What are these PDF files?

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It was designed by a company called Adobe as a way to share complex documents (including ones which have graphics) with others.

The great thing about PDF files is that they are readable on so many different computers. Just about anyone should be able to view the same document. So you don't have to worry if the person is using Word or WordPerfect or an older version of either of those two that isn't compatible.

If you use the Internet a lot, you will probably find PDF files. Adobe's free PDF reader may already be on your computer.

The best way to test it is to try and open a file which ends in ".pdf". If a program launches and you can read the file, you're done!

If you don't have Adobe's reader on your machine, or if you have an older version which doesn't seem to read these files (Adobe 3.01 and later should be able to read these files) you can download it for free either from:

http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

or you can download it from here (version 4.0 for Windows 95/98/NT or for Macintosh).

If you have a different computer than that, you should go to the Adobe page and see if they have a version for your computer.

The following links will let you download the version of Adobe's PDF reader as named:

WindowsVersion (5.5 mb)

Macintosh Version in BinHex (5.8 mb)

Macintosh Version in MacBinary (4.2 mb)