Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files
If you've used the web for any length of time, you've surely encountered PDF files. 'PDF' stands for Portable Document Format. PDF files are found on the Internet wherever there's a need to present richly formatted documents so they can be viewed and printed exactly the same by all users regardless of the type of computer they have. Common examples include government tax forms, user manuals and even electronic books. A company called Adobe has been so successful with its software named 'Acrobat' that supports this format, that many people call PDF files "Adobe Acrobat" or simply "Acrobat" files.
As stated on the Adobe web site:
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is the open de facto standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. Adobe PDF is a universal file format that preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and color of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. Adobe PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as intended by anyone with free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You can convert any document to Adobe PDF using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software.
To some degree, providing materials to your students in PDF format invites the same problem as providing materials in Microsoft Word. That is, your students must have the proper software, called a reader, installed on their computer in order to view the PDF file. However, PDF files are so common on the World Wide Web you will find that most of your students already have the reader installed. If they do not, the free Adobe Acrobat Reader can be easily downloaded and installed.
Installing Acrobat Reader
Before you go through the trouble of installing Acrobat Reader, you should check to see if it is already installed on your computer. One way to do this is to use a search engine to locate a PDF file on the web and try to open the file. You might want to visit Manhattan's web site at http://manhattan.sourceforge.net and look for the PDF version of this user's manual!
Web sites and software change so frequently that it could be misleading to provide detailed instructions on how to download and install Acrobat Reader in a printed manual such as this. The best advice we can offer is to start at the Adobe home page at http://www.adobe.com. Look for the Get Acrobat Reader button, or click on the "Products" link to find the free Acrobat reader.
The Adobe site will try to entice you to purchase software that provides more than the basic capabilities of the free reader. If all you need to do is view Acrobat files, then "stay the course" and select the free reader for your operating system. Make sure you note the name of the file you are downloading and the name of the folder on your computer where the file is being stored. The file can be quite large so the download can take a long time, especially if you are connected to the Internet via modem.
When the download has finished, exit all of the programs you are running and the launch the program you just downloaded. In Windows, this is done by locating the file in "My Computer" or Windows Explorer and double-clicking on the filename. The name of the file is not necessarily intuitive. The Windows version 5.0 filename is 'rp500enu.exe', for example. Once the install program starts, follow the instructions on the screens. Acrobat Reader automatically adds itself as a plug-in to your web browsers so you can immediately begin to view PDF files on the web when the installation is complete.
Creating and Posting PDF Files
As a teacher, the real power of PDF files within Manhattan lies in the ability to create your own files. Once you are sure all of your students have the Acrobat Reader installed on their computer, you can confidently provide course materials in the Handouts/Notices and Lectures modules (or any other module) in PDF format. To create a PDF file, you'll need to purchase the full version of Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat (too often confused with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader) lists for over $250 US, but you'll find that significant educational discounts are available.
Once Acrobat is installed on your computer, you'll find it incredibly easy to create PDF files. In fact, creating a PDF file can be as simple as using the standard Print command within the software you use. That's because Acrobat adds a new printer to your system that writes your document to a PDF file instead of printing your document on paper.
Adobe Acrobat works well with Microsoft Office products. Any Word document can be written to PDF format, preserving all of the fonts, tables, headers, footers, pictures, and other formatting for example. You can also save PowerPoint presentations as PDF files.
While creating your first PDF file using Acrobat can be as simple as printing your document, you will want to learn about some of the program's advanced options. The 'distiller' within Acrobat, for example, helps you control the size of your document files, which can become quite large if there are many images within the document. If you have a scanner connected to your computer, you can also learn how to convert any printed document into a PDF file that you can share with your students. Another interesting feature of Adobe Acrobat is the ability to save entire web sites to PDF format.
PDF files are simply attached to a Manhattan message like any other type of file:
