What are Adobe Reader and PDF?
Adobe Reader lets you view and print documents that have been created in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). PDF has several advantages over other formats in maintaining documents. Chief among those advantages are the abilities to exactly reproduce a document's content and style on a wide variety of displays and printers. Additional advantages of the PDF format include the ability to zoom in (magnify) and zoom out (shrink) the displayed page.
How Do I Get Adobe Acrobat Reader?
In order to view and print PDF files, it is first necessary to obtain Adobe Acrobat Reader and install it on your PC. Adobe Reader is free and needs to be installed just once on your PC. Once installed, you will be able to view and print any PDF document you encounter in the future.
Step 1: Get the Free Version of Adobe Acrobat Reader
Your free copy of Adobe Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe web site via the Internet. Look for the "Get Acrobat Reader" button on the SRFOL web site and click on it. The button looks like this:
You will be taken to the Adobe web site and presented with the choice to download one of several different versions of Acrobat. Choose the free version and follow the instructions to download it onto your PC.
As part of the download process, you will be asked to specify a folder into which to place the downloaded file. Since the downloaded file is only used for the installation and then discarded, a good choice for the download folder would be a temporary one, like C:\TEMP, on your PC.
Since you will later execute the downloaded file, be sure to remember the name of the downloaded file, generally something like AdbeRdr811_en_US.exe, and the name of the folder into which you saved it. You will need this information during the actual installation process. The name of the file and folder will be displayed in the dialog box just before the file is saved to your local disk.
The time needed to download the installation file to your PC will vary depending upon the speed of your connection to the Internet. Dial-up connections can take 15-20 minutes. High-speed (DSL or Cable Modem) connections can finish in a minute or two. Once the downloaded installation file is saved on your local disk, you need to perform the actual installation.
Step 2: Install Adobe Reader
To install Adobe Reader, first exit all running programs on your PC, including your web browser. No programs should appear in your taskbar.
Using Windows Explorer, open the folder where you downloaded Adobe Reader and double-click on the file or program icon associated with the file. The installation program will now run and install Adobe Reader on your PC.
Step 3: Open and View the PDF File
Open your web browser and return to the SRFOL web site. Click on the PDF document that you want to read. The document should fill the browser window. To view other PDF documents on your PC, you now only need to click on them.
A Final Word...
When you are ready to download and install Adobe Reader, close this window by clicking on the words below, then click on the "Get Acrobat Reader" button on the SRFOL page.