About Adobe Acrobat/PDF

Arlington County's website includes numerous PDF documents, forms, and brochures for use by our citizens to save a time consuming visit to our offices and to allow them the freedom to access this information when we are closed.

You will need a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free from Adobe's site.

Most people are familiar with IRS use of Acrobat for tax forms, and Adobe Systems experiences an annual surge in Acrobat downloads on April 14th! What many are not familiar with is the widespread adoption of Acrobat in other government agencies. Virtually every aspect of government has adopted Acrobat for publishing, distributing, or receiving information.

PDF - the De Facto Standard For Electronic Documents

Portable Document Format (PDF) is used when documents have to look exactly the same across all computer platforms and browsers. IRS tax forms, CDROM software instructions are examples of pdf applications. PDF files are compact, cross platform and can be viewed by anyone with free Acrobat Reader software.

• Acrobat Reader's navigation and zoom features enable closer review of PDF file text and images, even within your browser!
• PDF files can be easily viewed and printed a page at a time.
• PDF files contain all the original page layouts, typography, color and graphics.
• PDF allows keyword searching when viewing inside the Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer window. PDF files preserve complex page formatting and layout, typography and graphics. The document viewed is identical in format, regardless of the platform that created the PDF document, or on which the PDF document is viewed. PDF viewers also allow searching and printing of the document

Screen Readers and Acrobat Versions

If you use a screen reader, such as JAWS, be sure to download at least Version 7.0 which is able to navigate PDF files.

Acrobat Reader keeps advancing with improvements in each version. Even if you do not use a screen reader and already have Acrobat, it's a good idea to download the latest or near-latest version. As Acrobat Reader advances its versions, the most recently-uploaded documents on the site were made using recent versions and may not be readable by the earliest versions.

Download/Install Hints

• You can download the acrobat/pdf reader for free at Adobe's site.
• Remember where you save it. Saving it in the "plug-ins" portion for your browser makes sense.
• The Adobe Acrobat Reader is software, which means that like any other software, you have to install it.

If You Cannot Install the Plug In

If you are having difficulty in downloading the Acrobat Reader, Adobe offers a free HTML (simple text) conversion process. Simply go to http://access.adobe.com/access/ and enter the URL to the PDF document. The PDF document will instantly be converted to an HTML document viewable through your browser—no plug-in needed. The process is quick and easy, and you'll be amazed at the results! This process is NOT recommended for forms.

Tips On Reading PDF Files

Acrobat Reader is a very good viewer program for PDF files. It is very easy to use, so no need to explain in detail here. However, a few tips are worth stressing:

• Notice the icon change during your viewing. Normally, the icon is a hand which means you can drag the page or the box over the miniature page.
• Click the zoom in or out button and you can click or drag an area to change the magnification.
• Change magnification for better view. If you find it hard to read, you can manually change the magnification. Hold "Ctrl" key then press "l" to bring up “change
  1. To go back to previous view, press "Ctrl + -".
  2. Learn more about Acrobat Reader in on-line help.