In this second of several articles on preflighting, we show you how to streamline your workflow by customizing a preflighting profile.Editor's Note: If you're not familiar with preflighting, read the first article in this preflighting series.
The default preflight profiles provide a good foundation for identifying possible concerns within a PDF file. Acrobat can also search for nearly 100 criteria within PDF files, based upon custom profiles that you create. Using this article, you will develop criteria that will search for page elements that use a specific Pantone spot color. Because spot colors often require
additional preparation in the printing process, they can be problematic if they have been unintentionally included in a PDF file.
You should perform this exercise with the file newsletter.pdf, found here.
1. In the Preflight (Advanced > Preflight) window, click the Edit tab.
2. At the bottom of the Profiles list, click the New Profile button, creating a New Profile 1 style.
3. In the General portion profiles window, for the Name for this profile enter List elements using PMS 300c. For Purpose, enter Lists elements using PMS 300c. The new profile is listed in the Profiles column of the Preflight window. (see Figure One)
4. Confirm the new profile is selected in the Profiles column. Scroll to locate the Colors option. Click on the Color option, causing the window to display color-specific options for this profile.
5. In the Colors portion of the Profiles window, click the downward facing arrow for "Objects on the page use spot colors whose name is." In the drop-down list, select Error. An error will be displayed if Acrobat encounters an element using RGB color when using this profile.
6. Click the Add button to select from a list of available PMS colors. Select PMS 300c and click OK. Click OK closing the Preflight: Edit Profile window. (see Figure Two)
7. In the Preflight window, select the Profiles tab and then select the List elements using the PMS 300C profile you've just created, and click Execute. The document is then analyzed against the rules in the profile. The Preflight: Results window appears. The Preflight:
Results window displays information about the document relating to the preflight profile criteria.
8. In the Results window, click the plus sign (+) (Windows) or the triangle (Mac OS) next to "Object uses spot color." Then click to select the item listed on page two. If necessary, select the "Show selected element in Snap view" option. The items using Spot Color are
displayed. (see Figure Three)
The Snap view visually displays page elements that are listed in the Preflight: Results window.
9. Click the Close button to close the Preflight: Snap View window, and click the Close button in the upper corner of the Profiles window to close it.
10. Choose File > Close to close this document.
Use custom profiles to identify areas of problem or concern. You can then return to the original source document—in this case an Adobe Photoshop image that was placed into an Adobe InDesign layout—and correct the concern before printing.
Document Management 
