Adobe Systems, the US-based supplier of network publishing software, has announced that Adobe Acrobat 5.0, the newest version of one of its flagship products, will start shipping in South Africa from the end of April. The latest release of the Acrobat software includes a host of new features that help organisations to streamline the sharing of documents throughout the enterprise and with customers and partners.

Says Nic Tabor, Country Manager for Adobe Systems in South Africa: "With the latest release of Acrobat, Adobe is moving closer to its vision of ensuring that the product is installed on every desktop. With more than 220 million Adobe Acrobat Readers downloaded worldwide, Acrobat is continuing to gain market share in industries as diverse as financial services, legal services, publishing, and graphic and Web design. In fact, the product has a place in any business that needs to create tamper-proof documents that can be shared across multiple operating system and hardware platforms."

Like its predecessors, Acrobat 5.0 allows users to produce documents that retain the fidelity of the original, ensuring that recipients see documents in their intended format. The product boasts strong integration with desktop productivity tools from suppliers such as Microsoft and Lotus.

Customers can use Acrobat 5.0 to create and share Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files, which can be viewed and printed across numerous hardware and operating systems using the ubiquitous Acrobat Reader. Acrobat 5.0 provides customers with enhanced capabilities for creating, digitally signing and sending secure documents, and also gives businesses the ability to use electronic forms to reduce costs and increase the accuracy of information in those forms.

Acrobat 5.0 offers Tight Web integration based on WebDistributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) and Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC), allowing teams to simultaneously share comments on Adobe PDF files from within a browser. Support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) makes it simple for users to integrate data, such as metadata and forms data in Adobe PDF files, with back-end systems. Stronger integration with enterprise deployment tools enables IT professionals to auto-install and maintain Acrobat 5.0 over a network to thousands of multi-user or lockdown desktop systems.

Customers that purchase Acrobat 4.0 in the weeks prior to the launch of Acrobat 5.0 will be entitled to a free upgrade to the latest version of the product.

Together with the launch of the new product, Adobe Systems also announced broad support for Adobe Acrobat 5.0 from some of the biggest international names in content management, document security and professional services. Documentum, Entrust Technologies and PricewaterhouseCoopers have recognised Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and Adobe PDF as cornerstone technologies for enterprise customers.

More than a dozen other major companies have pledged support for the release of Acrobat 5.0 by announcing products and solutions that use the software's capabilities for streamlining business processes such as electronic forms, digital signature verification, and secure document delivery. These companies include the likes of InterTrust Technologies; Movaris; Cardiff Software; E-Lock Technologies; Authentica; Verity; and Verisign.

Adobe Systems

(011) 467 3773

ntabor@adobe.com

www.adobe.com