Appearance - Browsers

There are a number of things that you can do to optimize the look of ceds.ed.gov on your computer. We recommend browsing with either of these two free downloads:

Appearance - Resolution

CEDS makes every effort possible to develop for our audience's varying graphics resolutions. We currently develop our pages for a minimum of 1024 x 768 resolution.

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.

Portable Document Format (PDF)

Why we use PDF

Many CEDS 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 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

Macintosh System Requirements

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.

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.

The CEDS 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.

About Adobe Flash

CEDS uses Adobe Flash in some of our applications. Adobe Flash Player displays web application front-ends, high-impact website user interfaces, interactive online advertising, and short-form to long-form animation. Designers and developers use Adobe Flash MX to develop distinctive and compelling content, revolutionary user interfaces, and rich applications for the web. It is pre-installed in most web browsers and on most computers. It is included in Windows 98 (including all new Windows 98 and Windows XP computers), Netscape Navigator, Apple Macintosh operating systems, America Online, and WebTV, among others.

How to obtain a Adobe Flash Player

Click Here to obtain a free Adobe Flash Player.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

About Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

CEDS has adopted Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as a graphics file format. SVG is a web development language based on XML. SVG, a W3C recommendation (web standard), enables web developers and designers to create dynamically generated, high-quality graphics from real-time data with precise structural and visual control. Through the use of SVG, we are able to offer dynamically generated, high-quality, scalable, interactive graphics from real-time data. Although many SVG viewers are available, CEDS recommends the Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0 (or above) as a stable, well-supported viewer.

How to obtain Adobe's SVG Viewer

Visit Adobe SVG Viewer Download Area to download a free viewer.

ZIP Format Archive Files

Why we use ZIP

A Zip format allows either extremely large files, or files created in formats no longer widely used, to be combined and compressed and thus downloaded with more speed and ease. The user requires an "unzip" utility to extract files from an archive (all files for downloading have been compressed using zip archiving and compression). CEDS uses Zip archiving for several of its newer applications, such as video, and for many data sets. In addition, some older reports are available only in a combination of file formats, such as Lotus .WK1 format for tables and plain ASCII for the text.

How to obtain a ZIP Extractor

To acquire the decompressing utility for your computer's operating system, click on the appropriate link below:

Windows

Download a trial version of Winzip

Macintosh

Download a zip/unzip utility for Macintosh (MacZip)

Useful Downloads

The links below provide some useful downloads which can greatly minimize problems users encounter when viewing our site:

Adobe Acrobat Reader
You will need to download this popular reader in order to view the various PDF files on our site.

Adobe Acrobat Reader - Help Page
This is the place to go for all your PDF problems related to printing, viewing, and downloading.

Adobe Acrobat Access
This is a link to a special Adobe site that talks about how to make PDF documents accessible for people with visual disabilities

Microsoft Word 2003 Viewer
Microsoft Word Viewer 2003 lets you open Word 2003 documents and documents created with all previous versions of Microsoft Word for Windows® and Microsoft Word for Macintosh. In addition to Word files, you can also open files saved in many other formats. With Word Viewer 2003, you can view, print, and copy documents to another program. However, you cannot edit an open document, save a document, or create a new document.

Microsoft Excel 2003 Viewer
With Excel Viewer 2003, you can open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don't have Excel installed. You can also copy data from Excel Viewer 2003 to another program. However, you cannot edit data, save a workbook, or create a new workbook.

Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer
This download is for users who don't have Microsoft PowerPoint®; The PowerPoint Viewer 2003 allows people who use PowerPoint to share their presentations with people who do not have PowerPoint installed on their computers for versions Powerpoint 97 and later. You can use this viewer to view files created in both PowerPoint for Windows® and PowerPoint for the Macintosh. You can view and print presentations, but you cannot edit them in the PowerPoint Viewer.

CEDS Product Disclaimer

Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government.

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