I'm trying to determine whether Adobe Acrobat Pro DC in combination with Reader is a feasible solution for a document that I want to share with thousands of Reader users. I don't have confidence that I can correctly piece together bits of info from a variety of support resources, so let me ask my question this way:Can I share a read-only document with 10.000 users and have 1000 users view it simultaneously?The users and their links to the document will be added individually over time.And if so, will there be some special approach to making this work?Thank you very much for the benefit of your experience!

Inspiring

Answered

Volume limitations for sharing links?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 14, 2021
4 replies
1583 views

I'm trying to determine whether Adobe Acrobat Pro DC in combination with Reader is a feasible solution for a document that I want to share with thousands of Reader users. I don't have confidence that I can correctly piece together bits of info from a variety of support resources, so let me ask my question this way:

Can I share a read-only document with 10.000 users and have 1000 users view it simultaneously?
- The users and their links to the document will be added individually over time.
And if so, will there be some special approach to making this work?

Thank you very much for the benefit of your experience!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer gary_sc

Hi Dave,

If all you are doing is sending out a PDF and any updates will be sent in a subsequent email, than sure. That would work. As long as they are on-line to receive the PDF than they can access the PDF when they are on-line or off-line.

FWIW, when I've seen a PDF has been sent to me via my iPhone but do not look at it, when I'm later off line and wishing to see it, I can't because my iPhone does not download the file unless I click on the PDF icon link. Just a bit of extra thoughts there.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

I think maybe we'd better start from the top. I think you are looking for some kind of security control. But I can't see what. Most kinds of PDF security are just imaginary, and offer no protection at all.

So - consider the case where you just put it on your own web site ONE TIME and email a link (the same link) as you want. (I believe the "link" you are talking about is a link TO the PDF, not a link IN the PDF, which has thrown us). If this doesn't meet your needs, please tell us why - we may get a better understanding of what you are trying to do.

H

HarborSkipAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks again, Gary & Legend. To put it another way: I want distribute a copy of a PDF file on demand once to each of say 10,000 users for them to view (only) off-line. The file will probably never need to be updated, but if it does, then I will just send an updated copy as an email attachment to select individuals. The security does not need to be airtight, but I will advantage of whatever is there. Does this help? Thanks for hanging in there with me.

gary_sc

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi Dave,

If all you are doing is sending out a PDF and any updates will be sent in a subsequent email, than sure. That would work. As long as they are on-line to receive the PDF than they can access the PDF when they are on-line or off-line.

FWIW, when I've seen a PDF has been sent to me via my iPhone but do not look at it, when I'm later off line and wishing to see it, I can't because my iPhone does not download the file unless I click on the PDF icon link. Just a bit of extra thoughts there.

try67

Community Expert

You can share a file with as many people you want, but you need to realize they won't all be looking at the same file, but at copies of it. Each person will download the file to their local device (whether they know it or not) and view that copy. If you change the original they would all need to re-download it to see the new version.

PDF files are not like a document on Google Docs, where you can do a shared edit session with multiple people at the same time.

H

HarborSkipAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you, Gary & try67. I believe I'm now getting a better handle on this. E.g. I believe I can create one totally protected, read-only PDF and then email a copy of it an attachment to as many individual users as I want (perhaps 5 per day) so they are viewing their own copies off-line. Does this sound like I'm on the right track?

gary_sc

Community Expert

I do not know about Try67, but I still have no real idea of what you're attempting to do. But if you wish to have constantly updating data in a PDF, that is not going to happen. If you have a web page, that could work.

Sorry, I hope you get something to work for you.

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi Dave,

First, let me warn you that I removed your personal information. There are all kinds of folks going through these forums and there's no sense in making it easy for the wrong ones.

OK, back to your question: I guess I'm confused about how to answer this because I'm still trying to understand what you're doing. If you wish to prepare some PDF, have a password required, send that out to 10,000 people and tell them at an appointed time to "now" open the PDF. In theory that should work fine. In practice, there may be issues:

• First off, not everyone will have as great a net connection as others. Not a deal-breaker, but you do need to moderate your speed to allow for this.

• Next, you did not mention if everyone receives a different password or every one the same. People will lose their passwords regardless. I strongly recommend that you have forum moderators available separate from the leader to help those with issues. (Also, be aware that while passwords are very strong and well supported in many PDF readers, there are other readers who can bypass them. There's nothing that you can do to stop this so if this is not a deal-breaker then continue.)

But I still am completely flummoxed about what you mean with:

"The users and their links to the document will be added individually over time."

I know of no way for a PDF to be self-generating updates with the actions of 1000+ people. That's a web-based requirement.

Please try to think of a PDF as a digitally printed document. There are a plethora of wonderful things that make a PDF better than a printed document and a few that make a printed document better than a PDF. But having external content updating a PDF is not available for either a PDF or a printed document.

So again, if I'm miss understanding how this works or what you're hoping to achieve, let me know and I'll update my thoughts (in real-time). But for right now, can't be done via a PDF. On a web page: yes, but not a PDF.

gary_sc

Community Expert

Hi HarborSkip,

Wait, are you saying you want 1000 people to be looking at the same PDF and have changes occur at the same time on that PDF for each 1000 people?

That doesn't even work for people looking at a zoom meeting. If you watch the Comment section you can see people responding to things you haven't seen yet.

If this is infact what you want to do, I'd suggest a PowerPoint and Zoom meeting structure.

H

HarborSkipAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for your thoughts. I do want perhaps 1000 people simultaneously
viewing a copy of a PDF containing maps. No changes. Could I simply
upload 10,000 copies of the same PDF and give each user a link to their
personal copy?

Regards, Dave

Dave Williams
[Personal content removed by Moderator]

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