Using PDFs

PDF files let you see and print documents created in a variety of computer programs without needing to have the software the document was created in. PDFs look exactly like the original files, including photos.

To view or print PDF files, you need the free Adobe Reader software. This application is available at no cost from Adobe. To install it:

• See if you already have Adobe Reader on your hard drive. If not, visit the Adobe Reader webpage and follow the instructions for your computer system.
• Once you have Adobe Reader on your hard drive, click on the PDF document you want to see.
• When the PDF file you selected has downloaded completely to your computer, start the Adobe Reader application and open the file. (Some browsers will automatically start Acrobat Reader for you.) You can view or print the file.

Troubleshooting problems with PDFs

When you click a link to a PDF document, your computer will usually try to open the free Adobe Reader program, then display the PDF document in your browser. On slower computers, this process can take a while. It may be 5 or 10 seconds after you‘ve clicked the link before you see anything happen.

Other problems on your computer can also get in the way of reading the PDF correctly:

• You may not have the free Adobe Reader installed, or installed correctly. Go to the Adobe site to get the free installer.

*You may not have enough memory available on your computer for the Reader to launch correctly.

• Your version of the Reader may be too old to open the PDF document in question.
• Your Web browser may need more than the default memory allocation to be able to launch the PDF Plugin.

A quick, two-step solution

One solution may be to download the PDF file to your computer first, then open it with the Adobe Reader program (rather than asking your browser to do the work of launching the program.)

To download the file on Windows:

• Right-click on the PDF link.
• Choose “Save Link As…“ from the popup menu.
• Choose where to save it.

To download the file on Macintosh:

• Hold down the “Control“ key as you click the PDF link.
• Choose “Save Link As…” from the popup menu.
• You can then choose where to save it.

If you have Adobe Reader software on your computer, you should be able to double-click on the downloaded PDF file to open it.

One final option

If you have a recent version of Adobe Reader installed but still can‘t get a file on our site to download and open, we can send you the file as an e-mail attachment. Send a request to us at librarian@champaign.org, and let us know what file you need.

Magnifying your PDF file

If the text in a PDF is too small on your screen, it‘s easy to make it bigger.

• With a PDF file open in Adobe Acrobat, look on your toolbar for the magnifying glass symbol (it‘s near the middle of your screen, just above the document you‘re looking at).
• The magnifying glass can have either a plus (+) sign or a minus (-) sign in it, to make your view larger (+) or smaller (-). Use the arrow to the right of the magnifying glass to choose the (+) or (-).
• Click on the magnifying glass.
• Now click anywhere on the document, and you‘ll see it get bigger (or smaller, depending on which way you chose). Keep clicking on the page to make it even bigger (or smaller).
• To switch from making your page bigger to making it smaller again (or the other way around), use the arrow next to the magnifying tool to switch to the (+) or (-).