FAQ #3

As promised, I am delivering the actual FAQ for this week, to make up for missing last week. Again, I apologize to all disappointed persons harmed by my terrible memory. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Q: I can't figure out the PDF files. How do I download the pages I want?

A: That is a very good question, but I'll need to do some explainin' before I give the simple answer. If you already know everything there is to know about PDFs, you can skip this next part.

The e-edition, while it does have a website and you do read it online, is actually made up of pictures of every page of the newspaper. These "pictures" are in what's called a portable document format, or a PDF. A PDF is a 2D image of all the text, images and graphics that are part of the original document you're trying to see. You most likely have Adobe Reader (Adobe Systems is the company that created PDFs) on your computer already, and you've probably opened a PDF, even if you didn't know what it was.


(In case you were wondering, the mythical "e-edition Reader's Guide" pictured here can be found by clicking on the "Help" link in the e-edition toolbar).

OK, so now you know what a PDF is, what do they have to do with the e-edition? For every issue we put online, we also make the PDF of each page available for download. This means that you can actually save the entire issue from that day to your computer. Once it's saved on your hard drive, you don't need to be connected to the internet to view it. You can open the files whenever you want, and they'll be there as long as your computer lives. Even though the archive lets you see 30 days of back issues, we thought people might be interested in saving obituaries or election results or pictures of their kids' band concert longer than that. Downloading the file lets you do that.

With all of that said, let's get down to the nitty gritty details. There are a few steps to the process, which I've numbered for convenience.

1. Log in

2. Still with me? Good.
Go to the main toolbar at the top of the screen. Right next to the ARN logo is a bulleted list of links. The second one should say PDF. Click on it, and the page that comes up should look like this.


3. Now, you'll notice you have the option to download the complete edition. That includes every page, including the classifieds, and it might take a few minutes. If that's what you want, click that link and go on to step 5. If you're just interested in, say, page 3B, go on to step 4.

4. To download a certain page, scroll down to the page you're looking for and check the box next to it. If you want multiple pages, check the box next to each one. That way, you can do this step only once, instead of having to repeat for every page.

5. Once you've clicked download, the thumbnails will disappear and the window will say "Generating Zip File." When it's done, one of two things will happen. In Firefox, a dialog box like the one on the left will pop up. Choose "Save File" and click OK. Internet Explorer will have a link that says "Click here to download it." Click the link and then choose "Save." It may give you the option to save to a particular folder. I chose the desktop, but it's up to you.


**EDIT: If you are using Internet Explorer, it may block you from downloading files. This means your security settings are too high. You can tell IE to let you download them anyway, but you'll have to log in to the e-edition again. To permanently change your settings, go to Internet Options, click on the Security tab, and bump the security level down to medium or so. That way, you won't have to log in multiple times.**

6. You're almost done. The zip file has now been saved either to your desktop or a folder of your choosing. All you have to do is double-click to open it. Here, you might run into a snag.

To open a zipped file, you need a program to unzip it. If you're running Windows XP, it has software installed that will unzip it automatically. Most Macs running OS X also come standard with StuffIt, which will do the same thing. If your operating system is older than that though, such as Windows 2000, you will need to download a program to do it. WinZip is the one I would recommend, as it's the most common, but there are others. It does cost about $30, but don't worry, you'll use it a lot. If you absolutely don't want to buy it, you can get a 45-day free trial of WinZip here.

7. Once the file is unzipped, you can do what you like with it. Double-click to open the PDFs and choose Save As to rename them or move them to different folders. Other than that, you're done.

Are we all here? I know that was lengthy, but I didn't want anyone to get lost on the way. If you have any other questions relating to this or some other topic, please feel free to leave me a note. I'll be happy to help. Until next week.

e-edition out.