Welcome to BetaLand, June 2008 Edition

Not Just Acrobat, Acrobat.com!

As our own Paul Lilly reports, Adobe has launched Acrobat 9, with lots of new features - but Adobe has also added a free online component known as (what else?) Acrobat.com. Acrobat.com incorporates Buzzword web-based word processing, ConnectNow online meetings, and also include online PDF creation, file sharing, and online storage.

Getting Started with Buzzword

After you sign in with your Adobe.com ID (getting one is free), you might be prompted to to install the Microsoft Script runtime. After you install it, Buzzword, the Flash-based web-based word processor component of Acrobat.com, opens. BuzzWord provides essential tools for building good-looking documents, including tables, image insertion, fonts, lists, and comments, and it can import Microsoft Word and other popular document formats.

Buzzword documents can be exported to the most popular file formats including PDF, various types of Word-compatible formats, compressed HTML (.zip), and plain text.

The PDFs Buzzword creates correspond to PDF version 1.4, assuring that they'll work with a wide range of Acrobat and Reader versions, as well as third-party products that use the PDF file format. Buzzword lists documents in alphabetical order, by author, by time viewed or last modified, by size or by role. Click the (i) button to see detailed information.

To learn about Microsoft's new beta for SideShow, read on.

Turn Your Windows Mobile into a SideShow

Windows SideShow is a feature of Windows Vista that is intended to enable Windows Vista information to be displayed on an external display. The new developer beta release of Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile enables devices (including Smartphones) that run Windows Mobile 5 or 6 to be used as SideShow devices through Bluetooth connections. Unfortunately, Toshiba Bluetooth devices are not compatible with this release. To learn more about SideShow gadgets, see the Windows SideShow page at Microsoft.com.

Article updated June 3, 2008