Increasing Productivity with PDFs

published in Working RE, Summer 20002

Adobe Acrobat is becoming a dominant standard for transmitting appraisals over the Internet because it is a stand‑alone product that can be used with any appraisal software package. While many clients might prefer that we use a particular software package, most will accept PDF files as an alternative. Many appraisers also have clients other than lenders, so the fact that Acrobat Reader is free makes it easy for homeowner/clients to accept these files.  

PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format and was created by Adobe. One of the main advantages of a PDF file is that it looks the same on every computer. That's a necessary feature when you consider how heavily formatted an appraisal form is. You wouldn't want the appraisal form to look different when your client opens it. Most documents, such as word processing documents, automatically reformat themselves depending on the fonts contained in the user's computer. If you email a Microsoft Word document to someone who doesn't have the same fonts on their computer, that document will look different when he/she opens it. His/her computer will substitute its own fonts in place of yours and the document may grow or shrink in terms of the number of lines of text.  

Fortunately, many people use the standard True Type fonts that come with Windows, so most documents don't have to reformat. But you can see the benefit to using something like a PDF file for sending a document to someone who will open it on a different computer. So the next time you e‑mail a letter, appraisal, invoice or spreadsheet where the appearance needs to stay exactly the same, remember PDFs.  

Reading , Writing and...  

PDF files can be viewed by anyone who has the Acrobat Reader. Reader is a viewer that is distributed free by Adobe via their Web site (www.adobe.com). It allows anyone to view and print PDF files. Over 300 million copies of Reader have been distributed by Adobe, so you can see why it's considered a standard. While the Reader allows you to view PDF files, it does not allow you to create them. If you want to create PDF files you need the complete Adobe Acrobat package. It costs about $200. It's known simply as Adobe Acrobat and should not be confused with the free Reader. (The Reader is included in the full version of Adobe Acrobat.)

Creating PDFs

If you want to send appraisals in the PDF file format you have to convert your files into PDF There are two programs that allow you to create PDF files: PDF Writer and Acrobat Distiller. Each program allows you to "tweak" your file a little differently while it's being created. Once you've created a file in either program, you can use Acrobat to further enhance it.

Distiller is Adobe's flagship product for creating PDF files. It was created primarily for the printing industry to be used with high‑end color document publishing and is an extension of their Postscript printing language. As such, many of the settings are overkill for making appraisal PDFs. Because many of the settings don't pertain to our simple appraisal documents, it's understandable why many appraisers get confused using Distiller. For this reason, I suggest starting out with the Writer until you become familiar with its features and options. You'll get similar results with fewer headaches. If you have a lot of knowledge of different graphic file types and desktop publishing, then use Distiller. Its options for compressing different file types will allow you to create smaller PDF files. But they are not significantly smaller than what you can create with Writer. (You might save only a minute or two of transmission time over the Internet, so why bother?) Dis­tiller is extremely useful when creating PDF files for documents that are hundreds of pages in length and contain a lot of high resolution graphic images. But most of us are not doing that with our appraisals.

Using PDF Writer

Adobe created Writer to make it easier for the non‑publishing professional to cre­ate PDF files. Writer is actually a printer driver. It usually does not install automat­ically, so you might have to do so manu­ally when you first install Acrobat. Once installed, you can produce a PDF file by choosing PDF Writer from your print dia­log box, in much the same way you select your regular printers. Writer has a number of options that are clearly explained in the Acrobat help file.

A Few Pointers

• Select legal sized paper. This is the cause of the incredible shrinking appraisal page that has hampered many appraisers.

• Choose your compression options from the compression tab. I suggest that you initially click on the default button on the compression page. If you are pleased with the results you can make small changes from there. The "Color/Grayscale Images" option is where most of the compression takes place on an appraisal. Choose a higher level of .jpg compression if the file size is larger than you desire.

Compressing Photos

There's a difference between compressing your photos using a compression scheme such as .jpg and downsampling your pho­tos to a lower resolution. Downsampling means changing your photo to a lower resolution. Many photos still look good at resolutions down to 200 pixels per inch. You would typically downsample your photo in whatever software comes with your digital camera. You still need to com­press your photos in Distiller or Writer using a .jpg compression scheme, even after you downsampled your photos to a lower resolution elsewhere. Your photos will be way too large, even with jpg com­pression, if you fail to downsample them.

Finishing Touches

Once you've created a PDF file using either Writer or Distiller, Acrobat will allow you to further customize that file. Simply open your newly created PDF file in Acrobat to use its custom features. I'll cover just some of the major features that concern appraisers.

Security

The security capabilities of Acrobat are very robust. Unfortunately, many appraisers don't understand how to properly apply these security settings. There are too many secu­rity features to describe but here's a basic overview of creating a secure document. You apply security settings in Acrobat once you have one of your PDF documents open. Simply choose File and Document Secu­rity. You'll be presented with a dialog box. Choose Acrobat Standard Security. The new dialog box that pops up is where you choose a password for your document as well as the various permissions.

Permissions are different tasks that you can control, such as printing and alter­ing the document. Here's where many appraisers make a mistake. Once you check the appropriate permissions, you also need to choose your passwords. If you don't turn on the password protection, your permis­sions won't stick. Save your PDF file once you've chosen your security permissions. Acrobat's Standard Security is probably adequate for most appraisal needs.

You may notice another security option. It's called Acrobat Self‑Sign and it represents a more advanced level of secu­rity. Self‑Sign security basically allows you to create a Certificate that gets transmit­ted along with your document. This cer­tificate is sent to the recipient, usually as a separate e‑mail. It verifies that the PDF file has not been altered. This prevents someone from trying to supply a PDF document that has been altered in any way. If your PDF is altered then the certificate won't authenticate. Self‑sign security takes quite a bit of set up and requires close coordination with the recipient. It's highly unlikely that any of our clients would take the time to develop a secure certificate workflow with us, so most appraisers will probably never need to use anything other than Acrobat Standard Security.

Digital Signatures worth the hassle?

Acrobat's digital signature feature isn't worth the hassle to set up and use. It is an extension of the Self-Sign Security and also forces a lot of planned coordination between yourself and your client. Acrobat's Standard Security protects your entire report--your signature and contents. Remember too that USPAP retired the burdensome Statement 8 that dealt with electronic transmission of reports. So there's no longer a practical need to go overboard with any sort of advanced signature protection scheme.

Using the "Save As" Command

You can minimize the size of your PDF document by using the Save As command after you delete any pages in your appraisal. If you use the Save command by itself, your document won't be reduced as much. I use Save As frequently to make sure I'm getting the smallest file size possible.

Font Embedding and Subsetting

Font embedding and subsetting can be confusing, so I suggest you read the manual if you want to alter these advanced settings. Here are some pointers if you choose to play with your font options. Font embedding ensures that your clients will view and print the text of your appraisal displayed in its original fonts. However, embedding fonts increases the file size. It's not necessary to embed fonts for an appraisal because the font used isn't important. Your clients' computers will use their own fonts to display your appraisal on their monitor or to print out. You can choose to embed the fonts from your machine if you want your appraisal to look exactly the same for your client but your file size will increase. In fact, if your appraisal font is one of the 14 base fonts included with Acrobat, there's no need to embed them anyway. Reader uses the same 14 fonts.

To reduce file size when fonts are embedded, font subsetting can be used to ensure that only the characters actually used in the PDF will be embedded. There are a lot of special characters available in a font set that are not likely to be used in an appraisal, so be sure to turn on font subsetting if you are embedding your fonts.

Summary

Adobe Acrobat is a very robust software package with a lot of options. It was designed to serve a wide user base. Remember the following pointers:  

• Use PDF Writer rather than Acrobat Distiller when starting out.

• Be sure to downsample your images to 200-300 pixels per inch, in addition to using a .jpg compression scheme.

• Acrobat's self-sign security with password protection is all you really need for a secure document.

• You can pretty much ignore the font embedding and subsetting options.

• When in doubt over which setting to use in either Writer or Distiller, simply click the Default button.

Hopefully you've been introduced to some features that you may not have been aware of before. Now start reading that manual!