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Home: Q&A
Using PDFs
Web Development Team - November 2006
web.development@kirklees.gov.uk
How to contact us...
What is PDF?
PDF is the abbreviation of Portable Document Format, and is a special format
for viewing and printing documents which have been downloaded from the Web.
Why use PDF?
The Portable Document Format preserves the formatting of most documents
better than alternatives like HTML and MS Word.
What do I need?
In order to view PDF documents, you need Adobe's Acrobat
reader plugin. If you do not have this installed on your machine, you
may obtain it from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
How do I know whether
or not I have the PDF reader plugin?
The easiest way to find out whether or not you have the PDF reader plugin
is to try and download a PDF; if you have the plugin the document will open
once the download is complete.
What features does the
PDF reader offer to help me navigate a document? PDF's are displayed
in two 'panes' (a window divided into two). The right hand pane contains
the actual document whilst the left pane contains the document index. This
offers shortcuts to headings and sub-headings within the document. The document
can also be scrolled using the mouse, or pulled when the hand tool is available.
How can I view a PDF document more easily if I
have difficulty with discerning variations in colour, contrast or have low
visual acuity?
The best solution is to set the accessibility preferences to allow high
contrast viewing in your Acrobat reader. The Acrobat 5.0 reader* is the
only version presently to support this facility. The
instructions on how to do this can be found here.
Where can I find help to
allow me to access PDF documents if I am visually disabled?
Adobe have a web site which provides online tools to help visually disabled
users whose screen reader software is not compatible with the Adobe Acrobat
Reader 5.0. These tools convert Adobe PDF documents into HTML or ASCII
text which can then be read by a number of common screen reading programs
that synthesize text as audible speech. This site - http://access.adobe.com/
- has a lot more information about accessibility.
The minimum system requirements for Acrobat Reader 7
- Intel® Pentium® processor
- Microsoft® Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, Windows XP Professional or Home Edition, Windows 2003 Server, Windows NT SP6 or 6a
- 128MB of RAM min, 256 MB or greater recommended
- Up to 90MB of available hard-disk space
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher or Netscape 7.1 or 8.0, Firefox 1.0 or Mozilla 1.7
- Additional space will be required if language packs are installed (optional)
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