Are you having problems viewing our online newsletter - the "Homepage"?  We have recently learned that there are some problems accessing the Adobe Acrobat formatted newsletter file.  Some of the problems seem to be specific to AOL, but you may also have problems using other browsers.

One possible problem is if you have installed more than one version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader software.  When you install the software from scratch (i.e. from a CD), it apparently keeps any and all previous versions of the software that have been installed.  You need to have only one installation of the Acrobat Reader program on your computer to make the "plug-in" feature of your browser work correctly. In other words, the browser software can only work with one copy of the Acrobat Reader software and it has to know which one.

*NOTE - It appears that with version 6 of Acrobat Reader, Adobe has fixed this annoying problem with multiple versions of the Reader program!  It has been our experience so far that installing version 6 over older versions keeps the "plug-in" working correctly.  If you find this not to be true, please send us an email to let us know.

What's a "plug-in", and how and why does it work?  If you are interested in more information, please see the other link on the "Library" page of our website, to the page of tips and information about configuring and using the Acrobat Reader program.

When the Reader program is open and you are connected to the Internet, the program should prompt you occasionally to allow it to search the Adobe website for a more current version of itself.  If it finds a more current version, it will ask you if you want to download the upgrade.  This is free and OK to do as it only updates the old version of your program.

If you install a newer version of the program from a CD, you need to first uninstall the older version.  To do this, first look for the "uninstall" option in the program folder itself, under the "Start" menu.  If it doesn't have that option available, you need to use the "Add/Remove Programs" function in the "Control Panel" on a PC.  To remove a program on a Mac, simply drag the program icon (note - not an alias icon) to the "Trash" bin.  Then check the "System Folder" extensions to make sure there are no remaining links to the program left behind.

You can also create a problem with the "plug-in" link by installing newer versions of AOL.  Like the Acrobat Reader program, it too keeps all older versions of itself, and creates multiple installations of the software.  The "plug-in" link between the AOL software and the Acrobat Reader software was created when you first installed the Reader software.  Installing newer versions of AOL does not change this.  Therefore when you now use the newer version of your AOL software, you will not be able to access an Acrobat formatted (i.e. ".pdf") document on the Internet.  This is because the "plug-in" link is still between the Reader software and the older version of AOL.  You need to uninstall older versions of AOL before installing a newer version.  When doing so, you will be given the option of not removing your "downloads" items and other AOL personal information.  Once the newer version of AOL is successfully installed, you then need to remove and reinstall the Acrobat Reader software, to recreate the "plug-in" link between it and the AOL browser.

Alternately, if you want to keep older versions of the AOL software installed on your computer, you can uninstall Adobe Acrobat Reader, install the new version of AOL and then reinstall Acrobat Reader.  This should fix the "plug-in" association between Acrobat Reader and the new version of AOL software.

If you are having installation or configuration problems with Acrobat Reader, click here to go to a page on the Adobe website where they have information that will probably help you solve your problem.  You can see from their descriptions that the easiest way to solve a problem is probably to reinstall the program from scratch - just be sure to uninstall all previous versions on your computer.  Remember we have the Acrobat Reader program available on CD that you can borrow, if you would rather not download it from Adobe via the Internet.  Click here to send us an email request to borrow a CD or ask one of our board members or SIG leaders about it at any of our meetings.  Otherwise you will find the link to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader program on our "Useful Links" page.

Once the problem is resolved, you can download PDF files (i.e. Acrobat formatted files) either directly in your browser software, or in a separate window of the Acrobat Reader program itself.  It is strictly personal preference, but I happen to prefer the method of having the document open in the Acrobat Reader program window itself, not the browser window.  If you want to make it work this way too (if it doesn't already), read the section of the Adobe page entitled "Enabling the Browser to Use Acrobat as a Helper Application", or go to the other link on the Library page of our website, with the tips for configuring and using the Acrobat Reader program.

Having other problems?  Click here to access the "Support" page on the Adobe website with links to various help topics.

If you have any questions or need further help, please email us!

Thanks,
Tim Glover, webmaster