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Adobe®
Portable Document Format (PDF) is the open de
facto standard for electronic document distribution
worldwide. Adobe PDF is a universal file format
that preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics,
and color of any source document, regardless of
the application and platform used to create it.
Adobe PDF files are compact and can be shared,
viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended
by anyone with software that supports the .PDF
file format.
Several
graphic applications support viewing .PDF files.
If after downloading a .PDF file your computer
does not locate an application with which to open
it, then click here
to download the free Adobe
Acrobat® Reader® software.
Troubleshooting
- Problem:
When I click on a link to download a .PDF file,
my web browser displays a blank page. - Solution:
You may need to save the file to your computer.
On a PC, right-click
the link and select
the “save target as…” or “save
link as…” option in the menu that
now appears on the web page. On a Mac,
ctrl-click the link
and select the “download link to disk”
option in the menu that now appears on the
web page. As long as your computer has a .PDF
reader,
you should be able to view the file.
For
more questions and solutions, visit the TIMESAVERSforTEACHERS.com
PDF File Support Site and the Adobe®
Support Knowledgebase Site.
QuickTime®
Movies (.mov files)
Apple’s
QuickTime® software allows Mac and Windows
users to play back audio and video on their computers.
Not only can users view media saved on their computer,
but the software’s web browser plug-ins work so
that they can view media on a web page within
their browser.
If
your computer does not have QuickTime®
or its latest version, it can be downloaded for
free by clicking here.
Troubleshooting
- Problem:
When I click on a QuickTime link, I do not see
any graphics or hear any sound. - Solution:
Quit your web browser and recopy the QuickTime
plug-in into your browser’s
plug-ins
folder. Re-open the browser and try to
view the file again. If you still have
a problem, you may
need to try reinstalling your web browser.
For
more questions and solutions, visit Apple’s
QuickTime® Support Site.
Web
Browser Files (.htm or .html)
Regardless
of the whether you use Internet Explorer, Netscape,
an AOL browser,
Safari, Mozilla or one of many others available,
you are seeing words and graphics that are written
predominately written in a computer language
called Hyper Text Markup Language. Hence the
acronym
and suffix .html or .htm (they both mean the
same thing). Don’t worry about all of the details
behind the
language
— just
enjoy the fact that it works! If you see a reference
to “click here for html,” or
a file ending with the suffix .htm or .html,
you can click on the
link or file and your designated Web browser
will launch the page. Often you will be given
a choice of either selecting the .htm
(.html) file or a .pdf file — or sometimes a .doc file.
The choice of the .htm (.html) is often the easiest
to launch and view, but generally offers you
less control if you want to print out the page(s).
Microsoft
has become the standard for word processing
on desktop computers. Though other word processing
programs exist, nearly all allow you to read
and sometimes write files in the Word format.
These files have the suffix .doc attached.
If you have Word, or a Word-compatible program,
then downloading a .doc file, if given the
choice is often your best route. A .doc file
has the advantage of being easily modified
for printing. However, please note that though
.doc files can be read by both Windows and
Mac versions of Word and other compatible programs,
appearances may vary. Acrobat (PDF) files,
on the other hand, are designed to appear the
same regardless of platform or program. However,
you cannot modify PDF files unless you have
access to a PDF authoring program not just
the free Acrobat reader.
If
you have additional questions about .doc files,
please click on the Microsoft
Word Home Page.
Need more help with downloading or using content
on the NEA-HIN pages? Click here to send a HELP!
email to us. While we can’t promise to answer
every
question, we’ll do our best to post the most
common questions
on this page.
Please
check back frequently to view added content.
Email any comments or resource suggestions to
School & Community Safety Webmaster
06-Apr-2004