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Great document reader
Updated May 28, 2021

Great document reader

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is used across our whole organization for the purposes of allowing users to access/read pdf files from a variety of sources. Given that pdfs are so ubiquitous and are often the file type of choice by many information sources, Adobe Reader is a pretty commonly used application in the organization. In particular, technical industry standards, regulatory documentation, and other organizations that want to share documentation in a non-editable format are all examples of where Adobe Reader comes in handy.
  • Cost-effective
  • User friendly for basic functionality
  • Commonly used
  • Frequent updating required
  • Not intuitive for anything more than basic functionality
  • Sometimes suffers from random compatibility issues
  • Opening and reading of pdf documents
  • Basic annotation of non-editable documents
  • Sharing of documentation in a non-editable form
  • Generally, invaluable as the application is a free download
  • Broad adoption of Acrobat Reader begins to lock you into use of other paid Adobe applications that can be costly
The application has overlapping functionality, but as part of an organization that leverages the rest of the Adobe family of applications, alternative applications suffer from compatibility issues and are not part of the same support network. Moreover, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is free and as such, there is no real reason to consider alternatives.

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

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Acrobat Reader's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Acrobat Reader live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Adobe Acrobat Reader go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Adobe Acrobat Reader again?

Yes

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a great document reader workhorse. As a basic document reader, it is a staple that is good to have access to. There are many documents that can be opened via this application and generally serves as a good starting point when trying to open and read a document.
Obviously, it's one of the go-to applications for pdfs, however, it can not be expected to be an all-in-one document reader that can handle any filetype. There are numerous specialty document files that Adobe Reader is unable to handle.

Using Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

4000 - Virtually every business function is represented including marketing
& sales, operations, manufacturing, engineering, research &
development, quality, regulatory, logistics, and administrative
functions.
25 - 
Our organization does not have any in-house personnel that specializes in supporting Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Support of this application is provided alongside with general IT support for productivity applications, operating systems, network security, computer hardware support, etc.
The skills of in-house personnel to support the application are basic - in the form of basic application management via application configuration, un-install/re-install, and general troubleshooting
  • Sharing of "read-only" forms of documentation, especially outside the organization
  • Creation and reading of scanned documents that are generated from hard copies
  • Exporting documents from specialized graphics applications into a more ubiquitous file type
  • Especially in a remote work environment, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC has been used at times as a stand in for "wet signatures"
  • In combination with physical scanning, redaction of documents can be performed without worrying about leaving digital trails of the redacted content
  • As part of the broader Adobe family of applications, Adobe Reader provides an application that virtually guarantees compatibility with documents created with those products
The application is free, so there is essentially no cost to having the application available aside from the overhead to install and maintain it. It is a very useful application, which allows for more efficient documentation sharing both within the organization and outside of it. It has definitely demonstrated value.

Evaluating Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Prior Experience with the Product

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a free application, which means there is very little cost to the organization aside from providing internal application support. The tool is also part of the Adobe family of applications, so in an organization that uses other Adobe products, the use of its free applications is a no-brainer
There isn't really much that would change. The use of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC in the organization makes a ton of sense given the fact that it is free to download, it is an Adobe product, which guarantees a great deal of compatibility regardless of how many other Adobe applications an organization uses, and it has a great deal of functionality when considered in a vacuum.
The one potential change in evaluation and selection would be to consider whether there are specialty applications that are used in the organization and consider how well they integrate or how compatible they are with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Implementation

The application is pretty much "plug and play"
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC did not require any organizational change management.
  • Corruption of the install, requiring re-installation of the application