PDF INFO & TEST FILE
DOWNLOADING PDF FILES IN A WEB BROWSER
Windows 95 Users
To download the file directly from within Windows 95 using their Internet Explorer, right click on
the hotlink and a pop-up menu will appear. Select the "Save Target As..." menu item and then you
will be asked to identify a destination for the file on you local hard drive. When the file is fully
downloaded, open it in the Acrobat Reader or Exchange program. If you want to view it within
your browser--left click on the hot link.
Figure 1. Windows 95 Pop-Up Menu with Right Click
Macintosh Users
The same general rules and limitations exist for Macintosh users as have been described above. To
download the file to the hard drive, click and hold the mouse button down until a pop-up window
appears. Select "Download Link to Disk" (MS Explorer 4) or similar menu item, and then choose
the destination for the file.
PDF INFO & TEST FILE
HOW TO USE PDF FILES ON THE INTERNET
Viewing PDF Files On-Line
It is possible to "download" PDF files within your Internet browser using the Adobe Acrobat PDF
Viewer plug-in for browsers. If you have an Acrobat plug-in installed, clicking on the PDF hot link
will automatically start downloading the file and will show you the first page as soon as it is ready.
The Acrobat plug-in will display the first page of the document as soon as it is downloaded; that
usually takes several seconds to a minute--depending on the quality and speed of your network
connection.
The files must be navigated and printed using the Acrobat PDF Viewer's icons and not the
browser's menu items. The PDF document MUST be printed using the Acrobat Viewers print icon
on the upper left corner of the viewer. If the browser's print menu is used, the document may not
print clearly, or not print at all..
Viewing PDF Files Off-Line
The best place to view and use PDF file is off-line. While viewing PDF files on-line is a great
feature, it does limit some user interface options and is somewhat impractical for large PDF files
on the Internet. It may be wiser to download the file for with the Adobe's Acrobat Reader or
Acrobat Exchange applications. The benefit of this is each of these applications allows for faster
navigation, use of the search function and index services if the file is included in a detached index.
Downloading Limitations of the Internet
It appears that some service providers place limits on the size of files that they will allow their users
to attach to e-mail (usually less than 1 megabyte), or download directly. While the PDF version of
a document may appear to be a large file compared to many HTML and graphic files, the PDF file
is frequently one-half to one-tenth the size of the parent files! The collection of parent resources
would be more difficult to download and would not provide the high level of services available in
the Acrobat PDF format.
PRINTING PDF FILES
The Acrobat Reader is capable of printing to a variety of printer types, including PostScript, HPGL
and PCL, without any additional software. Choosing the "Print..." menu item in Acrobat will call
up the standard print dialog box found on your system. In general, choose "Shrink to Fit" option to
allow the PDF page images to fit on your paper. There is no required "paper size" for a PDF file
and it is common for the contents of a PDF file be used as virtual slide show in a landscape format.
PDF INFO & TEST FILE
SOMETHING FOR FREE!
The PDF (Portable Document Format) requires a special stand-alone application, or plug-in for
your Web browser to view PDF documents. The basic software is available free from the Adobe
Corporation. The free Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF
files across all major computing platforms. Acrobat Reader is the free viewing companion to
Adobe Acrobat 3.0 and to Acrobat Capture(R) software. All links to PDF files have a icon beside
them or "(PDF)" in the text link.
If you do not have Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader software, it is available free from Adobe Inc. by
clicking the Get Acrobat Reader at “http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html”.
A more sophisticated version of this software package called Adobe Acrobat provides the software
tools for the creation, basic editing and indexing of PDF files. It is available as a commercially sold
product from Adobe. The commercial product is available through most software retailers.
WHY I USE PDF FILES
I frequently get inquires about our use of PDF files on my Web site. I use them for several
reasons:
• I can deliver information with higher quality graphics and page formatting.
• PDF files can be electronically indexed and searched quickly.
• They are compact in size compared to other forms of electronic documents of comparable
quality.
• I can create high quality documents more easily than using HTML (Hypertext Mark-up
Language). Information on Web will frequently have graphics with much lower resolutions
than ones in our PDF files.
• They can be used with the same predictable results on five computer platforms and operating systems. (UNIX, Windows 3.1, 95, 98 & NT, Macintosh)
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