March 21, 2013

(NOTE:  This article will be a permanent post in our BLUE MENU under "PHONENIX ARCHIVES"

The Phoenix Journals, Contact Newspapers and Phoenix Liberators, The Phoenix Express, and the Spectrum Newspaper archived on our sites at http://www.fourwinds10.net/journals/  and at http://www.phoenixjournals.com  are archived in PDF format. The format has been easily viewable and downloadable for years now but due to recent programming changes in Firefox  and Google Chrome, many users may experience abnormal viewing of these PDF files.  You may experience non-loading of PDF files or very slow loading of the PDF pages or the entire file, and pages not loading at all and showing blank.  Both of these browsers do not show the navigation bookmarks on the left by default and if they do, the bookmarks bring you to one page before or after the actual page of the bookmark.  All of this is due to the inclusion of new built-in software in Firefox and Chrome browsers that uses its own built-in PDF viewer software instead of the actual PDF plugin and software that is installed with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

 

All of our PDF's open and are readable just fine in Adobe Reader, (any version past 4) Normally, all of the PDF files are programmed to open to the first page of the document with a white page and black text. Also, all of the bookmarks are automatically displayed on the left in a column with black text and white or grey background.  If you see anything different, especially no bookmarks that show automatically on the left, your browser is not using Adobe Reader software or the Adobe plug-in and is using it's own built-in viewing capabilities.  Both Firefox and Google Chrome do this by default.

 

To restore the normal viewing of the PDF files, there are several options to remedy these viewing problems.

 

-- First update to the latest version of Adobe Reader. To install the latest version of Adobe Reader, go here http://get.adobe.com/reader.   The latest version of Adobe Reader is Version 11. It is compatible with all of the latest browsers on all platforms.  Basic upgrade information from within Adobe Reader is here:  http://www.ehow.com/how_5233161_upgrade-adobe-reader.html  I recommend upgrading to version 11 first.

 

--Use internet explorer, or Safari.  Both browswers view PDF's normally with correct viewing of the bookmarks and pages as they use the Adobe Acrobat plug-in and/or software.  If you are not using these as your default browsers, you can just use them to view the phoenix archives site.  Internet Explorer is standard issue on all Windows computers, just open it.  Apple Safari is standard on all Macs and available for Windows users at http://www.apple.com/safari/download

 

--If you want to use FireFox or Chrome to correctly view the PDFs normally, you will need to configure them to download and open the PDF files using the Adobe Reader plug-in or external Adobe software and not to use the browser's own viewer.  This requires Adobe reader to be installed on your computer and to manually change a setting in the browsers. 

 

Firefox users: change how Firefox opens PDF files:  (for version 19 and above of Firefox)

 

1)Click on 'Tools' menu then on options.

(if you do not have a 'tools' menu at the top, right click in small space just above the address bar, only a few pixels above it, and then click on and put check mark next to 'menu bar'.

 

2) Your options window will pop up.  Click on 'applications' tab.

 

3) In search box just below applications tab, type in 'PDF' without the quotes.  The PDF file type will atuomatically appear with two collumns, 'Content Type' and 'Action'.

 

4) In the 'Action' column, click on the words "Preview in Firefox" it will highlight and get you a drop-down menu (if not, click on it again) 

 

5) Click on "Use Adobe Reader (default)" in the list

 

6) Click OK at bottom of window.

 

That's it!  All done.  Now when you click on PDF files (any PDF files from all websites) they will be downloaded and viewed in Adobe Reader application. (Adobe Reader will automatically open up.)

 

 

Google Chrome users: change how Chrome opens PDF files:  (for version 25 and above of Chrome) you need to disable the PDF viewer.

 

To disable the built-in viewer:

 

1) Type in      chrome:plugins      in the address bar at the top and press Enter.

 

2) Click 'Disable' underneath the entry for “Chrome PDF Viewer.” The Adobe Reader plug-in will automatically be enabled, if you have it installed or of not, click "enable" under the Adobe Reader plug-in listing.

 

3) Close tab or restart browser

 

That's it!  All done.  Now when you click on PDF files (any PDF files from all websites) they will be downloaded and viewed in Adobe Reader plug-in inside of Chrome complete with bookmarks for the chapters.

 

If you have any further problems viewing our PDF files, please email us and we will help.

 

Thank you.