Files ending in .PDF are Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Acrobat files can be read on your computer screen and printed using an Adobe Acrobat "Reader" available free from Adobe.

The free Adobe Acrobat Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms. The Portable Document Format  is the de facto standard for electronic distribution of documents worldwide because it's the best way to keep the look and feel you created intact.  PDF files are compact, cross platform and can be viewed by anyone with a free Acrobat Reader.

Having Acrobat Reader installed will allow you to take full advantage of the wealth of information that we have planned for you on the US National Arboretum's  Website. On our site, PDF files have been created to let you view various types of material.  We have started with several of our newer Fact Sheets.  You will see these items on your screen just as they appear on the printed page; plus, when you print them using Acrobat Reader your printed page will look just like the original. You need to have Acrobat Reader version 5.0 or higher installed to view and print the PDFs on this site correctly.

Generally, each PDF file on our website is indicated with this icon:   

To learn more about the Adobe Acrobate Reader, PDF files, and how to download your own free copy continue reading below.
  

PDF Files and Adobe Acrobat Reader Get Acrobat Reader What is a PDF file? What is Adobe Acrobat Reader? Why do I need to have the Acrobat Reader installed? How do I know if I already have Acrobat Reader installed?  How do I install the Acrobat Reader? Helpful hints for using the Acrobat Reader The Basics  Printing pdf files

 

What is a PDF file?  A PDF file allows you to view a piece of printed literature online. PDF is a universal file format that preserves all of the fonts, formatting, colors, and graphics of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by anyone with a free Adobe Acrobat® Reader.  To learn more about PDF files, see the Adobe site. Return to top of page. What is Adobe Acrobat Reader?  Acrobat Reader is a small, free piece of software that is used to view and print a PDF file.  Return to top of page. Why do I need to have the Acrobat Reader installed? Having Acrobat Reader installed will allow you to take full advantage of the wealth of new information, Fact Sheets, and publications from our scientists that we will be putting online in our website . You need to have Acrobat Reader version 6.0 or higher installed to view the PDFs on this site correctly.  Return to top of page. How do I know if I already have Acrobat Reader installed?     You do not have Acrobat already installed if, when you click on a link to view a PDF file: You get a message with this symbol , or You get a message box asking you if you want to open or save the file to disk    If the PDF file begins to load directly in your web browser then you do have Acrobat Reader already installed and configured.  Return to top of page. How do I install the Acrobat Reader?  Follow the instructions that were provided on the site from which you downloaded the Reader software.  If you have difficulties please check below for more indepth instructions Return to top of page. Helpful hints for using the Acrobat Reader The Basics The basic functions on the Acrobat toolbar are highlighted in yellow and explained briefly -- Return to top of page. Printing Adobe Acrobat PDF Files   Note -- When printing Adobe Acrobat PDF files from within your web browser, do NOT use the web browser print facility. Instead, use the print button at the left end of the special Adobe Acrobat tool bar, which appears immediately above the viewing window. See illustration below for location of this print button.      Return to top of page.

 

How Do I Get Acrobat Reader?  Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free program that you can download from various sources. To obtain the reader from the Adobe site, click  and then follow the simple instructions to download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 6.0 or higher).  If you have trouble downloading, try this alternate source. Return to top of page.

 

More Detailed notes on installing ADOBE ACROBAT        The Adobe Acrobat Customer Service Page contains detailed information for troubleshooting problems with this product.     We suggest that you configure your Adobe Acrobat Reader as a plug-in application for your World Wide Web browser. This can be accomplished with Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.0 or higher, and Netscape (4.0 or higher), Internet Explorer (4.0 or higher), or compatible browsers. This allows the reader software to integrate closely with the browser and allows you to begin to read the PDF file while it is downloading. Version 3.0 or higher of the Adobe Acrobat reader also permits reading of PDF pages side-by-side.    If you have an Internet browser installed on your system at the time that you install Adobe Acrobat, it should automatically install itself as a helper application in the browsr. You will know that it is properly installed as a helper application if you can view the PDF file in the browser window, with a single row of special Acrobat buttons along the top of the viewing screen.    If Acrobat does not install itself automatically as a helper application for your web browser, you can also do this manually by copying the appropriate file to your browser’s Plug-in folder.  To manually install the Web browser plug-in (Windows): Open File Manager or Windows Explorer. Locate the Acrobat5\Read16\Browser folder (or Acrobat\Read32\Browser). Copy the NPPDF32.dll or NPPDF16.dll file to your Web browser’s Plug-in folder. To install the Web browser plug-in (Macintosh): Open the Web Browser Plug-in folder within the Adobe Acrobat 5.0 folder. Copy the PDFViewer plug-in to your Web browser’s Plug-in folder. To install the Web browser plug-in (UNIX): Run <installdir>/Browsers/netscape. For more information, see the Adobe Acrobat Installation for UNIX guide.    Note that with versions of the Reader prior to 3.0, you cannot save a PDF file to your local disk after you have read it. You had to have the commercial Adobe Acrobat software in order to save the file. This limitation was removed with version 3.0 of the Reader software.      Return to top of page.

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Last Updated   May 9, 2006 5:04 PM
URL = http://www.usna.usda.gov/Newintro/pdfhelp.html