Adobe Document Cloud review

Adobe is a prominent software company known for creating the PDF file format. PDF was conceptualized and developed by John Warnock, one of Adobe's founders, and has become the most popular document file format worldwide. 

It’s not surprising that Adobe, the creator of the PDF, also built a solution to help businesses store and manage PDF documents on the web. Adobe Document Cloud lets you store PDF files online and access them from anywhere. You can edit files from your PC or mobile phone and add signatures to keep the workflow going.

We’re reviewing Adobe Document Cloud to show why it’s one of the best document management tools available

Adobe Document Cloud: Plans and pricing

Adobe offers Document Cloud as part of an Acrobat subscription. The company offers different pricing plans for individuals and businesses. For individuals, Acrobat Standard costs $12.99 monthly, and Acrobat Pro costs $19.99. For businesses, Acrobat Standard costs $14.99 monthly per user, and Acrobat Pro costs $23.99 monthly per user. 

Verified students & teachers have access to a special discounted plan: $19.99 monthly for a Creative Cloud subscription, including access to Document Cloud and many other Adobe graphic design and video editing tools.

If you represent a large enterprise, you can contact Adobe’s sales team to negotiate a custom deal with bulk discounts. 

Adobe offers a 7-day free trial to test Document Cloud before paying. If you’re still unsatisfied after paying, there’s a 14-day window to request a full refund from the company.

Adobe Document Cloud: Features and utilities

Adobe Document Cloud offers many beneficial document management features. They include:

Storage

You can upload your PDF files to Adobe’s servers and access them from anywhere. For instance, you can upload files from your PC at work and open them on your mobile phone at home. The idea of Adobe Document Cloud is to have access to all your PDF documents regardless of your location.

Within an organization, anyone can upload a document, and their colleague can access it online. Cloud storage is much more convenient for managing documents.

An Adobe Acrobat subscription offers 100 GB of storage space and a maximum of 100 MB for each PDF file. You can purchase more storage space from Adobe if you exceed your limits.

Editing

There’s little utility in accessing your PDF files on the Internet if you can not make needed changes. Fortunately, Adobe allows users to edit PDF files stored on Document Cloud.

For example, if you upload a contract to Document Cloud, a lawyer at your company can edit the contract to add more details or correct any errors they detect. You can configure user permissions as the document owner, deciding who can edit a document.

There are many other ways Adobe allows users to toy with PDF files. You can merge multiple PDFs into one, rearrange pages, rotate pages, split a PDF into multiple documents, extract specific pages, etc.

If your organization heavily uses PDF files, Adobe Document Cloud is a one-stop shop unlocking access to sophisticated editing tools. With it at your side, you don’t need to worry about customizing PDF documents personally or for work purposes.

Comprising

File compression is a vital feature for individual and enterprise users. Some files might be too large and occupy unnecessary space on your Adobe Document Cloud account. To solve this issue, you can compress files into smaller sizes to solve this issue while maintaining their quality and characteristics.

Adobe compresses files by removing duplicate data, rearranging codes, and fixing disorganized information to make the files more efficient to store. It’s a technical process of rearranging bits and bytes while maintaining the file quality as much as possible.

Compressing a file allows you to share it easily with other users because of the smaller size. It also optimizes your allocated storage space for efficient use. 

Electronic Signatures

Adobe Document Cloud lets you add electronic signatures to PDF documents as easily as you’d do with pen on paper. You can sign documents from your web browser or via the mobile app. 

Digital signatures are legally binding, meaning you can sign vital documents without being physically present at the office. If you need someone else’s signature, you can send a document to their email for them to sign immediately.

Password-Protected Files

You can lock your PDF files with passwords for security reasons. These files remain protected both online and offline. If another person downloads the file on their device, they can’t open it if they don’t have your password. 

Mobile App

Adobe offers a Creative Cloud mobile app, which includes all Document Cloud features. You can manage your files from this mobile app, opening and editing files on the go, especially from locations where it’s inconvenient to use a PC.

The Creative Cloud app is available on the App Store for iOS users and Play Store for Android users

Collaboration

Collaboration is one of the main hallmarks of Document Cloud. It offers many features for multiple people to work on the same documents and achieve common goals.

Multiple users can edit the same PDF document and monitor each other’s changes in real time. Users can leave comments for others to respond to. You can share any PDF from your Adobe app by email or direct link. If you choose the email option, the recipient will be notified that you’ve shared a document with them.

If someone reviews and comments on your document, you’ll get notifications. The recipient must not have an Adobe account to review your document; they can sign in as guests. 

Within your organization, you can tag colleagues on documents via their email addresses, and they’ll be immediately notified that you need their attention.

Scan & OCR

One of Adobe’s innovative features is that users can scan and convert documents into editable PDF files. For example, you can scan a newspaper page and extract the text into an editable PDF file.

You can use a scanner to scan and convert documents on the spot or convert previously scanned documents that you have. Notably, the Adobe Scan mobile app allows you to scan documents with your smartphone camera; you can scan forms, business cards, whiteboards, printouts, etc.

Let’s say you were given a paper document to type in softcopy format. Instead of wasting time typing the document from scratch, you can simply scan and convert it into a PDF file via Document Cloud.

File Conversion/Export

We’ve talked a lot about PDF files, but it’s important to note that Adobe doesn’t work exclusively with PDFs. You can convert files from PDFs to many other formats, like DOC, PPTX, JPEG, PNG, PNG, ETC. The reverse also happens; you can convert files from other formats into PDFs and edit them.

Adobe Document Cloud: Interface and In Use

Adobe Document Cloud scores highly in user-friendliness. Adobe managed to pack many features into an interface that’s relatively easy to navigate. Features are arranged as neatly as possible on the dashboard, making it easy to find what you want. You can access Adobe’s tools from a web browser, desktop, or mobile app. 

Adobe Document Cloud: Support

Adobe offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, telephone, and email. Business customers can access direct support from Adobe's team during working hours. Individual subscribers can also access similar direct support.

Enterprise customers get a designated support team and prioritized response times, which is understandable because they’re usually large companies with critical operations.

Alongside direct support, Adobe users can access a broad range of resources, including user guides and manuals, community forums, and a comprehensive Knowledge Base touching all aspects of Document Cloud. 

Adobe Document Cloud: Competitors

There’s no shortage of competition in the document management software sector. Two major Document Cloud competitors we’d like to highlight are Google Workspace and Dropbox for Business. 

Google Workspace offers a suite of collaborative tools to store and manage documents. Users can keep, organize, and edit documents on the fly, just like with Document Cloud, with a stellar user interface to match. However, Google Workspace doesn’t offer as many PDF customization features as Document Cloud.

Dropbox for Business is another ideal solution for managing PDF documents online, with extensive collaborative features and a user-friendly interface. However, it lacks as many PDF-centric features as you’d find on Document Cloud.

If you work primarily with PDF files, Document Cloud is the best option if you can afford the relatively expensive subscription. But, if you work more with non-PDF file formats, Google Workspace and Dropbox are better options.

Adobe Document Cloud: Final verdict

Adobe Document Cloud is a stellar tool for individuals and businesses that work heavily with PDF files. It greatly simplifies the process of storing, organizing, and editing PDF files. It’s an app that’ll smoothen your workflow and make your digital activities more enjoyable.  

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