Purchase and Install Adobe Acrobat Pro

Overview

When working with PDFs (Portable Document Format files), there are two types of Adobe software that are useful:

• Adobe Reader DC is a free software for viewing, signing and printing PDF documents. Note: The Canva website (canva.com/pdf-editor)also provides more advanced, free PDF functionality.
• Adobe Acrobat Pro which requires a license. 

For some specific divisional employees' roles, in-depth PDF capabilities are needed, which will require their department to request an Adobe Acrobat Pro DC license be purchased by Digital Strategies and Services. Adobe now uses a subscription-based license model and licenses are somewhere between $125 to $150 per year, per user. 

Team members are asked to be fiscally responsible and see if they can use any of the free software as described in this article which explains each software's capabilities and options. 

However, if Acrobat Pro DC is required, please follow these steps to purchase and install. 

Request a License

1. Have permission from a departmental manager, then have a fiscal officer or authorized requester (usually and HR manager or coordinator) submit a ticket on dss.sle.msu.edu under Software and Applications > Computer program or software request or renewal. 
2. They will select Request for Service. 
3. Fill in all fields including the Billing Account Number and description to request Acrobat Pro DC for the person who needs the software. 
   1. Be sure to include the MSU email address of the recipient, as this will be needed for Adobe to assign the license for log in.
4. In the Software or Application field, select Adobe Software.
5. Complete the rest of the fields and select Submit. 

Set Up Your Adobe Account

1. When your license is purchased, you will receive an email from Adobe asking you to set up an account and install the software. 
   
   
    
2. From the email, select the blue Get Started button. 
   1. If you do not have an existing Adobe account, create one using your MSU email address.
   2. If you already have an account, make sure you are signed out, then follow the link to Get Started and sign in again. 
      
   3. You may be prompted to enter a phone number. You can skip this step with the Not Now option.
      
       
3. After logging in, you are taken to the download page, and an installer file for Adobe Acrobat Pro will automatically download and be saved to the default location for your computer (typically your Downloads folder). 
   
   Please disregard this download (as it requires a technician to install). Instead, follow the steps in the section below. 

Installing Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro via the Software Center. 

1. From the Windows Start menu, search for Software Center and open the application. 
   
2. When Software Center opens, make sure the Applications tab is selected. Find and select the listing for Adobe Creative Cloud. 
    
3. Select the green Install button to install Adobe Creative Cloud. 
    
4. Software Center will display "installing..." and show the download progress in the "status" section. It could take approximately an hour for Creative Cloud to fully finish downloading and installing.
   
    
5. When the download is complete, the status section will read "installed" and the green "install" button will change to "uninstall". You can now close Software Center.
   
    
6. You can now open Creative Cloud. Opening the Windows start menu should show the software in the "recommended" section of the start menu. 
    
7. Or you can use the Windows Search and look for Adobe Creative Cloud to find and open the program.
    
8. After opening Creative Cloud, you may be prompted to enter your MSU email address to sign in to your Adobe account.
    
9. Enter the password you previously created. 
    
10. After log in, Creative Cloud will likely display some pop-up tutorials and welcome messages, these can be disregarded by closing or choosing "done".
     
11. You will now see the Creative Cloud homepage. From the left side menu, select "apps" to navigate to the apps section..
     
12. In the apps section, Acrobat will be visible at the top of the page in the "essential in your plan" section. Click "install" underneath Acrobat to begin the Adobe Acrobat Pro installation.
     
13. Installation will begin and progress will be visible. It may take approximately 20 minutes for the Acrobat installation to complete.
14. When installation is complete, the button will change to "open," and Acrobat will be listed under "installed apps" on the right side of the applications page. Select the "open" button to open Acrobat Pro.
     
15. When opening for the first time, you may be prompted to deactivate an existing device, if you have previously activated Acrobat on two devices. In order for you to activate and use Acrobat on your device, you will need to choose "sign out" on one of the previously activated devices.
     
16. You will see a "Welcome to Adobe Acrobat" welcome page upon opening the software for the first time. Choose "continue."
    
     
17. You will then see a first-time tutorial pop-up. You can choose "take the tour" to learn more about Acrobat, or choose the "X" button at the top right of the pop-up to close and ignore it.
     
18. You will be asked if you would like to set Adobe Acrobat as the default PDF application. In most circumstances, choose "yes" unless you want them to open in a browser typically.
     
19. A pop-up will appear to set the default .pdf application. Acrobat will already be selected, you will just need to click the blue "set default" button. Acrobat Pro is now installed, activated, set as the default PDF software, and should be fully functional for use at this point.
     
20. After Adobe is installed, you can open, edit, organize or export PDFs. 
21. For more information on using Adobe Acrobat Pro, when you have the program opened, select the question mark icon in the top menu, then select Acrobat Tutorials.