Still learning the ins and outs of Acrobat XI?  Here is yet another nifty post from Rick Borstein, author of the Acrolaw blog, explaining how you can change redaction properties in bulk via the Comments panel.  (If you have ever mistakenly marked text for redaction, then noticed that the fill color was not what you wanted you will appreciate this tip.)  In the same post, Rick teaches users how to unlock the Comments list so it can float as a separate window anywhere on your screen.

My favorite new feature of Acrobat XI is the improved Word converter.  Whether you are copying and pasting part of a PDF into Word or exporting the entire PDF to a Word document, the formatting comes across intact.  A video demo is available here.  Acrobat XI also supports conversion to Excel and PowerPoint.

Text editing is far more flexible too.  Want to insert text?  Just position your cursor and go.  Deleting is easy too.  In either case, the text reflows automatically.  This is a feature you probably won’t appreciate unless you have attempted to edit PDFs in the past.  With older versions of Acrobat, text editing was extremely limited.  Text did not reflow and content could only be manipulated on a word-by-word or line-by-line basis.  The results were often far from stellar.

While terrific, these new features could also result in unintended consequences.   If you don’t want the recipient of your document to edit the text or convert it from PDF to Word, change the document properties:  File > Properties… Security Tab.  In the Security Method drop-down, select Password Security.  Under Permissions, check the box “Restrict editing and printing of the document.  A password will be required in order to change these permission settings.”  Under Changes Allowed, select None.  Specify a password and choose OK.  Caution: Adobe expressly warns that third-party products may be able to defeat Acrobat security settings.

Happy PDFing!