the same tasks you find in the Getting Started window—that is, all but the last task button used for Send for Review.

The first eight task buttons in the Tasks toolbar each have a menu command at the bottom of the task button drop-down menu that opens the Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional window and opens the pane respective to the task from which you select the menu command.

The menu command appears at the bottom of the Combine Files task button. As you can see, the menu command appears as Getting Started Combining Files. When you select this command, the Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional window opens and the Combine Files task pane is placed in view.

Respectively, all the other task buttons menu commands, with the exception of the Send for Review task button, launch the Getting Started with Adobe Acrobat 8 window and open panes according to the task button menu item you select.