Great product if you get some training
Updated November 25, 2025

Great product if you get some training

Stephanie Gans | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Acrobat

I am constantly creating PDFs. I often need to secure them with passwords for clients. Those are the way that I send previews for my clients from my work. I also teach Adobe Acrobat. I get a lot of government clients, in my teaching, and they appreciate the security features. For my other business, I create fillable forms. The functionality of Adobe Acrobat for that is unmatched.

Pros

  • Fillable forms
  • Obscure things like Bates numbering and redacting
  • Adding security

Cons

  • A more intuitive interface, it needs the ability to customize the order of things in the tools panel
  • Sometimes, when bringing multiple documents in for a book, numbering gets very strange, especially when the table of contents or index are used
  • My business does not have giant needs. But for me, it is easy to create forms.
  • Requiring signatures works much better now that you guys have made it easier. When people only had the option to register their signatures, it was very difficult.
  • Other
For the breadth of functionality, and it’s ability to read native Adobe files. I thought this was a great choice.
I just like to feel more secure. My clients sign things with the expectation of privacy. They fill out forms with the expectation of privacy. So, being able to have a document lock with a signature really helps them feel secure.

Do you think Adobe Acrobat delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Acrobat's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Acrobat live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Acrobat go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe Acrobat again?

Yes

For the most part, it seems well suited to a lot of things. But only if a person is familiar with the interface, and what a lot of those things do. This tool requires training. So, for the offices, where they take the front desk, receptionist, and want to give her extra work, this is not appropriate. It is not an easy tool to figure out for most users.

Using Adobe Acrobat

1 - I am self-employed owner of 3 different businesses. I am a software instructor, a Mac consultant, and have a more recent Hypnotherapy practice. I use Acrobat to create everything from classroom handouts, to hypnotherapy client forms. Some use security features, some don't. Some are online, some are printed. Some adhere to accessibility standards, some don't need that. I almost never do scripting.
1 - I am just me- but I support it all. That's my whole business model in 2 of my businesses.
  • Form creation with signature requirements
  • Create handouts that can be printed by students
  • Create PDF Portfolios (and I MISS the old style cute ones!)
  • I look forward to using the new translation functions
  • Putting together entire coursework into a Portfolio, for students to work at their own pace based on web content I produced
  • I'm not sure I have used it in any other unexpected or innovative ways...
  • I keep seeking ways it might help in my hypnotherapy practice and have thought of using it with the animation features from Express to create at home self hypnosis practices.
  • To create progress journals for clients working to change habits
  • I haven't used PDF Spaces too much, but feel like that may help me to delve more deeply into the creation of treatment plans
I know there is.a lot of can make use of in Acrobat, that I'm not even touching the surface on. Having used and taught it for so many years, I guess i've gotten stuck in my ways. This past MAX opened my eyes up quite a bit more as to how much more creative input I can have with the app, and how much more flexible it is, compared to its past.

Using Adobe Acrobat

ProsCons
Like to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Feel confident using
Inconsistent
Slow to learn
  • Compression and preparing for multiple uses
  • OCR
  • Combining from multiple sources
  • Connecting to Express for further design
  • Page management
  • Protecting
  • Some of the form functions still require too much forethought and don't have the design features of LiveCycle Designer
  • Finding Tools is weirdly organized
  • Tracking comments and signature is still unwieldy
  • Saving should not have extra steps to save locally
Yes - I almost never use it, except for signing things people send me. I can't read things well on my phone for editing and such. The things I see are reasonably easy to use. But I din't find it particularly useful for my own needs. Most of my clients don't seem to, either. I DO intend to use it with an iPad for my business and having clients sign documents, but haven't[ set that up yet.
I feel like it's an amazing product and does a LOT. For power users, and people using it in large business, it gives a ton of function within a single app, without having to go to multiple apps to accomplish goals. HOWEVER, that said, a lot of my own clients and students are far more basic users than the power of this app provides. Many of them need solely to edit, get signatures, make a form or 2, and organize. For them, particularly the less "computer savvy" ones (read: older in general, more like my own demographic, although I'm quite tech savvy - but I'm the exception by far, at my age), this is a frustrating experience. As a software teacher, this does bring me clients and students, but I think a lot of them would be grateful for something more "in between" but not online. Lots of people in that group want something local, that does the basics of this app, that still works with Adobe's other tools natively, but doesn't have them wading through items like javascript, and tagging (all are very supportive of things like accessibility - but don't have needs to create in that area). redacting, bates numbering, certifying, and all those more more advanced features. Even if there were 2 "modes" in the app - and basic users could use it in basic mode, and those of us who need the tools could work in full mode, would help.

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