1. ST. MARY’S UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC MEDIA CENTER TUTORIAL
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Building an Adobe Acrobat X PDF Portfolio
Introduction
A PDF Portfolio combines multiple files - PDFs, images, Word documents and more -
into one single PDF file that can have its own design and navigation. The original
files retain their individual identities and formats, but are assembled into one PDF
Portfolio file. You can open, read, edit, and format each included file independently
of the other files in the PDF Portfolio. This makes PDF portfolios a great way for
students to display their academic and professional work or for any professional to
combine and display a group of related materials in one easy-to-share package.
Create A PDF Portfolio
Create a basic PDF Portfolio in a few quick steps.
1. Start Acrobat and In the Welcome Screen, click Create PDF Portfolio.

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2. Choose a layout from the left side of the wizard.
The list of layouts includes the predefined layouts that ship with Acrobat.
3. Note: you can change this layout later, so you’re not
locked in to the choice you make here.
4. Click Finish.
5. Click File/Save As and save your portfolio to your computer.
Add files and folders
Acrobat has two modes for building PDF portfolios: A Preview mode and an Edit
mode. Acrobat will open in Edit mode with a Preview button showing like this:
To add content, it’s best to create the content in the folder structure you want to
use by using Finder on the Mac and Windows Explorer on a PC. Once you have
your files organized, position the files and folders you want to add in a window next
to Adobe Acrobat or on your Desktop, and drag the files into the open gray area of
Acrobat. (You will be able to add more files later in this same way if you need to.)

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The files appear within the PDF portfolio interface.

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For best performance, keep the total number of component files at 15 or less,
and the total size of all component files under 50 MB.
Remove files and folders from a PDF Portfolio
If you delete a folder, all of the files within it are deleted from the PDF Portfolio.
In Edit mode, select one or more files or folders in the PDF Portfolio and press
the Delete key on the keyboard.
For example in the Click-Through layout, click on one file to highlight it, and then
hold down the shift key to select others, then press the Delete key.
You will see a dialog box asking if you are sure you want to delete the file(s).
Click the Yes button and the files are deleted.
Or click the Delete File icon on the file’s portfolio card, if available, as shown here in
the Click-Through layout.

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You will receive a dialogue box asking if you are sure. Click Yes to delete the file.
Customize a PDF Portfolio
In Edit mode, you can customize the layout, theme, and color scheme. You can also
customize the Details view with columns that you choose or create yourself.
Change the PDF Portfolio layout
PDF Portfolio layout options enable you to
present content in a layout that best fits
your needs. For example, the Click-Through
layout allows readers to flip through files in
the PDF Portfolio one at a time. In all
layouts, each file appears on a card with an
image (if available) and information about
the document, such as the filename.
(If none of the layouts are exactly what you
want, custom layouts are possible, but not
covered in these instructions. Ask someone
with the AMC for more information.)
To set the layout, click Portfolio Layouts in
the Layout pane, and select one from the
list.
Change the visual appearance
Themes, colors, and background images add visual interest and cohesiveness to a
PDF Portfolio. Use Edit mode to change visual elements.
■ To select a theme, click Visual Themes in the Layout pane, and select one
from the list.

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■ To use a custom theme, click Import Custom Theme. Navigate to the custom
theme on your computer and open it. The theme is immediately applied to
your PDF Portfolio and appears in the Visual Themes list as “Custom.” Unlike
custom layouts, custom themes apply only to the current PDF Portfolio and
are not permanently added to the Visual Themes panel. Themes are created
in Adobe Flash Professional or Adobe Flash Builder and have a .swf
extension.
■ To change the colors in a visual theme, click Color Palettes in the Layout
pane and choose a different palette.
■ To create a custom color palette, in the Color Palettes panel, click Create
From Existing and specify the colors, using color hexadecimal codes like
those obtained from a graphics program like Photoshop or from Adobe’s color
site: http://kuler.adobe.com

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■ To change the properties of a background color, first select a color palette,
and then click Background. Specify background color properties as desired.
■ To add an image as the background, click Background in the Layout pane. In
the Background Image area, select an image from the list or click Choose
New to add an image from your computer. Specify image properties as
desired.

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Add a header
The header appears at the top of the layout, and can contain important information
like a logo, company name, and contact information. The header can include text,
images, or both, and can be arranged in various ways.
1. In Edit mode, click the empty band at the top of the edit window. The Header
Properties panel appears near the bottom of the Layout pane.
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2. Select a template from the list in Header Properties, such as Text and Image.
3. In the header area, click in the boxes to add content.
4. To add an image, click the image box in the upper left corner of the window.
5. In the lower right panel, click Choose Image.
6. Navigate to a file you want to use as an image and click Open.
7. To add text, double-click to show the insertion point.
8. In the Text and Image Properties panels, specify size, background
9. An image and text now appears at the top of the screen.

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10. Click the Preview button to see how the header will look in your completed
portfolio.
11. Click the Edit button to return to editing the portfolio.
Working with files in a PDF Portfolio
You can sort and preview component files in a PDF Portfolio, as well as open, edit,
and save component files in their native application. Some file types require that
you install the native application on your computer.
View files in a list
In Preview mode, click the Files button in the PDF Portfolio toolbar.
A list of files (and folders if there are folders) is shown.
To sort file details by ascending and descending order, click a column name. Click it
a second time to reverse the order.

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Edit file details in a list
1. If the Edit button is showing, click it to get into Edit mode.
2. Once in Edit mode, click the Details pane.
3. Do any of the following under Columns To Display:
■ To show or hide a column in the list, click in the checkbox.
■ To add a column, type the name (e.g. Nickname) in the Add A Column
box, select a data type from the menu, and click the Add button.

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■ To delete optional columns, hold the pointer over the column name
until the Delete button appears, and then click the button. You
cannot delete required columns, such as Name, Description, Size, and
others.
■ To change the order of a column, select it and click the Up or Down
Arrow. You can also drag a column in the file list on the left.
Sort, filter and change the order of files and folders
By default, component files are arranged and sorted alphabetically by filename.
Files appear and print in this order.
You can change or customize the order in which files appear. However, files always
print alphabetically.
Note: Sorting files in Preview mode changes the order only for the current session.
The next time you open the PDF Portfolio, it appears in the specified initial sort
order.
To reorder files in a custom way, drag files in the list on the left. Reordering
files creates an Order column in the Initial Sort menu on the right, and
automatically selects it as the initial sort.
In a mini-navigator or Grid layout, click the Layout pane, and then drag files
and folders to achieve the order you want, much like you would reorder slides
in PowerPoint. The mini-navigator appears in Click-Through, Linear, and Wave
layouts.
Save the PDF Portfolio.
To move a file inside a folder up a level
Occasionally, you may have a file within a
folder that you want to move up a level from
within the Details view.
1. Navigate to a list of the files in the folder.
2.Click, hold and drag the file you would like to
move to the top of the list, right below the
Name column header until the list of files
changes to the next level up.
3.Continue dragging the file to the position you
want it to be in and then release.

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Edit filenames and descriptions in a PDF portfolio
■ In all Portfolio Layouts, you can click on the title of the file on its layout card
and edit the title text directly by clicking on the text and typing something
new (e.g. type over HarrisHouseProposal.pdf) NOTE: this changes the
display name, not the underlying file name. To make your portfolio easier to
read, you probably want to change all of the names in this way. As a result,
viewers of your portfolio will see names without file name extensions.
Instead of proposal.pdf, they will see whatever display name you type.
■ If you also want to change other information about the file, the easiest
method is to switch to the Click-Through Layout and click the i button.

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■ This flips the card over, revealing a form to type in more file information.
■ Fill in the additional information and then click the x button in the upper right
corner to save.
Saving a Portfolio
■ In the regular Acrobat file menu, click File/Save Portfolio.
■ The Portfolio file appears with the generic preview page/icon.
Customizing the Preview Page/Icon
■ For a friendlier and more custom PDF portfolio, you will want to customize
the cover sheet, which will result in a custom icon.
■ In the regular Acrobat menu, click View/Portfolio/Cover Sheet

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■ The generic cover sheet appears
■ Click the Page Thumbnails icon (Page Thumbnails tray appears).

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■ Click the Page Thumbnails icon (Page Thumbnails tray appears).
■ Click Options icon. (Menu appears)
■ Click Replace Pages
■ Navigate to the new PDF file you would like to use as a cover and click
Select.
■ A Replace Page Dialog box appears.

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■ Click OK
■ A “Are you sure...” dialog box appears
■ Click Yes
■ The new cover appears
■ Click File/Save Portfolio
■ Navigate to where the Portfolio is saved and you will the new custom cover
used as an icon.
Publish PDF Portfolios to a website
Acrobat can convert a PDF Portfolio to a SWF file for others to view on a website. All
file navigation and video controls are available to users with access to the website.

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To preview how the PDF Portfolio appears on a website, you publish the content to
the site. You can’t preview by opening the published PDF Portfolio on your local
computer.
Note: You can view and extract files from a published PDF Portfolio. To edit The
PDF Portfolio, open it in Acrobat.
1. In an open PDF Portfolio, choose File > Save PDF Portfolio As Web Site.
2. Select a folder, or create a new one, for the saved web files. Click OK.
A new folder makes it easier to find the saved files.
The data folder contains the structure of the website and a web player.
3. (Optional) Edit the index.html file. For example, you can match the look of an
existing website, or embed the PDF Portfolio within an existing web page.
4. Copy the entire data folder and the index.html file to a web server. To
transfer the data, you can use FTP, mount the server as a local disk, or use
some other method.
5. Note the web address (URL) of the saved HTML file.
6. In a web browser, enter the URL of the HTML page, starting with http:// or
https://.
Sources:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/pro/using/
WS8AC2CE72-864F-4d65-815A-4AFCAB0B46FA.html#WS35F093A4-27FA-40d1-9C
5B-79B4FA7E531F