Adobe Acrobat Reader™ Hints and Tips
The following information is distilled from the Adobe Acrobat on-line help manual. It is intended to provide a basic introduction to using files downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format from websites. For more information, click HELP on the toolbar in Acrobat Reader.
Hint: Print out this page and keep it as a reference when using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Help on viewing PDF files
PDF 2 HTML Utility by Adobe - converted a PDF file to HTML through your web viewer. Enter the URL of a PDF file into the form.
Contents
Toolbar
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Show whole page |
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First page |
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Show bookmarks and page |
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Previous page |
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Show thumbnails and page |
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Next page |
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Zoom in |
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Last page |
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Go back |
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100% zoom |
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Go forward |
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Fit page in window |
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Fit page width inside window |
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Text selection |
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Find |
Printing PDF documents
First, select the print options you want by using the File >Print Setup command. When you are ready to print, choose File > Print.
Note, you can print specific pages of a document.
Magnifying the page view
You can use the zoom tool, 
the magnification box in the status bar,
or the Actual Size,
Fit Page,
and Fit Width 
toolbar buttons to change the screen magnification.
The maximum magnification level is 800%. The minimum magnification level is 12%.
If you zoom in on a large document, use the hand tool 
to move the page around on-screen or in a thumbnail.
Acrobat viewers also offer magnification level choices that are not related to a specific percentage, but to the look of the page on screen:
- Fit Page scales the page to fit within the main window.
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- Fit Width scales the page to fit the width of the main window.
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- Fit Visible fills the window with the page’s imaged area only (text and graphics).
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When you select any of the Fit options, the magnification level resulting from the selection is displayed in the status bar.
The Fit options, Fit Page, Fit Width, and Fit Visible are in a sticky state, which means they don’t change as you page through a document unless you change the zoom level.
To increase magnification choose one of the following:
- Select the zoom tool on the document page to double the current magnification.
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- Select the zoom tool and drag to draw a rectangle, called a marquee, around the area you want to magnify.
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- Click the magnification box in the status bar and choose a magnification level. If you choose Zoom To, type in the magnification level and click OK.
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To decrease magnification choose one of the following:
- Select the zoom tool while holding down the Ctrl (Windows and UNIX) or Option (Macintosh) and click at the center of the area you want to reduce.
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- Select the zoom tool while holding down the Ctrl Key and drag to draw a rectangle, called a marquee, around the area you want to reduce.
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- Click the magnification box in the status bar and choose a magnification level. If you choose Zoom To, type in the magnification level and click OK.
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Note: If viewing a PDF document in a Web browser window, use the zoom out tool 
to decrease magnification.
Working with large page sizes
If you need to magnify a page to a size larger than the viewer window to read it, you can use the hand tool to move the page around so that you can view all the areas on it. Moving a PDF document around with the hand tool is like moving a piece of paper around on a desk with your hand.
Choosing a page layout for scrolling ease
Acrobat viewers have three page layout options:
Single Page, Continuous, and Continuous-Facing Pages. Continuous and Continuous-Facing Pages facilitate page scrolling so that you can see the bottom of one page and the top of another.
Single page layout displays one page in the document window at a time.
Continuous layout arranges the pages in a continuous vertical column.
Continuous-Facing Pages layout arranges the pages to appear side by side. This configuration accommodates two-page spread display and multiple-page viewing in the viewer window. If the total page count of a document is greater than two pages, the first page is displayed on the right to ensure proper display of two-page spreads. To see two-page spreads most efficiently in this page layout, choose View > Fit Width.
To set a page layout choose one of the following:
 Click the page size box in the status bar, and choose one of the page layouts from the menu. |
- Choose Single Page, Continuous, or Continuous-Facing Pages from the View menu.
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Paging through a document
The Acrobat Reader provides a number of ways to page through a document.
To go to the next page choose one of the following:
- Click the Next Page button
 in the toolbar. |
- Press the Right or Down Arrow on your keyboard.
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To return to the previous page choose one of the following:
- Click the Previous Page button
 in the toolbar. |
- Press the Left or Up Arrow.
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- Choose View > Previous Page.
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To go to the first page choose one of the following:
- Click the First Page button
 in the toolbar. |
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- Choose View > First Page.
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To go to the last page choose one of the following:
- Click the Last Page button
 in the toolbar. |
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To jump to a specific numbered page choose one of the following:
- Use the find tool
 and enter appropriate text to go to. |
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- Drag the vertical scroll bar up and down until the rectangle to the left of the scroll bar displays the number of the page to which you want to jump.
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To move one screenful at a time:
- Press the PageDown key, Enter, or Return to move forward.
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- Press the PageUp key, Shift+Enter, or Shift+Return to go back.
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- Use the vertical scroll bar
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Browsing with thumbnails
A thumbnail is a miniature view of each page in the document that you can display in the overview area.
You can use thumbnails to jump quickly to a page; to adjust the view of the current page; and to move, insert, copy, replace, and delete pages.
To jump to a page by using its thumbnail:
Click the Thumbnails and Page button 
or choose View > Thumbnails and Page to display thumbnail images. Click a thumbnail to move to the page it represents. The point you click determines the center of the page display.
To adjust the view of the current page choose one of the following:
- Place the pointer over the lower right corner of the page-view box (the light-gray box) in the thumbnail of the current page. When the pointer changes to a double arrow, drag the corner of the box to reduce or expand the view of the page.
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- Use the hand tool to move around the current page by dragging the page-view box on the thumbnail.
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- Position the pointer anywhere outside the current page-view box, and drag to draw a new box.
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Browsing with bookmarks
Show the Bookmarks palette. You may need to choose Window > Show Bookmarks to open the palette or click the Bookmarks tab to bring the palette to the front of its group.
To jump to a topic using its bookmark, click the bookmark’s icon or text in the palette. The bookmark for the part of the document currently showing is boldfaced.
Bookmarks can be subordinate to other bookmarks in their hierarchy; a higher level bookmark in this relationship is the parent, and a lower level bookmark is the child. You can collapse a parent bookmark in the palette to hide all its children. When a parent bookmark is collapsed, it has a plus sign next to it. If the bookmark you want to click is hidden in a collapsed parent, click the plus sign or triangle next to the parent to show it.
Retracing your steps
The Go Back button 
traces your viewing path through a document or series of documents. You can go back up to 64 views. Go Back will reopen closed documents if necessary.
To retrace your viewing path:
- Click the Go Back button
 or choose View > Go Back to return to the previous page, document, or magnification level. |
- Click the Go Forward button
 or choose View > Go Forward to reverse direction and return, one view at a time, to the view where you first used Go Back. |
Finding words
Use the Find command to find part of a word, a complete word, or multiple words in the active document.
To find a word:
1. Click the find tool , or choose Tools > Find.
2. Choose any combination of the following options, or none of them:
- Match Whole Word Only specifies ignoring words that are contained within the text you enter. For example, the word stick would not be highlighted if you chose the word sticky to find.
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- Match Case specifies finding only those words that contain exactly the same capitalization as you enter in the Find dialog box.
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- Find Backwards specifies starting from the current page and searching backwards through the file. Find Backwards is helpful if you want to find a term you passed earlier in the document.
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3. In the Find What text box, enter the text to be found and click Find. When the program finds the text, the Find dialog box closes and the page containing the text is displayed with the text highlighted.
4. To find the next occurrence of the word, press Ctrl (Windows and UNIX) or Command (Macintosh) +G, or reopen the Find dialog box and click Find Again. With Windows, pressing F3 also finds the next occurrence of the word. You will be prompted to loop around to the beginning of the document if you start the process on any page other than the first page.
Copying and pasting text to another application
You can select text in a PDF document, copy it to the Clipboard, then paste it into a document in another application, such as a word processor.
To select text and copy it to the Clipboard:
1. Do one of the following:
- Click the text selection tool or choose Tools > Select Text and drag to select the text you want to copy.
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- To select text in one column of a multicolumn story, hold down the Ctrl (Windows and UNIX) or Option key (Macintosh) while dragging to select the text.
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- To select all text on the pages shown in your viewer window—even if only a portion of a page is showing—choose Edit > Select All.
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- When you release the mouse button, the selected text is highlighted. To deselect the text and start over, click anywhere outside the selected text.
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2. Choose Edit > Copy to copy the selected text to the Clipboard. To view the text, choose Window > Show Clipboard.
Trouble Shooting
Q. When I load an Acrobat file I see black boxes instead of text.
A. You have an outdated version of the Acrobat Reader program. Download a free copy from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Q. The page numbers in a document's table of contents don't match the page numbers in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
A. Most documents don't include the cover or table of contents pages in their page counts. Normally page one is the first page after the table of contents. Acrobat Reader counts from the first page of the document. Hint: scroll to the last page before page one in the document and check the page number shown in Acrobat Reader. Add that number to the page number in the table of contents to know the acrobat reader page. i.e. if a table of contents ends on Acrobat's page 3 then page 31 of a document would be on Acrobat's page 34.
