The upcoming Acrobat 9 will include a forms-tracking function as well as the ability to add comments in video format to Acrobat documents.

Sources familiar with the upcoming Acrobat 9 -- likely to be released early this summer -- say that one new wrinkle involves a forms data-tracking service via an updated Acrobat.com website to be unveiled along with the release of the application upgrade.

The service resolves, Adobe-style, the age-old question of, "Once you make a PDF form in Acrobat, what do you do next?" Users who create effective e-forms for the first time quickly become overwhelmed when they realize that they have to do something with the data coming in to them via forms.

If that holds through to release, some third-party solutions on the market now will still be able to compete on the basis of being more inclusive: They can take input data collected via PDF, HTML, Microsoft InfoPath, and other types of forms. However, the Adobe-branded, PDF-only solution will likely be popular among organizations that only use PDF forms. Current indications are that the service will make available some of the technology found in Adobe's enterprise-class LiveCycle products to the individual Acrobat user. Meanwhile, whether they subscribe to the Acrobat.com service or not, in Acrobat a form owner will be able to track which recipients received their form as well as who filled it out and returned it, according to sources.

Also expanded in Acrobat 9 will be document redaction, a feature available in Acrobat 8. This will appeal to government and legal customers who haven't already invested in third-party solutions that handle this touchy subject of privacy issues in public documents uploaded to the web.

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