Adobe PDF is a very common file format, largely due to the PDF's ability to faithfully maintain the formatting of a document while offering smaller file sizes, searchable text, printability, and integration with the most popular web browsers. The availability of a PDF viewer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, for free download has played a decisive role in popularity of this file standard. I purchased Adobe Acrobat primarily to be able to create PDF files from Word documents and the like. Although Acrobat comes with a detailed manual available through the "help" menu, it took me almost a year before I actually decided to learn what one can do in Acrobat besides creating PDF files. I decided to start with the "Classroom in a book" manual since I already had positive experience with this series. Indeed, I was not disappointed. First, I discovered many advanced capabilities of Acrobat, which can make PDF format more convenient than any other format; secondly, it was a pleasure to work with the book. If you never used the Adobe "Classroom in a book" series before, the following comments may be useful:
a) the book does not contain anything that is not included in Acrobat Help; In fact, it even contains less information as it periodically referres the readers to one or another chapter of the online manual. The only purpose of this book is to help you to get a "hands-on" practical experience with the program using the example files from the enclosed CD.
b) this book is for the beginners. Acrobat is generally not as sophisticated as many other Adobe products, and this book does not even attempt to go into much detail. If you know nothing about Acrobat, you will find it helpful.
c) Unlike many computer books, this one is very carefully written and edited. The guidelines are very easy to follow both for Windows and Mac users. In this sense, it is an excellent and a very accurate tutorial.
d) most likely you will use this book only once. Later on you would rather refer to Acrobat Help than to the book since the latter one is more complete. Getting this book from the library may be an option to consider.