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Viewing, Printing, and Ordering Documents

Viewing Documents

Documents may be viewed in either HTML or PDF format. Documents in HTML format have been created using text from the original document. Documents in PDF Image format are scanned images of the hard copy. Document titles are enclosed within quotation marks. Links to documents and other Web pages appear in blue, underlined text. Click on the appropriate link beneath each document title to open documents in HTML or PDF format.

HTML Files

All HTML file text can be searched. To search the text of an HTML file using Netscape, select "Edit" in the toolbar of the page. Scroll down to "Find in Page" and type in the word or string of words upon which you wish to search. You can continue to search for additional occurrences of your search string by selecting the "Find Next" option.

PDF Files

PDF documents are available in two versions: PDF Image and PDF Searchable. A PDF Image is an exact replica of the original document; however, the text of the document is not searchable. A PDF Searchable has been converted to enable a user to search and select text from the document (for copying purposes) while viewing the documen. The "T" button in the tool bar of the Acrobat Reader plug-in turns on the text-select option; the binoculars button in the tool bar prompts the text-searching function. For those PDF documents that are not labeled Searchable or Image, you may determine if it is text-searchable by searching for a word that you see in that document. If the search function does not locate the word, you will know that the document is an image.

Many of the larger PDF documents are divided into sections and have bookmarked links to the chapters and appendices. Once the document is loaded onto your screen, you can access this function by clicking the Bookmarks tab on the left side of the document. This will open a frame on the left that displays the bookmarks contained in the document. You can click on any bookmark and jump directly to that particular section of the document. For more information, visit About Portable Document Format Files.

Printing Documents

Both HTML and PDF files may be printed directly from your browser. You will notice, however, that most PDF Image files require much more memory than PDF Searchable files. The more memory a file requires, the more time it takes to download or print; therefore, you may prefer to print the searchable version when given the option.

Trouble-Shooting Printing Problems with PDF Files

Due to memory constraints, larger files may require that you segment printing into smaller jobs of 20 to 40 pages at a time. This can be done by choosing specific pages to print in the print dialog box. The size of the printed segments depends solely on the memory capacity of your printer. Newer printers can usually handle whole documents even if they are several hundred pages.

Another way of overcoming PDF print problems is to specify to the computer that you want to print the file as an image. This is particularly useful if the document font type is not recognized by your printer. You will know if this option is available by opening the print dialog box. If your computer offers this option you will see a Print as Image checkbox. Proceed with printing as usual by clicking on the Print button.

If the Print as Image option is not available, you may want to download a more recent version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader software that provides this option. To download a current version of the software, visit About Portable Document Format Files.

Obtaining Hard Copies of Documents

Disclosure Statement: OSRTI has attempted to provide the best available copies of documents. Some older documents may appear to be in poor condition. In addition, some of the older documents are available only as PDF Images and are not in a text-searchable format. However, the majority of documents have been converted to an electronic format with text-searching capabilities. These documents have been designated PDF Searchable.

During the conversion process, segments of a document may have been re-typed. Inadvertent errors may be present as a result. We recommend that numerical contaminant data be cross-checked against the PDF Image or an original paper copy before the data is used.

 

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