Being semi-retired and not being in a financial position to pay huge sums of money for some of the big name software packages, I've become very reliant on shareware and freeware to get a lot of things done on the computer that I wouldn't otherwise be able to do. On the other side, my part-time work is as a consultant to a state agency and, when working on the state sites, I'm stuck using whatever software the state provides and supports.
One of my functions involves generating a monthly construction progress report and distributing it electronically to the entire immediate world. That's actually an improvement -- back in 2009 and 2010 we were still printing up ten to twelve copies of these reports, putting them all in looseleaf binders, and physically delivering them to various state offices. Doing it as PDFs by e-mail is a real luxury.
Except ...
The state doesn't support Adobe Acrobat. Or any of the more commonly-known alternates. Instead, at least the agency I'm working with, has settled on a package called Bluebeam Revu. It has a lot of bells and whistles for working with construction plans, but for the basic job of compiling multiple documents into a single PDF and then entering bookmarks, it's a nightmare. To the extent that I've been taking the files off the sate's computer on a thumb drive and using my personal laptop, with a combination of two different freeware programs, to accomplish what I need to do. Then I put the finished product back into the state's system and distribute the reports.
At home, I was able to find a genuine copy of Adobe Acrobat Standard v.9 awhile ago for a price I could afford (the then-current version was either XI or DC, so it was reasonable because it was multiple versions out of date). All I can say it -- what a joy to use something that actually has the tools to do the job.
I just finished compiling and bookmarking a 175-page document. Adobe not only makes entering the bookmarks easy, it also allows me to format them in colors, and to chose bold-face and/or italic type. Even better, after the whole thing was finished I found two mistakes. One had left out a subtitle line, the other was an entire paragraph that should have been deleted but wasn't. For each, it was a 30-second job to just replace the affected pages with corrected pages. I don't even want to think about what I would have to go through to accomplish the same task at the state sites.
Unfortunately, Adobe Acrobat Standard is a single user copy. I have it on my home desktop, so I can't install it on my notebook. I went looking to buy a second copy, and it's no longer available. And the current Acrobat is a subscription service. Not interested (and can't afford it).
