For precise control over the appearance of text in a PDF file, you can embed fonts using either Acrobat PDF Writer or Acrobat Distiller. Acrobat viewers can. This won’t actually print your document, so don’t worry! Instead, it will allow you to select your PDF printer and set the preferences for the PDF you’d like to create. Once you choose your program, click “Print” again to convert your document to a PDF. To learn more, including how to create a PDF file on a Mac computer, scroll down!
Appearance - Browsers
There are a number of things that you can do to optimize the look of nces.ed.gov on your computer. We recommend browsing with either of these two free downloads:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
- Mozilla's Firefox 3.5+
Appearance - Resolution
NCES makes every effort possible to develop for our audience's varying graphics resolutions. We currently develop our pages for a minimum of 800 x 600 resolution. By using this as our guideline, we can be sure that everyone can enjoy horizontal-free scrolling as much as possible when viewing our pages. Of course our pages can be best viewed in 1024 x 768 resolution.
As mentioned, although we try to accommodate all screen resolutions some of our data tables are too large to fit on one screen in a 800 x 600 screen resolution. When this occurs we recommend changing your screen resolution to 1024 x 768 or higher. This is easily done on your individual computer by going to your 'control panel' and selecting 'display'. Within display select 'settings' and choose the screen resolution you would like.
If you feel the font size on the web page you are viewing is too small, you need to adjust the text size with your own browser settings. If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, hold the Ctrl key and turn the mouse wheel, or go to the 'View' tab in the browser and choose 'Text Size.' This enables you to change the font size. Common browsers for Apple and Linux have the same options.
Appearance - Start-up Page
Make nces.ed.gov your browser's start-up page to get the latest in education information. If you are interested in education issues, then you would probably like to have your browser default to a site that satisfies your needs.
This three step process takes less than one minute! Choose your browser from the two options below and follow the appropriate instructions.
Internet Exp. 7.0+
- Select 'Tools' and ' Internet Options' from the toolbar at the top of the screen.
- Click on the tab labeled 'General' and select 'Home Page' from the options.
- Paste or type http://nces.ed.gov into the 'Address' box and Click 'Apply' then 'OK.'
Mozilla's Firefox 3.5+
- Select 'Tools' then 'Options' from the toolbar at the top of the screen.
- Select the tab labeled 'general' and locate the entry for 'Home Page.'
- Paste or type http://nces.ed.gov in the 'Location' dialog box. Click 'OK.'
The next time you open your browser, you'll begin with the NCES home page, your source for the latest in education information.
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Why we use PDF
Many NCES products placed on our website are created in Portable Document Format (PDF). They are most commonly denoted by the above icon. PDF is used because it maintains the original look and feel of large documents, and allows us to place more publications on the web in a quick and efficient manner. Further, PDF products are independent of platforms, applications, and distribution media.
How to obtain a PDF Reader
Versions of Acrobat Reader exist for all major computer platforms, including Windows, Macintosh, LINUX and several other operating systems. To download the reader, you'll need a Web browser (such as Mozilla's Firefox 3.5+ or Internet Explorer 7.0+) connected to the Internet. Please follow the instructions on the Adobe Acrobat download page to install the Acrobat Reader.
Following are the System Requirements for Acrobat Reader 7.0:
Windows System Requirements
- Intel® Pentium® processor
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Home Edition (Service Pack 1 or 2), Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2), Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Server 2003, or Windows NT (Service Pack 6 or 6a)
- 128MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
- Up to 90MB of available hard-disk space
Macintosh System Requirements
- PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- Mac OS X v10.2.8, 10.3, or 10.4
- 128MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
- Up to 110MB of available hard-disk space
- Safari 1.2 browser supported for Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
Download the Adobe Acrobat Reader software now! This reader is free of charge.
Having problems with PDF Files?
Should you experience PDF files appearing as a blank window within Internet Explorer after downloading and are using Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or earlier, please upgrade to a later version.
If this does not resolve the issue please follow the following steps:
Use the 'Save Target As' or 'Save Link As' option to download the PDF file directly to your hard drive and bypass the Acrobat Reader plug-in.
- Using the right-side mouse button click on the file (click on the title link) you are interested in.
- Select the 'save target as' option in Internet Explorer, or 'save link as' in Netscape.
- Save as type should be 'Adobe Acrobat Document' or 'all files.'
- Make sure you name the file (or accept the name supplied).
- Know the location of where you are saving it.
- Hit save.
- Use the Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the file after downloading.
Accessibility and PDF's
Adobe Systems, Inc. is producing various products designed to make PDF documents accessible to persons using screen reading software. Their accessibility web pages describe their efforts. They also have a free downloadable accessibility plug-in called, MakeAccessible. This plug-in runs under Microsoft Windows 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with SP 5 or SP 6, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Each system should have at least 64 MB (128 MB recommended) of RAM per processor, 200 MB of virtual memory, and 870 K of disk space available. The MakeAccessible Plug-in creates a tagged Adobe PDF file from an untagged PDF file. This allows a PDF document to be read by a screen reader.
Other Acrobat Add-ons
Once you've downloaded and installed the Acrobat Reader, you'll be able to view PDF files simply by clicking on the link to the PDF file in your browser. Either the browser will handle the PDF file, or it will bring up another program for viewing the PDF file. Either way, a window will appear that contains buttons that work only for PDF files. Use these buttons to navigate through the file.
If you want to print the PDF file, you must use the print button located within the Adobe Acrobat viewer (usually this is just above the document on the left side). Use of the browser print button or the browser's 'File, Print' command will not result in a correct printout. Paintshop pro activation code.
The NCES website supports byteserving. Byteserving, also known as page-at-a-time or byte-range downloading, enables you to view a PDF file from a Web server before the entire file is downloaded.
Note: Acrobat 6.x doesn't byteserve PDF files smaller than 250KB on a fast modem connection (that is, broadband or LAN). However, Acrobat always byteserves PDF files on a slower modem connection.
Once you get byteserving working, if you'd like the full document to be downloaded in the background even as you browse through it, select the 'Allow Background Download of Entire File' option in the General Preferences of the Acrobat Reader.
Procedures:
For Acrobat Professional (Screen capture base on Acrobat Pro XI):
- Open the PDF file.
- Choose File ->Document properties from the menu bar.
- Click on the security tab. Choose Password Security from Security Method.
- Then tick the option Require a password to open the document and enter the password in the Document Open Password box. (We highly recommend you to set a STRONG password. You can refer to the indicator on the right.)
- Re-enter the password when prompt.
- You are recommended to use the STRONG password. You can refer to the indicator on the right.
- Finally, save the file.
For PDF-XChange (Screen capture base on PDF-XChange Editor v7):
- Open the PDF file.
- Choose File ->Document properties from the menu bar.
- Choose the 'Security' tab from the left panel. Then choose Password Security from Security Method.
- Then tick the option Require a password to open the document and enter the password in the Document Open Password box. (We highly recommend you to set a STRONG password. e.g. Password with more than 8 characters, consisting of both alphabets and numbers.)
- Re-enter the password when prompt.
- Finally, save the file.