PDF Documents

Documents marked .PDF are saved in Portable Document Format. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view all PDF files. The Acrobat Reader software is available for downloading free of charge from Adobe. The free Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms.

Downloading and viewing PDFs

You should be aware that documents held in PDF format are typically much larger than simple html pages. If you are connected via a slow modem over a telephone line, you should consider the likely download time before attempting to retrieve such documents. In order to help you decide, we will give the size of the PDF file alongside its description.

The vast majority of PDFs on this site are small and easy to download. However, if you experience problems after following advice from this page, contact the e-communications team.

Some of the large documents are on the website are broken down into smaller sections, this is to enable full access to the documents. Any link that ends with .pdf will open a new browser window and download the document.

Viewing PDF files in a browser (Adobe website)

Tips

Instead of opening a PDF link, right click the link and select ‘save target as’ or ‘save link as’ in Netscape Navigator and save the document to your computer.
Increase or decrease the text size by holding ctrl and moving the wheel on the mouse.
Set the zoom box to100% to make sure the document is there.
To search a PDF, use the find tool, which is a pair of binoculars.

Printing PDF problems

If you have problems printing pages from within Acrobat Reader check that you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat on your machine. Select print from the file menu, click the advanced button and tick the 'Print as image' box.

If you are still experiencing difficulties for large PDF docs, try the following:

Download the PDF file and save it on your computer, then print
set the printer to a low resolution
if you still have problems, try using a different printer if possible.

Printing PDF files (Adobe website)

PDF Accessibility

Adobe's website is full of information on the features and capabilities of Adobe products that enhance electronic document accessibility for people with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, and motor impairments.

Accessibility website (Adobe website)

Convert a PDF document

You can convert a PDF document into html or plain text by typing a URL address of a PDF into the Adobe online form and selecting to have it transformed into html or plain text.