The Portfolio interface uses an SWF template, called the Navigator. Use the Navigator feature to enhance the portfolio’s appearance and functionality.

You can customize the appearance of a portfolio by configuring the layout and color. Start a portfolio as described in the previous technique, and select and add the files or folders you want to use.

Choose a layout. Select one of these options:

• Basic Grid is the default view that arranges content based on a thumbnail grid.
• The On an Image option displays your portfolio content with an image as the background. Click the thumbnails placed on the background image to display their contents. For details on building this layout, see the sidebar “Pick a Picture.”
• Revolve presents the content as a sequence where one file comes into focus at a time, great for displaying images or other highly visual content. You can include a description on the pages; click page icons to navigate.
• Sliding Row presents the content on a horizontal slider with the central three files in focus, ideal for displaying visual sequences of images and content that needs descriptions. Click page icons below the slider to navigate.

Select a color scheme. Click the Select a Color Scheme bar to display the default color schemes. Click Customize Color Scheme to open a list of the colors used in a scheme. Click an item (such as Background Color or Primary Text Color) to open a color picker that lets you choose a custom color.

Do you have to collect the correspondence for a contract negotiation? Or maybe you need to pull together material for a presentation to a potential customer? An Acrobat portfolio may fit the bill perfectly.

Acrobat 9 takes the idea of packages—the method used to bring together multiple PDF files within a parent file in Acrobat 8—to a new Flash-fed feature called Portfolio. In Acrobat 9 Portfolio, available in Acrobat 9 Standard and up, not only can you gather multiple files into a parent file, but you can also configure the interface used to present your files and explore other new features. For example, you can establish a folder hierarchy, search in a portfolio, apply program commands to the portfolio’s contents and the overall portfolio, and use both PDF and non-PDF files in the portfolio. Each file retains its own original features and elements, such as pagination, security, forms, digital signature, and default views.

Since Portfolio is a way to bring together content from different sources, and then manage and edit the component parts in different ways, this chapter includes dozens of references to specific topics mentioned elsewhere in the book.

#25 PDF Portfolio Building 101

Acrobat 9 offers two methods for combining multiple files. Instead of merging the content of a number of files into a single PDF file (described in #20, “Merging Multiple Files into a Single PDF Document”), you can use the Combine Files dialog to build a PDF portfolio.

A portfolio is a great way to bring all the material for a project or a task together, while maintaining the features of the component files and including navigation controls. Follow these steps to compile a basic portfolio:

1. Click the Combine task button and choose Assemble PDF Portfolio (Assemble Files into a Portfolio). Your Acrobat window is renamed the Portfolio[#].pdf window.
2. Click Add Files at the bottom left of the window to display the Add Files dialog. Locate and select the files you want to use, and click Open.
   • The dialog closes, and the selected files are listed at the left of the Edit window.
3. Select appearance and display options:
   • Select a layout from the Choose a Layout pane options at the right of the Portfolio window. The default uses a basic thumbnail grid (read about the other options in #26, “Customizing the Appearance”).
   • Click the Add Welcome & Header bar to display the Welcome Page and Header panes. (For more on designing the Welcome Page, skip ahead to #27, “Branding a PDF Portfolio.”)
   • Click the Select a Color Scheme bar to show some color scheme options, or design your own (see how that’s done in #26, “Customizing the Appearance”).
4. Click the Specify File Details bar to display the files in a list view; configure the list columns in Details mode using the options in the Specify File Details pane (read more in #28, “Organizing and Modifying Contents”).
5. Click Home  on the toolbar to return to the original layout mode.
6. Click the Publish bar to display options for managing the PDF portfolio. You can save, e-mail, or share the portfolio (see Chapter 11, “Reviewing and Collaboration,” for information on sharing a portfolio on Acrobat.com).
7. Choose File > Save (File > Save Portfolio) from the Acrobat menu and save the portfolio file.
8. To close the portfolio and return to Acrobat, click the “X” at the upper right of the menu bar in the Portfolio window.

The finished package provides its own interface for controlling the view of the package and its contents. Read about the different views in the sidebar “The View’s the Thing.”

After creating a bookmark, you can easily drag it to its proper place in the Bookmarks panel. You can move individual bookmarks or groups of bookmarks up and down in the list of bookmarks, and you can nest bookmarks.

For this example, we’ll nest multiple bookmarks under the Contents bookmark.

1. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the desired bookmarks in the Bookmarks panel.
2. Position the pointer on one of the selected bookmarks, hold down the mouse button, and drag the selected bookmarks up and under the target bookmark (the bookmark that you want to contain the nested bookmarks). When the arrow is below and to the right of the desired bookmark’s icon, release the mouse button. We nested the bookmarks Company Overview, Features, A Look Inside, Schedule, Financial Data, and Conclusion under the Contents bookmark.
3. Choose File > Save to save your work.

1. In the Bookmarks panel, click the icon for the bookmark whose destination you want to change. The document pane displays the selected page.
2. Click the Next Page button or Previous Page button on the toolbar as many times as necessary to go to the desired page of the document—the page to which you want the bookmark to link.
3. Click the Options button at the top of the Bookmarks panel and choose Set Bookmark Destination from the menu  Click Yes to the confirmation message to update the bookmark destination.
4. Choose File > Save to save the file.

A bookmark in Adobe Acrobat 9 is simply a link represented by text in the Bookmarks panel. Bookmarks that are created automatically by many authoring programs are generally linked to headings in the text or to figure captions, but you can also add your own bookmarks in Acrobat to create a custom outline of a document or to open other documents.

Additionally, you can use electronic bookmarks as you would paper bookmarks—to mark a place in a document that you want to highlight, or to which you want to return later.

Adding a Bookmark

For this example, we’ll add a bookmark for the front cover of a presentation. (If you don’t have the example files from the book, you can use one of your own PDF documents that contains multiple pages.)

1. Click the First Page button on the toolbar to display the first page of the document. For this example, the first page is the front cover of the presentation. Make sure that the Single Page button on the toolbar is selected; a bookmark always displays a page at the magnification that was used when the bookmark was created.
2. In the Bookmarks panel, click the New Bookmark icon. A new, untitled bookmark is added below whatever bookmark was selected or at the bottom of the list of bookmarks .
3. In the text box of the new bookmark, type the bookmark label that you want. We typed Title Page for this example. Click anywhere in the Bookmarks panel to move the focus from the text box to the bookmark.Now you’ll move the bookmark into the correct location in the bookmark hierarchy.
4. Drag the bookmark icon directly up and above the first bookmark in your Bookmarks list. We dragged the Title Page bookmark above the Contents bookmark.) Release the bookmark when you see an arrow and dotted line where you want the new bookmark to appear.
5. Choose File > Save to save your work.Test your new bookmark by selecting another bookmark to change the document window view and then selecting the new bookmark again.