PDF Research Adobe Acrobat Components...
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Acrobat
Reader...
- Downloading and Installing Acrobat Reader
- Installing PDFViewer in an Internet Browser
- Navigating a PDF file in Reader (or Exchange)
- Purchasing the Reader/PDFWriter Bundle Offer
- Viewing PDFs through a Cimmetry's AutoVue
Adobe Acrobat Reader® is a free utility for viewing Portable Document Format (PDF) files online (through your browser) or offline(outside of the functioning of a browser). It is available for a broad range of platforms.
1. Downloading and Installing Acrobat Reader
Downloading the complete file can be time-consuming depending on the speed of your modem. Check if you already have it - it comes with many new program and upgrade releases. Be sure that the version number you have is 3.0 or higher so that you can take advantage of the byteserving features of PDF file optimization.
Clicking on the button above will take you directly to the Adobe site for selecting the Reader that is appropriate for your particular computer platform.
Installing Acrobat on your computer is very simple... either launch the installer program or the .exe file that comes with it and it will set up the program, load special fonts, and provide you with a browser plug-in (in a separate folder/directory).
2. Installing PDFViewer in an Internet Browser
Once you have installed the program on your computer, look for the browser plug-in that came with it. Place a copy of this file in the plug-in folder for any browser you choose to use on your computer.
For Netscape Navigator, go to Edit/Preferences and the following box will appear:
Find the Portable Document Format in the scrollable window. You can edit this setting by clicking on the Edit button, whereupon the following box will appear:
Now you need to decide if you want your PDF files to be opened with either the PDFViewer or a program (either Reader or Exchange). There are certain advantages to each option:
Option 1: The PDFViewer preference. PDFViewer allows you to view on-line PDF files within your browser. Do not try to use it to view PDF files from your hard-disk unless it is linked via a HTML web page - it won't work. The advantage to viewing files on-line is that all hyperlinks to other PDF files on the web server should operate. The disadvantage is that, should you decide to save the file to your hard disk, it will take longer than if you
Option 2: The Reader/Exchange preference. Setting your preference to either Reader or Exchange will tell Navigator that you want all PDF files to be downloaded to your hard disk for viewing off-line. The advantage is that you do not have to separately download the file later (as in option 1). The disadvantage is that the hyperlinks to other PDF files resident on the web server will not work unless those files have previously been downloaded to your hard disk.
Recommendation: Select Option 1 making PDFVIewer your preference. You can always "Save Link to File" if you prefer to view the file off-line (click-hold on the Mac, right-click on Windows). However, if you are in the midst of reading a PDF off-line and it has a relevant link, you will have to retrace your steps and possibly change your Preference to PDFViewer after-the-fact. Not a major inconvenience, but an inconvenience nonetheless.
NOTE: The settings you make in Reader or Acrobat Exchange will affect how PDFViewer works within your browser. This is because your browser will load Reader or Exchange to access its settings before the navigation bar appears within the browser. By choosing the option "Allow Background Download of Entire File" in the General Preferences area of your Acrobat program you can take advantage of byteserving. This function allows you to view individual pages of a PDF file while the balance of a multipage file is downloading from the source in the background.
3. Navigating a PDF file in Reader (or Exchange)
Once you have downloaded and installed Reader, we suggest that you take a look at a tutorial supplied by Digital Constructs, Inc. called Reader Interactive: The PDF Browser (for Macintosh or for Windows).
These are excellent introductory PDF files for explaining how Acrobat Reader works. You may want to print them out before using Reader.
Be sure to return to this site once you have the Reader completely installed in your computer. There are a number of PDF files available in our PDF Research area for testing the installation and functionality of your Reader.
4. Purchasing the Reader/PDFWriter Bundle Offer
Adobe occasionally offers a low cost ($29.95) that would be available through their Acrobat Reader download site. It is ideal for those interested in getting a taste for creating PDF files without making the commitment of buying the full Acrobat product (listed at $295US). It can only be purchased and downloaded online, when it is available.
5. Viewing PDFs through a Cimmetry's AutoVue
Adobe has opened the Acrobat architecture so that third party vendors can develop plug-ins, editing tools, and viewers that extend the versatility of the technology.
One of the viewers that has been developed is Cimmetry's AutoVue. AutoVue allows the user to view a broad range of formats on their desktops or through their internet /intranet browser - more than 190 different file formats including vector, raster, hybrid, binary, ASCII. The range of application types currently supported includes engineering and architectural CAD (2D and 3D), paint, draw, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, fax, portable document and Web document authoring applications.
A very powerful and flexible API lets AutoVue seamlessly integrate with popular EDM/PDM systems such as Documentum, PC DOCS, Saros, Wang Open Image, HP Work Manager, Matrix, as well as fit with your custom-made systems.
The user can add notes, highlights, basic graphics, voice recordings and then save these mark-ups to a separate document. The original document is not affected and need not be editable.
The user should try out the demonstration versions of the product before purchasing. While PDF is supported, there appears to be a history of problems displaying fonts that are embedded in the document but not resident on the host computer. Another issue is that the viewer has been developed primarily for single page applications so that multiple-page markups is somewhat complicated - requiring saving as separate layers
Several versions are available to fit your platform requirements: DOS, windows 3.1 (16 bits) Windows 95, 98 and NT (32 bits) Unix: Sun OS, Sun Solaris, HP UX, IBM AIX and SGI IRIX.
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