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PDF files are special files created by Adobe Acrobat Exchange and can be read by the free program Adobe Acrobat Reader. There is a plugin for both Netscape and Internet explorer which will allow the browsers to launch Adobe Acrobat Reader whenever the browser is asked to display a file with the ".pdf" extension on it.
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. What that means is that any PDF file can be put on a PC, Macintosh, Unix Box, or other computer, and with the correct version of Adobe Acrobat Reader for that computer, be opened and read.
If your comper doesn't have Acrobat Reader installed, and you are using Netscape or Explorer, and you try to access a PDF file, you should get a message saying you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. The message will have a link on it that will let you download the installer for the version you need to your computer which you can then install.
All the computers at the Jones Center (should) have Acrobat Reader installed, so can bring up a PDF file in a browser. Before you lose interest in this very viable alternative to HTML, let me give you an example. It will open in its own page and is nothing more than catalog copy for the Mathematics department. The faculty's names are linked to their home pages on newton.uor.edu. Also, you will see in the Adobe Acrobat menubar in your browser and on it is an icon that looks like this.
If you click on it, you will see a linked Table of Contents for the page. It is similar to Anchors and Anchor Links in HTML.
As you would expect Adobe Acrobat Reader, being free, doesn't allow you to create PDF documents. What you need is the complete Adobe Acrobat suite of programs. In that suite is a program called Adobe Acrobat Exchange, and an icon for a printer called Acrobat PDFWriter. This functions as a printer, but not to paper. Its iconlooks like this.
It prints any file to a new PDF file that can be read in Acrobat Reader. That means graphics, fonts, formatting everything. You can create your syllabi, papers, documents for students in Microsoft Word or other programs, and save then as PDF files. Then with Adobe Acrobat Exchange, you can create a table of contents, and link words and phrases to other web sites quite easily. The educational price for the Adobe Acrobate Suite is $54 from the Jones Center Computer Store.
Play around with the various Acrobat menu items, such as the magnifying glass. If you have an interest in pursuing Adobe Acrobat use, please come to the Jones Center and go through the tutorial. It is very impressive.
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All contents copyright (C) 1998 University of Redlands All rights reserved Revised, Summer 1998 | University of Redlands 1200 East Colton Ave., Box 3080 Redlands, California 92373 (909) 793-2121 |
| URL: http://newton.uor.edu/Courses/BasicHTML/PDF.html
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