Adobe PDF

Using Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files on bucksinfo websites

Why use Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) Files?

PDF files bring large amounts of information to your attention that time and other constraints upon resources may not allow users to do efficiently.  Also, occasionally, users may need to ensure that a document is presented in a certain way, e.g. a statutory form or legal document.  Using PDF files also allows users to stop people from altering their documents and reproducing such altered documents for whatever purpose.

The following rules should be applied to the use of PDF files on bucksinfo websites:

  • if information can be better presented as web pages they should be
  • if information is addressed to a particular audience that finds using PDF files difficult, their use should be avoided
  • large PDF files should be broken down into manageable bites and appropriately indexed

How can you make read PDF files?

  • if you do not have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader software you can download it from the Adobe web site.
  • if you have sensory problems and cannot easily read PDF files you can post the address of the PDF file (the URL) at the Adobe web site and it will be converted to a text equivalent page.

You can get the Acrobat Reader by clicking on their logo Get Adobe Acrobat or at the URL http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

If you are using a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) based computer you may find that you need the !PDF reader. This free reader can be downloaded from http://pdf.iconbar.com/

For users with vision impairment PDF files maybe difficult or impossible to read, even through a screen reader.  PDF files can be converted, over the Internet, into HTML text files.  This is done by following the Simple online conversion option on Adobe's web site. You will need to open the PDF file you are interested in and copy the URL (on the address bar of your web browser) before going to the Adobe web site.

Alternatively the Adobe Acrobat Access Plug-in 4.05 enables vision impaired users to read Adobe PDF documents in Acrobat 4.0x or Acrobat Reader 4.0x.

The Access plug-in supplements the standard Acrobat and Reader display of PDF documents with an alternative view that supports screen-reading applications for Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. This view presents the textual content of a PDF file in a separate window. The window contains the text in an approximated reading order. Standard Acrobat features, such as hypertext links, notes, bookmarks, sounds, and movies, are available in the Access view.

More information and help is available from the Adobe Acrobat web site.