How Difficult is it to Learn Adobe Acrobat?

Are you curious about learning Adobe Acrobat but worried it might be too hard? Of course, the difficulty that comes with learning a new skill is somewhat subjective. The challenges of learning Adobe Acrobat depend on factors likehow familiar you are with computer document programs, what version of the application you want to learn, and how you plan on using the program.

No matter your current schedule or comfort level with Adobe Acrobat, plenty of tools are available to help make learning more manageable than you might think.

What is Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Acrobat is the most commonly used application for reading, displaying, and editing documents in Adobe’s portable document format (PDF). The PDF file extension is designed as a universal text and image display system that can display on any machine, regardless of what applications, hardware, or operating system you are using. Adding the extension makes Adobe Acrobat a vital tool for cross-platform collaboration and design processes. It is also essential for securely authorizing, signing, and archiving important documents, including transcripts, tax filings, and other legal documents. 

Adobe is also constantly striving to ensure that Acrobat is more than just a PDF reader. While there is a freeware version of the application to let any user read documents, Acrobat Pro lets users edit, manipulate, and otherwise prepare PDF documents for distribution. Importantly, it also allows users to convert PDFs to word documents, excel spreadsheets, or even jpegs, which is an integral part of optimizing specific professional processes. Between these features and essential quality-of-life benefits, such as combining documents into a single PDF, compressing PDFs, and automated features ensuring documents meet specific critical legal regulations, Adobe Acrobat is one of the most versatile and vital baseline tools available.

Read more about what Adobe Acrobat is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Acrobat is a versatile software program that lets users create and share PDF files that can be read and edited on almost any device. The program is important for both collaborative design work and for documenting and archiving important documents. Using Adobe Acrobat makes remote work more accessible and efficient since Acrobat includes authentication and documentation features that allow users to encrypt, protect, sign, and notarize documents without meeting with a signee in-person. These built-in collaboration features can improve both workflow efficiency and the kinds of work that is practical for a given company or organization.

Adobe Acrobat is also one of the most commonly used tools for archiving and preserving important documents. PDF readers can produce high-quality scans of physical documents and display them on almost any modern device. This ability makes Adobe Acrobat a valuable tool for making rare or sensitive documents more accessible to the public. It also ensures that individuals can easily create and access backup versions of physical documents they want to keep protected. Since Acrobat also has significant privacy and security features, learning Acrobat is an excellent way to ensure that these documents are appropriately protected when you need others to access them.

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning Adobe Acrobat?

The most challenging aspects of learning Adobe Acrobat are likely to come for students who are learning to use the Pro version of the program for large administrative tasks, such as creating fillable PDF files that the program can convert into other formats for later archiving. The best way to overcome these challenges is to receive professional Acrobat training emphasizing the program's advanced functionalities.

How Does Learning Adobe Acrobat Compare to Other Applications?

Students wanting to learn Adobe Acrobat may also be interested in learning other elements of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Since Acrobat is an accessible and easy-to-learn program, building on your Acrobat training with more focused creative tools may be an ideal way to jumpstart your career. Plus, Acrobat is already heavily integrated with the rest of the Creative Cloud, and students who license Acrobat are likely to also benefit from licensing other Creative Cloud applications.

The most commonly used Adobe Creative Cloud applications are design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. These applications allow users to edit and manipulate photos, create illustrated vector graphics designs, and build vibrant page layouts for print mediums and webpages. Many students learn Creative Cloud tools in conjunction with one another since they are closely linked. Many training programs will include an overview of using Acrobat since it is one of the more common ways to save and distribute completed design files. These are creative design skills, so students learning them will also need to learn theories of design and principles of composition, which can be a challenge for students unfamiliar with working on professional artistic projects.

Students may also want to learn more advanced Creative Cloud skills, such as video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro or motion graphics with Adobe After Effects. These are more complicated than Adobe Acrobat or other simplistic video editing tools; thus, their digital animation and editing tools require more training than their more basic 2D counterparts and significantly more training than something like Acrobat. However, these skills are vital parts of in-demand career fields, so anyone interested in starting a new career path will want to learn more specialized and niche skills than Adobe Acrobat (on its own).

To learn more about the skills that make up the Adobe Creative Cloud, consider exploring the course offerings available through Noble Desktop.

Professional Training

Students who worry they will have difficulty learning Acrobat may want to consider professional Acrobat training. While those wishing to learn the basics of the freeware version should have no difficulties, students intending to become Acrobat power users should seriously consider y enrolling in a professional training course. Over time, a course taught live by a professional will be more efficient, accessible, and shorter than an on-demand course.

Learn Adobe Acrobat with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Individuals hoping to learn Adobe Acrobat will have a few options available. Noble Desktop offers private and group Adobe Acrobat training in-person at Noble’s Manhattan campus and online in live digital classrooms. These courses allow students to learn advanced Acrobat skills with the assistance of live instructors. Enrollees will work with hands-on examples that mirror the kinds of real-world applications for which they will employ Acrobat, and can ask questions and receive direct feedback from their instructors. Enrollees attending these courses will benefit from small class sizes, even online. Anyone who takes a course through Noble can retake that course within a calendar year, giving individuals s even more opportunities to master Adobe Acrobat.

Those wanting to learn Adobe Acrobat can enroll in Noble’s Adobe Acrobat Training course. This course is beginner-friendly and designed to get students comfortable with the key functionalities of Acrobat that they require in their day-to-day lives. This course will get new students up to speed by teaching them how to edit, merge, combine, arrange, share, and protect PDF files using Acrobat. This class is a great way to learn the ins and outs of Adobe Acrobat quickly. In this course, students will learn everything they need to know about storing, annotating, and working with PDF files. 

Another advantage to learning Adobe Acrobat is that it is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of tools and is therefore both heavily integrated with those applications and is one of the best ways to display designs on any device. Creative professionals, in particular, will want to learn Adobe Acrobat as part of their training in other Adobe Creative programs. Students learning skills like Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign will want to ensure they know how to improve their workflow efficiency using Acrobat.