Convert a color PDF to grayscale

Have you ever had a color PDF file that you needed to convert to grayscale? Acrobat 8 Professional has a simple-but-not-obvious way to accomplish this.

1. Open a color PDF file in Acrobat 8 Professional. The file may contain a mix of CMYK, RGB or spot color objects.

2. Choose Advanced > Print Production > Preflight.

3. Click the right-pointing triangle next to PDF Fixups, and select the Convert to Grayscale option that appears.

4. Click the Execute button. The entire PDF file will be converted to grayscale.

Ejecting a stuck CD

While I was traveling last week, a CD became stuck in the drive on my MacBook Pro laptop. No matter what I tried, the CD would not eject. Every time that I opened the laptop for a training session, the CD would spin and start draining the battery.

Today, back in my office, it occurred to me to do a quick Google search on "stuck cd"+macbook. I quickly found a Web site where someone suggested picking the laptop up, turning it so that the CD-ROM slot faced downward, and shaking the laptop after hitting the eject key. Could it be so simple? Sure enough, on my first try the CD popped out and hit the floor.

Thank goodness for Google and low-tech solutions! I should think that this would be worth a try on any slot-loading Macintosh or Windows laptop in a similar situation.

Free font ID tool

Visit Galaxy Gauge to download a free PDF version of their handy tabloid-sized Galaxy Font I.D. 2.0 font identification guide. This is a nice concise guide to hundreds of popular typefaces, grouped according to font classification. While visiting the Galaxy Gauge web site, check out their line of high-quality, useful graphic design gauges and color tools.

Make your voice heard at Adobe

If you have a great idea you'd like to see implemented, or you've found a bug in any of the Adobe software programs that you use, don't just sit and stew about it. Instead, use the Feature Request/Bug Report Form at Adobe.com to make your voice heard.

This is time well-spent. Adobe employees do read, consider and compile these requests and bug reports. The lead time on software development can be long, so even if your idea is a great one, it may be a long time before your feature request makes it into a product.

In my experience, Adobe does an good job of listening to its customers, and this process is one example of that.

InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat plug-in guide

A PDF guide to all known InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat third-party plug-ins is available here. The number of plug-ins available to extend the functionality of InDesign, in particular, is growing all the time. Check it out. You just might find a plug-in to save you a lot of work on your next project.