Acrobat 6 and previous version compatibility?

[Stephen_Moye@adobeforums.com]

[Sheldon_Silberman@adobeforums.com]

I am having the same trouble. (I am on adobe standard 6.01 Mac OS 10.2.8) The on-line help says to change settings - apparently only a Windows version option as I cannot find this dialog anywhere in the Mac version. Under save as with ...pdf chosen the "settings" button in greyed out. Under preferences noe of the options allows one to change the default version for saving as suggested in the on-line help.

Anyone find an snwer to this?

[Sheldon_Silberman@adobeforums.com]

In reply to my own message....

I discovered (after more careful reading of the help file) that you use Distiller to make changes in the default settings for Acrobat. Once I did this, the file formats can be defaulted to 4.0 or 5.0 and you do not get the warning messages.

In any case, I believe the message you mention is non-critical and can be ignored safely.

[Stephen_Moye@adobeforums.com]

I'm not sure that I understand.

I am using Acrobat either to "Reduce file size" or to "Optimize..." a PDF 1.5 file so as to make it compatible with earlier versions. Distiller does not enter into the picture for this process. But, just in case there is something totally wierd and unexpectedly synergistic going on, I took a look at Distiller preferences and, sure enough, I have it set to preserve Acrobat 4 compatibility (i.e., PDF 1.3).

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

What was the original question?

Aandi Inston

[Stephen_Moye@adobeforums.com]

In case my original question is missing, here it is again:

Background:

I'm using Acrobat 6.02 on Mac OSX, 10.3.5. I have some PDF 1.5 files for which I need at least version 1.4 compatibility. I have tried both Advanced>PDF Optimizer... and File>Reduce File size. I have tried both Acrobat 4 and 5 compatibility. In every case, when I open the reduced or optimized files in Acrobat 5, I get this warning message:

"This file may contain newer information than this viewer can support. It may not open or display correctly. Adobe suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of our Acrobat products..."

I do notice that if I open the the reduced/optimized PDFs in Acrobat 5 and go to File>Document Properies>Summary that they still listed as PDF Version 1.5

The question is:

Are the reduced/optimized PDFs really compatible with earlier versions of Acrobat? Or is it the case that any document created in Acrobat 6 (even if optimized or reduced) may be deemed potentially incompatible with any earlier version of Acrobat?

There is an option for turning off the warning, but if the warning is valid, then I'd rather not do that.

Thanks for any insights.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

This is an unusual symptom. Generally the files saved by the PDF
Optimizer do seem to be of the requested level. Are you checking the
level immediately after running the optimize? You must not save the
file again afterwards.

Aandi Inston

[Graham_O_Connor@adobeforums.com]

I believe the file structure will be compatible with the nominated version but may contain objects that are unknown to the earlier version.
The earlier versions should just skip over these unknown objects, so that they don't display but will be resaved in a saved file.
This behavior allows v5 to be used when v6 gives you the shits.

In a previous thread Jon suggested that the 1.5 could be changed to 1.4 with an editor such as "TextEdit".
This stops the message from appearing and the earlier version does not put out the warning and seems to work.

[de_Siem@adobeforums.com]

It's more likely that steph does as Aandi assumes:

-open pdf
-use reduce file size/pdfoptimizer, then save within this optimizing procedure
- procees to make further edits in the pdf and then use the file>save/save as option.

Following that route will put the pdf back to 1.5.
Optimizing to an earlier version of pdf should be the last thing you do in a pdf.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

>I believe the file structure will be compatible with the nominated version but may contain objects that are unknown to the earlier version.

PDF Optimizer does in general remove or convert new features. This is
especially important for incompatible things like JPEG 2000 images.

There are specific exceptions.

Bizarrely, it does not attempt to flatten transparency, so you simply
get an opaque (wrong) PDF if you have transparency.

It does not attempt to check or rewrite JavaScript syntax.

Both of these will, however, produce a warning message.

Aandi Inston

[Graham_O_Connor@adobeforums.com]

I think you mean acrobat v5 which is format 1.4

[Stephen_Moye@adobeforums.com]

I immediately close the file -- actually, I usually quit out of Acrobat, and certainly make quite sure that I have made no further changes in the file necessitating another save, thus putting me back at version 1.5. I opened one of the optimized files (preserving PDF 1.4 compatibility) in BBEdit and the first line is this:

%PDF-1.5

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

This is not a typical experience but I wonder if any of the options in
the PDF optimizer are causing it. It may be worth experimenting.

Aandi Inston

[Laura_Walters@adobeforums.com]

Stephen.

I'm having the same issue. I went back this morning and tested Acrobat Professional 6.0, 6.01 and 6.02.

Version 6.0 works -- it seems to have been broken in the patch updates.

Anyone from Adobe monitoring this post??? Can we expect this corrected soon!! It's an awesome feature that sometimes is the only thing to really clean the PDF so that it works with our imposition system.

We have Pitstop Professional installed and this will allow you to save back to an earlier version of Acrobat. It is still working in 6.02 if this is an option for you. However, it doesn't have all the nice other one-click features that Optimize does without building you own "fancier" action.

Pitstop also allows you to set under the preferences that when opening a lower version PDF file in Acrobat 6 it does not automatically save up to the newer version -- which is very handy.

[Aandi_Inston@adobeforums.com]

>Anyone from Adobe monitoring this post??? Can we expect this corrected soon!!

You should call them and report it. Nothing gets fixed if it isn't
reported... It sounds serious.

Aandi Inston