I am in the process of learning a new skill: Adobe Acrobat.

I’ve used Acrobat Reader for years and I know well how to save a Word document as a PDF, but during the last year or so, I have used Acrobat in my editing and I am continuing to learn how to use it to do more tasks.

When I edited PDFs for my friend’s company a year ago, I learned how to place comments in “sticky notes” right at the site of an issue. Doing this is as simple as clicking the picture of the sticky note, clicking where on the PDF I want the comment to go, and then typing “Please place a period at the end of this sentence,” or “Please add ‘stop’ before ‘here,’” or whatever is needed. When the comments are all lined up on the right side of the screen with their page numbers indicated, I like that. When they are scattered over the page, not so much.

What I discovered earlier this year, thanks to the wonderful webinar given by Ronane Lloyd, is that there are lots of other things that Acrobat can do. For example, I can highlight text using different colors. I can mark where I want to insert text, and then insert text within a bubble that corresponds to that mark. I can delete, underline, and strikethrough text.

I can also draw on the PDF, although I have yet to figure out why I would need to do this (I’m sure there are reasons). I can draw a line, an arrow, a polygon, or a cloud, to name a few. On the “dummy” PDFs on which I have been practicing, I have been having quite a bit of fun with the drawing tools.

The “pointer” tool, as I call it, is the most important. I must click on it when I finish using a selected tool in order to stop using that tool.

Just about every industry needs someone who can edit PDFs, and I am making myself even more marketable by learning this. Just a little more practice and I will feel confident enough to list the skill on my resume.

What new skills are you learning at the moment?