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Site Tips & Tricks |
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1.0 Browser Settings
These are suggestions on how to make your browser behave better with our website.
1.1 General Settings
We've optimized our website to be viewed at a screen resolution of 800x600 or larger, but with the combined power of HTML and Web Browsers the site should be viewable by any browser on any platform (including PDAs and Cell Phones) with only the usual expected differences.
1.3 Browser Printer Settings
The data reports and graphs on the web site, plus a number of documents (copies of legislation, Board bylaws, etc)
are provided in Adobe Acrobat "pdf" format to control their layout and facilitate printing. In addition, some of
the "html" web pages, such as the "Before You Build" page, provide a link to a "pdf" version, again to facilitate
printing. However, other pages, such as "Board Description" and "Regulation Guide", are only available in "html"
format.
If you wish to print pages from this web site that are only available in "html" format, please note the following:
2.0 Adobe Acrobat Reader
2.1 Files Requiring Acrobat Reader
Whenever you see either of the two images on the left it means the file
(or "link" the image is associated with) is a "Portable Document Format" or "PDF" file, the format of which was created by Adobe Software. These items require Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 3 or higher) to view them.
If you do not have Acrobat Reader, it is available free from Adobe Software.
In some browsers you may have to select the desired item with the right mouse button to save the file on your computer rather than view it online ("Save Target As..." in Internet Explorer; "Save Link As..." in Netscape).
2.2 Current Version Required
We've designed our PDF documents for Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or higher (they are "distilled" by Acrobat 4.0 with compatibility set to "Acrobat 3.0").
2.3 Getting Acrobat reader
You can click here to get the Adobe Acrobat Reader
(it's free!!!). Please note that this takes you to the main Adobe Acrobat Reader page.
2.4 Various Acrobat Reader Settings
In File|Preferences|General turn on "Use Greek Text Below 4 Pixels".
This is because the fonts on some of the graphs are pretty tiny and if this setting is left at the default of 6, they may view as rectangles only (but they'll still print okay).
When using Acrobat 6.0, set magnification to 118% or greater to make grids on the graphs visible.
2.5 Print with "Fit to Page" OFF
We have found that turning "Fit to Page" OFF on the Print Dialog screen helps to keep portions of our documents from becoming skewed.
NOTE: This is called "Fit to Page" in Acrobat Reader 4.0; in Acrobat Reader 5.0, it's found in the "Copies And Adjustments" box and is split into two options: "Shrink oversized pages ..." and "Expand small pages ..."
2.6 Printing margins are "askew"
We have also found that some printers, probably due to their rubber catch-wheels, may tend to start printing a few millimetres higher or lower than where the PDF is designed to print.
The solution to this, we have found, is to create a custom page size (in the local computer's printer setup software, if possible -- the PDF is still 8.5x11) that is slightly larger than the page it was designed for (11.313 inches instead of 11 inches).
This causes the printer to think the page is a little bigger and therefore it centres the output for the new page size.
2.7 How to print PDF files while viewing them in your Web Browser
It's been our experience that to print PDF files while viewing them in your browser (i.e. "Acrobat Reader" is used as a browser "Plug-In"), it helps
if you use the plug-in's print button (i.e. the far-left button on the Acrobat toolbar that is inserted when
viewing PDFs online). Using the browser's "Print" button will likely give erroneous results (Internet Explorer 6 and the Acrobat Reader plugin appear to behave well together, though).
Click here for more on Troubleshooting Acrobat printing problems
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