By Dan Pacheco
WashingtonPost.com Staff
December 5, 1996

These instructions walk you through setting up Netscape Navigator, the most popular Web browser, to read Adobe Acrobat "portable document format" (.pdf) documents. PDF files are used by a growing number of corporations and government agencies to electronically publish material originally meant for print.

1. First, create a temporary directory or folder anywhere on your hard drive. In a few steps, you'll save the Acrobat installation program into this folder. (On a PC, people normally save programs to the c:\temp folder.)

2. If you have a printer, you might want print these instructions for easy reference (go to "File" above and choose "Print.")

3. Next, go to Adobe's download page. You may have to select your operating system and language using the pull-down menu and press "OK."

4. The next screen has a number of links that you can click to download the reader -- click any of them. Your browser might ask you what to do with the file; choose "save to disk." When it asks where to put the file, choose the temporary directory on your hard drive. Write down the name of the installation file and its location (on a Windows 95 computer, this might be c:\temp\ar32e30.exe).

5. When the file has finished downloading, you'll need to close all Windows programs, including Netscape Navigator. But before you do, add this page to your "Bookmarks" menu (go to the "Bookmarks" menu and choose "Add Bookmark") so you can find it easily later.

6. Open the temporary directory or folder where you saved the installation program (On Windows 95, this program will be called ar32e30.exe.) Click that program twice to run it. Follow the instructions from Adobe on your screen. The program should find a place where it would like to be installed. You can go along with its choice, or select another location by clicking "Browse." Just make sure to remember which directory you install it to, since you'll need to find it later.

If you have Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above, congratulations! Your installation is complete. PDF files will now appear within the browser window, along with a toolbar that allows you to zoom, pan, and print, among other things. Try it out now by viewing a 1040EZ form from the IRS.

If you're using Navigator 1.2 or 2.0, there are only a few more steps to follow ...

You still need to tell Netscape to use the Acrobat Reader when it comes across .pdf files. To accomplish that, do the following:

1. Try downloading a 1040EZ form from the IRS.

2. Since this is a kind of file Navigator doesn't recognize, it will ask you what to do with it. If you're using Navigator 2.0, click "Pick App" and "Browse," and select the acrobat reader program in the directory where you installed it. (If you are using Navigator 1.2, click "Configure a Viewer.") Choose the file that starts with "acro."

3. Click OK and wait for the Acrobat reader to open. In a few seconds or minutes (depending on the speed of the IRS server), you should see that familiar form. To print it out, go to the program's "File" menu and choose "Print."

Relax. The most likely reason is that you or an overzealous program probably once told Navigator to open .pdf files with some other program. Here's how to re-introduce it to the Acrobat Reader:

1. Select "General Preferences..." from the "Options" menu and click on the "Helpers" tab.

2. Look for an entry for "application/pdf." If you see it, select that line by clicking it once with your mouse. Then skip ahead to step 4.

   If you don't see this entry, click "New" or "Create New Type." On a PC, enter the following:

   Mime Type: application
   Mime Subtype: pdf

   On a Mac, enter the following:

   Description: Portable Document Format Mime Type: application/pdf
   Suffixes: pdf

   Then skip to step 6.

3. Click the large "OK" button to keep your changes to Netscape's settings.

4. Click on the "Browse" button, which will open up a window showing part of your hard drive's contents, and go to the folder where you installed the Acrobat Reader. Click on the reader program, then the "Open" button.

5. Click the large "OK" button to keep your changes to Netscape's settings.

6. If you're using Navigator 2.0 or 1.2, make sure you go to the "Options" menu and choose "Save Options" to make them stick.