Acrobat Connect Pro includes many new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with popular instant messaging (IM) clients; and powerful compliance and usage reporting tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes. Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants’ attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class.

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS) has been using Acrobat Connect Pro to provide dealers and employees with training and presentations ranging from compliance issues to new product introductions. “With Acrobat Connect Pro, we have been able to reach more people and maintain greater control over the content, which has given us a much higher degree of training consistency,” said Steve Bamberger, national training manager, eLearning, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. “Integrating Acrobat Connect Pro into our online training initiatives has been enormously instrumental in helping us enhance communications and grow business lines, and we’ve been able to extend this enrichment to other teams for use in product launches and customer meetings.”

Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also introduced today, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold engaging online meetings that incorporate high-impact Adobe Flash® Player compatible presentations. Adobe Presenter can give virtually anyone the power to easily turn Microsoft® PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that include video, narration, animations, interactivity and advanced quizzes. New capabilities in this release include question pooling and randomization, easy-to-work-with video, and the ability to publish presentations to mobile devices or within PDF files.

“Organizations and educational institutions alike are challenged with reaching highly distributed workforces or student populations, as well as communicating, collaborating, and transferring knowledge at the accelerated pace of today’s demands,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president of Adobe’s Business Productivity Business Unit. “Whether it’s meeting with co-workers across departments, or conducting virtual classes across continents, Acrobat Connect Pro can help break through technology barriers by letting virtually anyone participate in effective online communication and knowledge transfer.”

Deployed using the Adobe Flash Player, already installed on more than 98 percent of Internet connected PCs worldwide; Acrobat Connect Pro lets virtually anyone connect to an online meeting or classroom instantly using a simple Web address, regardless of operating system or browser version, and without the need to download additional software.

Acrobat Connect Pro is expected to be available by the end of May 2008, on a hosted or on-premise basis. It will be available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese.