Configuring Your Browser to Work With PDFs

You can configure your browser to view a PDF file either directly in your web browser or separately in the Acrobat Reader program. This document describes the two different configurations.

PDF: Portable Document Format. A file that can be read by both PCs and Macs. PDF files retain their formatting so they look and print exactly as they were created.

Adobe: The company that created the PDF format.

Adobe Acrobat Reader: A free software that enables you to view and print PDFs.

Adobe Acrobat: Not to be confused with Acrobat Reader, this commercial software package allows you to create your own PDFs. Adobe Acrobat can convert a word processing or desktop publishing file into a PDF.

Browser: Application used to "surf" the web, such as Netscape Navigator, Netscape Communicator, or Internet Explorer.

Helper application: An application that is automatically launched by your browser in order to open files you encounter on the web.

Plug-in: Software module that enables your browser to display special file types such as audio, video or PDFs. Differs from a helper application in that it does not launch a separate application, it simply works with your browser.

Before You Begin:
If you have an old web browser (below version 3.0), you should upgrade to the latest version and then download and install the latest version of Acrobat Reader.

Make sure your computer can support the newer browser (4.0 or above) before you install it. To support the newer browser:

• Your PC should have a 486 (or higher) processor with Windows 95 or higher
• Your Mac should be a PowerMac with system 7.6.1 or greater
  

Two Choices:
Your browser can be configured to use Acrobat Reader as either a plug-in or a helper application.

Plug-In
If you have recent versions of Netscape or Internet Explorer (4.0 or greater), and you downloaded and installed version 4.0 of Acrobat Reader, it will be automatically configured as a plug-in. This means that when you click on a PDF file, it will display directly in your browser window.

Possible Drawbacks:

• After viewing the PDF file you will need to hit the "back" button in your browser to get back to the web page you were originally on
• PDFs are not automatically saved when you view them

Helper Application
You may prefer to have Acrobat Reader configured as a helper application.

When Acrobat Reader is set up as a helper application, clicking on a PDF will automatically open Reader and the PDF file will appear on your screen in Reader. Your browser will continue to show the page you were on when you clicked on the link.

Possible Drawbacks:
• In this mode you cannot use advanced web features such as page-at-a-time downloading, embedded PDF documents, form submittal in a browser or search highlighting