Adobe Acrobat documents and Adobe Reader
Contents
- Adobe Acrobat documents
- Help with using Adobe Reader
- Copying and pasting text from Acrobat documents
- Using NetLibrary's Acrobat documents with an Apple Mac computer
Adobe Acrobat documents
Acrobat documents, also known as PDF files (PDF stands for Portable Document Format) are a platform-independent way of storing rich text documents including illustrations etc. Unlike web pages, Acrobat documents are full page facsimiles of print documents and when printed are as good as (if not better than) photocopies of the print original.
Acrobat documents are easily created from desktop publishing programs and are therefore an easy way of creating an accurate electronic version of a print publication. This is why they are the main format in which electronic journals articles are supplied, for example. The Library also uses this format for supplying downloadable versions of its helpsheets and similar publications.
To view an Acrobat document you need to have the Adobe Reader software installed on your computer. This is installed on all Library and drop-in centre computers, and you may already have it installed on your work or home computer. If not, the software is free and downloadable from Adobe's website.
Adobe Reader is available for Windows, Macintosh, OS/2 and various Unix flavours (including Linux). However, if there isn't a version available for your computer you may find that there is a port available of the freeware PostScript/PDF reader called GhostScript. Note, however, that GhostScript may not be able to render newer PDFs or support all the features of the format.
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape as your browser, the reader will install a plug-in which will show Acrobat documents in your browser window. Other browsers will use the reader as a helper application: you will need to consult your browser's documentation on how to set this up.
Help with using the Acrobat reader
The Adobe Reader comes with online help, though this is only available when the reader is launched in standalone mode, for example when you launch it from the Windows Start menu or by double-clicking an Acrobat file on your local or network drive. Just click on the Help menu and choose Adobe Reader help to open the instructions (NB the precise wording of the menu entry may be slightly different in older versions of the reader: these notes are based on version 7.0). You may find it useful to print out these instructions for reference when online help isn't accessible.
The online help isn't available if the reader is launched within a web browser window, which will happen if you click on a link on a web page which points to an Acrobat document. In this case the reader is embedded in the browser window and its menu bar isn't accessible: you just have the reader's toolbar displayed at the top of the browser window, below the browser's own controls.
Copying and pasting text from Acrobat documents
NB these notes are based on version 5.0 of the reader. Older versions are similar but may use different wording or menu structures.
Occasionally you may find it useful to be able to copy and paste text from an Acrobat document. To do this you must switch to using the text selection tool by clicking on the relevant button in the toolbar (see diagram below).
You can now drag the mouse pointer over the text you wish to copy to select it. To copy the selected text to the clipboard, click on the Copy icon in the toolbar if it is available. If you are using the reader in standalone mode, this icon will not be there: use the Copy command from the Edit menu instead. You can then paste the text into whichever other application you wish, for example a word processor (eg Microsoft Word) or text editor (eg Windows Notepad).
If
you wish to select a column of text from a document which uses a multi-column
layout, you can use the column selection tool: click on the small downwards-pointing
arrow next to the text selection tool button (see diagram at right). This
will display a drop-down menu from which you can choose the column selection
tool. Drag with the mouse in the same way as you would with the text selection
tool to highlight the text you wish to copy, then copy and paste as described
above.
Using NetLibrary's Acrobat documents with an Apple Macintosh computer
We've received the following advice from NetLibrary about using their site with an Apple Mac (our emphasis and links):
The majority of the NetLibrary eBooks are formatted in PDF or HTML. The titles formatted in PDF require Adobe Acrobat 7 or higher unless you are using a Mac. The current Adobe Acrobat versions for the Mac do not work with NetLibrary PDF formatted titles unless a third-party application is also used.
Mozilla, Firefox, Camino, and Netscape seem to work best with the Schubert|it PDF plugin. This application is available at http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/ and is simple to install. Install it by opening the .dmg file you download, then copy PDF Browser Plugin.plugin to the Library/Internet Plug-Ins folder of the hard drive. Once installed with that method, it should just work with these four browsers without additional configuration.
Internet Explorer does not appear to be easily configured to handle NetLibrary PDF files. Opera is not yet tested (so if you are using Opera, you'll need to configure your Macintosh further and see if the Schubert|it PDF plugin works for you).