Do I really want to download that file – or - What’s a PDF anyway?

Every once in awhile, while you’re cruising the Internet, everything stops and you might get a message asking if you want to install a new program on your computer. Generally, a message such as this comes with another, usually ominous, message such as:

WARNING: Web pages, executables, and other attachments may contain viruses or scripts that can be harmful to your computer! It is important to be certain that this file is from a trustworthy source.

OH MY GOODNESS

So what do you do? You can’t view the web site in all its splendor until you download and install the file. Your best friend said the site was SOOO good! You HAVE to see it!

Reality check.

The message above is a GOOD message. It makes you stop and THINK – but it shouldn’t make you stop altogether!

A PDF file is an excellent example. A few years ago, ADOBE (the same folks that make Illustrator and Photoshop) had a REALLY good idea. They made an excellent product called ACROBAT that can be used to display the same documents on either a Mac or a Windows machine. What a concept! A developer could write a user manual, license, or some other document, and send it out to lots of people without having to keep two versions.

But that’s not even the good idea. The really good idea was that ADOBE made the Acrobat Readers FREE. You can download a reader any time from the adobe web site at (www.adobe.com). As time went on, more developers like myself started using the Acrobat Writer (not free) to create documents to send out. We figured it was worth paying for the writer because so many people had the reader. And, even if they didn’t have it, we could send it to them, or they could download it.

I’m finally getting to the point.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Acrobat documents have a .PDF file extension. So you might have a document like README.PDF or LICENSE.PDF that comes with a program. As soon as your computer sees the .PDF file name, it knows that this is an Acrobat file.

Now, since the format is platform independent (it could be used on Windows or Mac) lots of web sites started using Acrobat to let you retrieve and print documents. After all, a web site HAS to be platform independent.

Since tax time is coming up, let’s use that as an example. Suppose you are filling out your taxes and, as usual you’ve waited till THE LAST DAY – Hey – you’ve got till midnight, right? About 75% of the way through the process, you realize you don’t have a copy of the form you need to itemize deductions. You didn’t receive it in the first place, the dog ate it, you used it to wrap your mother-in-law’s Christmas present, whatever.

What do you do? Apply for an extension? NOOOOOO. You go to the IRS web site at http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/forms.html to find the form you want. It will probably be in a PDF format (the IRS accepts donations from both Windows AND Mac users.) In fact, there is a link on the IRS site that points you toward the “freely available” acrobat reader (so you have more money left over to send to them.) Once you get the file, you can print the form right on your own printer and it comes out REALLY nice, just like they had sent you the form in the mail.

As more web sites started using PDF formatted documents, Adobe created a few “extensions” (no relation to the TAX EXTENSION) to work with the various browsers so that PDF files could open automatically. An Extension, in this case, is a little program that makes a big program, like a browser, do more than it did originally.

Of course, for this to work, you have to have the extension loaded on your computer. The good news is, you don’t usually have to load the extension yourself! The first time you go to a site that uses the PDF extension, you will probably see the message I mentioned above warning you that files being downloaded can contain viruses.

Generally, if the extension is coming from one of the major companies, (Microsoft, Netscape, Adobe, Macromedia, etc…) I go ahead and load the file. If you want to be really careful, you can run a virus scanner (Nortons or McAffe are the most common) on your system right after downloading the file to make sure nothing bad was in there.

For more safety, another test you can do is to see if the file being downloaded is “signed” by the creator. This means that the file being downloaded has the creating company’s name embedded inside the file. You can even set your Internet options (In Internet Explorer, click on tools, internet options) to higher security levels. For example, on a medium to high level, the browser will automatically protect you from installing “unsigned” activex controls (extensions).

Another extension that is very common is the FLASH extension. This is one of the many little programs that a browser can use to display animation on your system. If you go to our web site at www.archer.com you can see a short flash animation – if you have the extension!

If you buy a new computer, or load a new version of your browser, it will probably have these extensions already built into it Other extensions let you do things like view streaming video, listen to music files, or use your computer like a telephone to talk to Australia for free!

Oh yea. Browsers. What are they all about?

There are three primary players in the Browser arena – Internet Explorer (IE), Netscape, and AOL. Some people love AOL because it’s so “easy to set up.” I’m not one of those people.

Personally, (and in spite of the cute “you’ve got mail” thing) I find AOL to be offering me way too much protection from myself. I don’t like having to hack my way out of the AOL domain to reach the real (well, virtual) world.

Anyway, the other two players, Netscape and IE, have been at each others throats for years. This is THE reason for the Department of Justice’s suit against Microsoft. Does Microsoft have an advantage, shipping IE as part of Windows? Well, Duhhhh. But is it a BAD thing for you and me? I haven’t found it to be.

My brother – also a computer geek – uses Netscape. I use IE. What’s the difference? It all comes down to what you first started using when you got your computer – and what you’re used to using now. Functionally, the two products are so similar in capabilities, that I don’t have a preference. Netscape does have an Email reader built into it.

With IE, you usually use either Outlook or Outlook Express to read email. I use Outlook because I can hook up to my palm pilot – it’s neat. There are other email programs, such as Eudora, but unless you are doing some pretty sophisticated email campaigns, you can probably stick with one of the free products. Did I mention that IE, and Outlook Express come FREE with your Windows operating system – or that you can download Netscape from the Internet for Free as well?

Netscape is now shipping out their version 6, which has lots more nice little extras in it. Of course, it’s also a lot bigger program and you probably want a newer computer to run it on. Most of the extra size is because of those extensions - so you can listen to music while you surf…

So now that you’ve got all the extensions you need, go ahead and enjoy them!