Adobe Systems Adobe Acrobat and Portable Document Format (PDF) and Extensible Style Language (XSL) are highlighted in a discussion of the clout Adobe has in the content industry, especially since its acquisition of Macromedia. In the non-Web sense, Acrobat was the first browser, and it has been installed more than 500 million times. No Web browser runs on as many platforms with as many installations, and the Macromedia Flash player also has over 500 million installations. Adobe has always upgraded Acrobat about every 18 months, and the most recent releases are Acrobat 7.0, which was a minor upgrade, and Acrobat 7.01, which has so many new features that Adobe had to categorize them to help with user customization. There appear to be about a dozen ways to navigate, over 20 toolbars, and almost 30 ways to specify use of Acrobat with preference categories. Adobes Intelligent Document Platform is a viable strategy for allowing users documents to move from static to interactive information integrated with business data and processes inside and outside the firewall. Platform elements include a universal client (Adobe Reader in a browser or by itself), intelligent documents that preserve the best of paper powered by XML standards, and various server-based document services. They include forms data management, control, security, and document generation. Adobe now competes feature-wise with Verity, Liquid Machines, and Authentica. Adobe now has a billion readers and players installed, which bodes well for the newly combined Adobe-Macromedia company.