Adobe Reader compatibility documentation

These documents provide guidance and important information regarding changes in Adobe Reader 9 and Reader X that may affect enterprise workflows. We recommend you start with the Adobe Reader 9.0 Compatibility Overview document, and then review any of the other documents that are likely to affect your specific organizational workflows.

The Adobe Reader compatibility promise (PDF, 183K)

The promise of compatibility in Adobe Reader means, at the most general level, that documents will behave in the same way regardless of the version of Adobe Reader in which they are opened. However, due to product improvements, bug fixes, and operating system changes, there will inevitably be differences based on the Adobe Reader version. This document explains Adobe Reader compatibility in more detail.

Adobe Reader X compatibility overview (PDF, 41K)

There are numerous features in Adobe Reader X for you to review as you engage in efforts to use Reader X in the enterprise. These features include improved user interface and the new Protected Mode features. This document also lists the issues affecting LiveCycle customers using Reader X.

Adobe Reader 9.0 compatibility overview (PDF, 77K) (Updated for Reader 9.1)

There are numerous features in Adobe Reader 9.0 that may be of interest to you as you engage in efforts to install and use Adobe Reader in the enterprise. These features include improvements in the experiences of installing, document viewing, performance, security, accessibility, and real-time collaboration. There are also changes in Adobe Reader 9.0 of which you should be aware. These changes, which occurred since Adobe Reader 8.0, may affect workflows used in your company.

Enhanced security in Adobe Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader (PDF, 169K)

Enhanced security is a feature introduced with version 9.0, and it was turned on by default with the 9.3 and 8.2 updates. The feature consists of two components: a set of default restrictions and a method to define trusted locations (assign trust) that should not be subject to those restrictions. You can either completely block dangerous actions or selectively permit them for your trusted locations. When you enable enhanced security, your application “hardens” itself against risky actions by preventing such things as unrestricted cross domain access and script injection. As with any security restriction, it can potentially break workflows that were designed to function in an unsecure way over a network; so you should proactively assign trust to the files, folders, and hosts with which you interact. For related documents including FAQ, quick key, and cross domain configuration details, refer to the Application Security Library.

Adobe Acrobat 9 digital signatures, changes, and improvements (PDF, 290K) (Updated in April 2009)

The Acrobat 9 family of products and Adobe Reader 9 (collectively called Acrobat 9) offer better support for digital signatures in forms created in Acrobat and LiveCycle Designer ES. This support improves the usability and validity of digital signatures. These changes should be of interest to business process developers and PKI owners.

PDF rendering in browsers for Adobe Acrobat 9 (PDF, 99K)

This document describes two changes on how PDF documents are rendered in a browser with Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9: In some cases, the browser HTTP stack, including cookies and session information, will be used for HTTP requests instead of using Acrobat or Adobe Reader's HTTP stack. In-process DLLs will be used to render PDF documents in the browser.