Using (copywritten) Adobe Acrobat Viewers. The installation and use of this viewer may seem a bit intimidating at first but the process is really quite simple and well worth the effort. Follow these simple steps: Before beginning: Make sure you don't already have the viewer, look for a program with a name like "acroread.exe" and directories with "acro" in the name like "acrobat3" or "acroread". If you use MS-DOS type dir/s acro*.* at the command prompt and press enter (this will initiate a search thru the sub-directories of your drive looking only for acro something to report about), if using MS-Windows you can use the find file area of file manager or the start key in 95/98/NT.Many document type CDs use the Adobe reader and it may have been installed when using that disks program.

1. To get started with a minimum of effort, simply download a copy of the free viewer software for your computer type (Apple, PC-Windows, IBM OS/2, etc.) from Adobe Systems at http://www.adobe.com/ . When your browser asks you where you want to save the file, put it in a temporary directory (and remember where this is!) since you can erase it after you run it if you need to recover hard drive space. You may already have a copy on, using a file search on your computer drive look for a program with a name like "acroread.exe", like mentioned above. This program family has versions that will run on a 286 machine with MS-DOS 5.0, as well as faster/stronger computer platforms.

If installation instructions are available use them instead of the following procedure.
2. Double-click on the file in file manager (Windows 3.x) or use the "Run" function in the "Start" menu (Windows 95/98). The file is self-extracting and will generate a new "Acroread" directory when you double-click on it. Once the "Acroread" directory is in your computer, you can view Acrobat .pdf files that are saved to your disk simply by starting the viewer program and opening the desired file. The newer versions of the reader are automatically configured to launch whenever you click on a .pdf file with your browser.

3. If you are using Windows 3.x and the installation did not create a new group in program manager for the Acrobat reader then simply click on "file" in program manager and select "new" and "program item". Then use the "browse" button to find your "Acroread" directory and then double-click on the acroread.exe file. Select "OK" and then select "change icon" to choose which Acroread icon you desire. "OK" your way back to program manager and you will have a new Acroread icon which you can drag and drop to the desired group. The program will appear in the start menu if you are using Windows 95.

4. The newer viewers (3.x and newer) work easily with your internet browser program and you usually don't need to do anything but click on the desired file. If you are using an earlier viewer and you find an interesting .pdf file, simply click on it and your browser will launch the reader or ask if you wish to save to disk or configure a viewer. You may save it on your disk in the acrobat's directory or a to disk location you will remember and then start the Acrobat viewer. If you are viewing more than one document while in a computer session then move the program running by minimizing the window instead of closing the program. It will re-open automatically and you will not wait for the program to re-load and run. Close any unwanted .pdf files to conserve system memory space (resources in win95/98).

5. Once you make the reader work as described you may wish to configure your browser to automatically start the viewer whenever a .pdf file is encountered. (The newer versions are automatically configured to self-start.) Look under "options" for a list of the various players and viewers your browser uses. There should be a mechanism for adding a new viewer and defining which file extensions invoke it. Type in the location of the acroread.exe program (or browse to find it on your hard drive) and enter the .pdf file extension.

For specific help visit http://www.adobe.com/ < Adobe Systems has their own detailed step-by-step instructions for various browsers and computer operating systems not covered here.

URL http://www.apk.net/noars/acrohow.htm or
http://www.qsl.net/noars/acrohow.htm

Created by Clark Beckman for NOARS