An updated version of Adobe’s Acrobat software will be unveiled today, adding new capabilities including a means for staff to join ad-hoc online meetings.

Acrobat 8, due in October, offers better tools for shared reviews and real-time collaboration. It introduces an updated PDF format to package multiple documents into one file; and the free-to-download Adobe Reader can fill out PDF forms on-screen and post the results to a specified email address.

Acrobat 8 Professional includes a redaction tool to remove sensitive information, preventing accidental disclosure in PDF files. Users can search long documents for specific keywords. Simply highlighting in black does not remove text from documents – it can still be copied, said Lori DeFurio of Adobe’s Knowledge Worker Solutions group. Many organisations, including the US Justice Department, have unwittingly leaked sensitive data in the past after botched attempts to censor PDFs.

Acrobat 8 also lets users combine portions of files into a single PDF. Source files can be Word documents, spreadsheets, web pages, or emails. However, sensitive documents are often digitally signed, and merging them would invalidate the signature. Acrobat 8 enables multiple PDFs to be stuffed into a single wrapper file.

Also new is an upgraded review process that lets group members see each other’s comments. “You need a location for this, which could be a shared folder, a Microsoft SharePoint workspace, and we support WebDav [versioning] as well,” said DeFurio.

Another new feature, Adobe Connect, lets users click straight into online meetings where they can view documents with other participants and communicate via text-based chat. This service will require users to subscribe, but a free trial will be available when it launches this year, Adobe said.

“It’s a personal meeting room. I can send email invitations, or give out a personalised URL. Other users can see the same documents as the host,” said Peter Ryce, Connect Evangelist at Adobe. Invitees only need Adobe’s Flash player to join in. An enterprise-grade version, Acrobat Connect Professional, will support up to 2,500 users.