by Kurt E. DeSoto

Occasionally I hear about a document attached to an e-mail sent to opposing counsel or electronically uploaded to the FCC that shows the authors' edits and sometimes their comments about the document while it was in draft. In some cases, the comments reveal the authors' strategies or acknowledge the weaknesses in their positions.

For example, a document sent by defendant's counsel with a final sentence intended as follows:

when opened by the recipient appears as:

How does this happen? Without getting into the technical tricks of the trade, let it suffice to say that certain word-processing and other software packages retain a record of the edits made to documents (called "metadata") that can sometimes magically re-appear in a document after it is received electronically by opposing counsel or the FCC. The types of metadata include:

This situation can be extremely embarrassing or, worse, constitute malpractice. (On the other side, some argue that it is an attorney's responsibility to zealously represent clients and actively look for such hidden information in documents received.)

To address this problem, many practitioners have instituted procedures to require each Word, WordPerfect, PowerPoint, Excel and other document to be "sanitized" by at least one of four methods before they are distributed electronically:

One technique which has become somewhat standard is to convert documents into Adobe PDF files. A PDF file is an electronic image (a "photograph" so to speak) of a document and, therefore, does not contain metadata. Moreover, it is not editable in Word (although it can be uploaded or sent by email). If the recipient of the electronic document does not need to make edits to the file, it may be preferable to send the document as a PDF file to avoid the transmission of metadata.

But did you know that there are two versions of Adobe's PDF software that offer different features? Depending on the type of document or need, one version might be preferable to another. But please note: while Adobe offers its Acrobat "reader" for free, it charges for the programs that "create" PDF files.

Adobe PDF Writer: PDF Writer is the basic version of Adobe's software for converting documents into PDF files and comes packaged as a "custom install" when loading Adobe Acrobat 6.0. It is then accessed by choosing "Create PDF" in the pull-down menu for the printer "Name" in the print window (i.e., after the user selects "File Menu, Print" or types "Ctrl + P").

PDF Writer creates acceptable electronic images for most text applications and usually reduces the file size compared to the source document. For example, a 10-page Word document of 600 KB might result in a 300 KB PDF file. Thus, you get not only the benefit of a sanitized document, but also a smaller file that is easier to e-mail as an attachment to recipients with slow connections or that use a service provider that limits size of attachments it will route.

On the other hand, PDF Writer will sometimes perform some hocus pocus on the spacing of a document or repaginate it so as to create artifacts or change the layout. It also does not convert very well detailed graphics, photographs, line art, or shaded images. In particular, I would not want to use PDF Writer for files that contain Encapsulated PostScript ("EPS") graphics. The result would look extremely pixilated or badly bitmapped.

Acrobat Distiller: Distiller is the higher-end version of Adobe's PDF software installed by default with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 and is accessed in the same manner as PDFWriter (except that you would choose "Acrobat Distiller" in the print window). It can also convert text documents, but is optimized to handle graphics-intensive documents, such as those created with programs like PageMaker, QuarkXPress, FrameMaker, Illustrator, FreeHand, CorelDraw or even Photoshop. This is because Distiller includes additional options not available with PDFWriter that allow users to control more precisely the resolution, compression, colors, and formatting of documents.

On the down side, Distiller operates somewhat more slowly than PDF Writer and requires a lot of RAM, especially for large documents. Moreover, in some modes, Distiller creates much larger files; unless the user changes the resolution settings, the same 10-page document that was 300 KB when converted using PDFWriter could be over a 1000 KB (or 1MB) when using Distiller.

For more information, Adobe posts a description and and other materials on PDF Writer and Distiller at http://www.adobe.com/support/salesdocs/10776.htm.

In sum, PDF Writer is best for simple text documents that do not contain graphics or when memory (RAM or disk space) is limited. It is also good to use when a document must be delivered via email over the Internet. I would recommend custom installing it on your computer along with Distiller. Distiller is preferable, however, when the quality of the image is critical, such as for high-end printing or when documents are graphics-intensive or contain photographs.

Now that you have a little more background regarding these programs to keep up your sleeve, perhaps it will be easier to choose which one is optimal to prevent being stained from what should have been "invisible ink."