> Newer PDF files available at the Fairfax County government website
> are not readable with any of the various PDF viewers I have on my Mac
> under 10.3.9, except for any embedded bit mapped graphic files
> contained therein. The text portions are garbled. Older PDF files
> on the site are fully readable with these various, non-Adobe PDF
> viewers.
>
> It therefore appears as though the county, at some point in the
> recent past, began using a different piece of software to create
> their PDF files, or they upgraded their older software. At any rate,
> whatever path they took, they have rendered their PDFs unreadable to
> me at this time. I somehow think that the county is using Acrobat to
> create these files, and that something about a newer version of
> Acrobat, or the manner in which the county has decided to configure
> Acrobat is creating a situation that requires the Adobe reader to be
> required to properly open and view these newer files.
Call them. I had a similar problem with the fill-in forms for Maryland
taxes. I phoned the person in charge of graphics for Maryland
publications. He was wonderful. He completely understood the issue. He
also has Macs in his department. He said a similar thing to what I've
unfortunately told my clients many times--deadline was too tight to get
it 100% for this year's forms. He was working on getting Mac versions to
display properly in Preview. I requested a Preview-compatible version
because Preview can save fill-in forms with contents, as opposed to
Adobe Reader that prints but doesn't save the forms, and doesn't print
to Preview either.
Call them. Find out how they create their PDFs. Tell them that the PDFs
are broken. Ask what program they use to create PDFs, and request that
they use something that works for all systems and not just the current
version of Windows that they're using. Most people don't test their
files on different computer and have no idea that the files they post
are broken. The authors of the Fairfax County gummint web site may be
completely unaware of their broken files, too.
Betty
Remind them that for every person who calls, there are many more who
give up, go away, and complain to their friends. Remind them that you
are paying their salary, too. That works too.
************************************************************************
* ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <==
* ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <==
* Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name
* Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST
* Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L
* New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress
* Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
************************************************************************
* List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
* RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml
* Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived
************************************************************************
