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How to Change PDF Version

By Eric Brown
PDF document versions can be changed to allow or limit accessibility with older versions of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.
i old book-keeping document image by Andrii Oleksiienko from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>

Since its creation, Adobe's Portable Document Format--or PDF--has undergone a lot of changes. Each version of Adobe Acrobat--the program used to create and edit PDF files--continues to add various types of functionality. Depending on your version of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, you may not benefit from the functionality of certain PDF files. You can change the version of the PDF to extend compatibility to older versions of Acrobat to solve this issue.

Step 1

Open the PDF you want to do a version change on. You can double-click the file to open it in Adobe Acrobat.

Step 2

Click "Advanced" and select "PDF Optimizer" from the drop-down menu.

Step 3

Click the drop-down menu labeled "Make Compatible with" and select the compatibility version you require. You can select from Acrobat 4 and up to Acrobat 9 and up. Click "OK" at the bottom of the window.

Step 4

Select a location on your computer to save the optimized PDF. Enter a new title if you want and click "Save" in the "Save Optimized As" window.

References

Tips

  • When changing a PDF version, save your document under a new name to prevent overwriting your original.

Warnings

  • This process may affect certain features such as transparency. This occurs because older versions of Acrobat may not be designed to work with transparency.

Writer Bio

Eric Brown has been writing for over 5 years. He has written for such sites as CMSWire.com, Gadgetell.com, Revenews.com, and many others. Owner of EB Arts Creative Industries, Eric works full time from home. He has been with Demand Studios awhile now and writes primarily on computer related topics for eHow.com.

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