Document Subject: FAQ about PDF NESLAB ONLINE intranet news FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about PDF files What is a PDF file? PDF format (Portable Document Format) allows reading and printing of manuals, page by page, as if you were looking at a photograph of each page. This is a cross-platform format, equally accessible from Macintosh and Windows platforms. The advantages are: the reader software is free, full searchable text, all drawings and graphics intact. Can be printed. Printout is identical in appearance to the paper edition. What do I need to read a PDF file? The software required is Adobe Acrobat® Reader. You must obtain and install this software prior to using PDF files. Where can I get Adobe Acrobat® Reader? This is available free from most online services, including the NESLAB ONLINE intranet system. We have it in both Macintosh and Windows versions. Go to: Conferences / Software / Mac or Conferences / Software / Windows. File courtesy Adobe Systems Incorporated. If you are in the NESLAB Newington facility, give us a call (x2267) and a friendly representative of NESLAB ONLINE will run right over and set it up for you. Other sources include: America Online: go to keyword Adobe. Compuserve: go adobeapp Web: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/main.html CD-ROM: the NESLAB OFFLINE CD-ROM (available January 1998) What is the current version? The current version of Adobe Acrobat® Reader is 3.0, for both Windows and Macintosh versions. What is available in PDF format? NESLAB ONLINE is now serving operating manuals, service manuals, service bulletins, and various other publications in PDF (Portable Document Format) format. Can I open PDF files online? You can open PDF files on the fly online, if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. Just click once on the PDF filename to select it, then choose VIEW FILE from the FILE menu. (the same routine you use for viewing GIF files) Is there a user manual? Yes. If you have installed Adobe Acrobat© Reader on your computer, you already have this manual on your hard drive! It will be found at: c:/ acrobat3 / reader / help / reader.pdf (Windows) or Adobe Acrobat© Reader / help / reader.pdf (Macintosh) Just go to the file and double-click it to open it up. The manual itself is in .PDF format, so you need the software to read it! Of course, you have to install the software in the first place to get it, so this should not be an issue. Where can I get more information? Read the article below, reproduced with permission of the publisher. Permission statement follows the article. Using Adobe Acrobat® Reader by Steve Glaser and Elizabeth Lewis A serious consideration when creating any document for widespread electronic distribution is the matter of platforms. Can it be read in Windows, on the Mac, or via Unix? Will it have to be reformatted for these different systems, and will it then have to be offered in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) on the Web? The problem does beyond the purely technical matter of compatibility - that is, whether or not the file can be read at all. There's also the question of aesthetics: How easy is it on the eyes when the reader views it? Unless a file is perceived as easy to read, it won't get the attention its creators desire. Yet even within HTML and the Web, the display format is hard to control. A Web page that looks wonderful in Netscape Navigator® may look terrible in another browser. The result has often been either a lot of time-consuming and expensive reformatting or simply living with the knowledge that for some people, any document published electronically will be ugly. Enter Adobe with its Portable Document Format (.PDF) solution. Adobe's program, Adobe Acrobat® Reader, was created to offer a cross-platform solution to the multiple format problem. It allows document creators to present their pages any way they choose and let all viewers see it just as it was created - no matter what operating environment they use. All that's required is the Adobe Acrobat® Reader plug-in (or a stand-alone program version, also available*), which allows you to read any document created by Adobe Acrobat®. A .PDF file retains more of the richness and flexibility of desktop publishing, something that HTML can't match yet. .PDF documents can have complex tables, graphs, and charts, and can handle large documents with far greater ease than HTML. A variety of typefaces can be used more easily, as well. Adobe Acrobat® Reader also allows hyperlinks that can speed up your search for information in a large document. One glaring drawback to .PDF on the Web, however, is that fonts are not as crisp as in HTML, especially at larger sizes. The file is 3,919 kilobytes (KB) and downloading it takes about 20 minutes at 28.8 kilobits per second (Kbps). Be sure to note the directory into which you download the file so you can locate the file afterwards* *. After download close Netscape Navigator [or FirstClass] and then double-click the downloaded file to begin the setup program. Installation is straightforward and takes only a few minutes. One caveat [to Windows users, Macintosh users are not affected]: Adobe advises not using the close box in the upper-right corner of the background window after clicking the Thank You message at the end of the installation process. The installation software may interpret this action as aborting the installation process. This in turn may cause the setup program to automatically uninstall your Adobe Acrobat® Reader - something it is designed to do in case of a problem with the installation. Wait a moment after clicking Thank You and the background windows will close on their own. Other than this small problem, installation is a breeze. .PDF files can be large, but some sites are designed to allow you to view pages one at a time instead of downloading the entire thing at once. To see examples of .PDF documents on the Web, go to Adobe Acrobat® Reader's PDF Directory at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/pdfweb.html. You'll find links to dozens of businesses, government agencies, publishing companies, and others who are using the .PDF format on the Web. We looked at various brochures in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's library. They were available at HTML pages, but after reviewing a thumbnail list of possibilities, we looked at the same offerings in .PDF. The HTML pages were accessed faster, but the .PDF pages looked exactly like the brochures. One 170KB brochure took about 30 seconds to load. During that time, the standalone program also launched - it must remain open while the .PDF page is being reviewed. Back in Netscape Navigator®, a toolbar for Adobe Acrobat® Reader appeared at the top of the page. It allowed easy navigation through the document. At the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Adobe Acrobat® has been used to offer online access to student handbooks, course catalogs, the alumni magazine, applications, and more. The undergraduate handbook has a table of contents frame that makes it easy to jump to a specific part of the document. Pages load quickly although the text is slightly fuzzy. Navigating through a .PDF file displayed in Adobe Acrobat® Reader is a simple matter thanks to the toolbar at the top of the window. Tools include buttons to zoom in and out on the displayed page, buttons to fast forward or quickly rewind through the document, a button to put up a table of contents, a button to highlight text for cutting and pasting into another file and a Hand button to grab the page and manually scroll through the document by pulling the pages up and down. Adobe Acrobat® Reader won't let you alter or create .PDF files. Adobe is hoping you'll purchase Adobe Acrobat® for that purpose. But .PDF is a step in the right direction toward that paperless future we were told would be here at least 10 years ago. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Adobe Acrobat® Reader is available for download from NESLAB ONLINE, courtesy Adobe Systems. Go to: Conferences / software / Windows , or Conferences / software / Macintosh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * If downloading from NESLAB ONLINE, the default download destination will be the /fcwin/download folder. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ©Copyright 1997 by Sandhills Publishing. All rights reserved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source This article is reproduced from "PC Novice Guide to Netscape", Volume 5 Issue 9 with the express permission of Chris Blaine of Sandhills Publishing. Reproduction of material appearing in "PC Novice Guide to Netscape" is strictly prohibited without written permission. Smart Publishing is published monthly by Sandhills Publishing, 120 West Harvest Drive, PO Box 85380, Lincoln NE 68501. NESLAB appreciates the help of Sandhills Publishing in bringing you this article.Obtaining Adobe Acrobat® Reader Manufacturer: Adobe Systems Inc. Cost: free Web: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/main.html Download time: Approximately 22 minutes at 28.8 Kbps (modem connection) File size: 3.9 MB or from NESLAB ONLINE Go to: Conferences / software / Windows , or Conferences / software / Macintosh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can get your own copy of "PC Novice Guide to Netscape" You are invited to purchase a copy at your newsstand or for $7.95 postpaid. To order by credit card, call (800) 733-3809. PC Novice PO Box 82511 Lincoln NE 68501-2511 The following publications are available in the PC Novice Guides & Learning series: Netscape Windows Better Windows Windows 95 Upgrading Internet Computing Basics DOS Web Going Online America Online Printing Computing for Beginners 1 to 4 issues: $7.95 each, 5 or more issues: $5.95 each. NESLAB ONLINE intranet news a service of NESLAB MARKETING . . .