Viewing PDF documents with Adobe Acrobat

To view any file in Portable Document Format (PDF ) downloaded from this site, you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader (this is an external hyperlink) program. The program is freely available if you do not already have it.

If you have a visual disability, and have problems accessing PDF files, please visit http://access.adobe.com (this is an external hyperlink). Access Adobe translates PDF files into HTML files, making it readable if you are unable to access PDF in the usual way.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes a PDF will open but only a blank page is visible. This may be because the view is zoomed into a blank section of the document. Use the dropdown view menu (bottom left hand corner of the screen) to select a suitable view - 100% or 'Fit Width' are usually best.

If you are still having problems, and are using Microsoft Explorer 4 or 5 for the PC, try clicking on the link to the PDF file you want to see with your right mouse button. This will bring up a small menu - if you select 'Save Target As' from this you will be able to save the file and open it outside the browser. If you are using Netscape 4 the option will be 'Save Link As' - this has the same function.

For further help on copying a PDF to the hard drive of your computer, or configuring your browser to open a PDF within the Browser window or Acrobat window visit www.adobe.com/support/main.html (this is an external hyperlink).

Searching PDFs

When you click on the link to a PDF, it will open in your browser window. A toolbar will appear below the address bar, featuring a number of tools to help you view and search the document

Running your mouse over the icons, without clicking, will tell you what each of them does.

Especially useful is the Find Tool (a pair of binoculars) - click on the 'Find' icon to search the document for a word or phrase. Click the 'next' icon to the right to search for further occurrences of the word or phrase.