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[NOTE: The following is an edited version of a message posted by TSLL Editor Brian Striman to the AALL Technical Services SIS discussion list on December 3, 2004.]
This information is for those who experience frustrations when reading TSLL via the web.
There are several good reasons why PDF is superior to HTML for TSLL on the web. Most importantly, if you decide to print an issue you should obtain a copy that would duplicate a print issue sent to you via mail.
Below is a description of a computer configuration that should help you easily read and print the PDF version of TSLL. If you do not have the things listed below, then you may experience difficulty and frustration accessing TSLL. If you have read articles from authors who have said that PDF is bad, it may that they do not have adequate systems in place to help them read PDF documents easily. Below is what I have learned from our IT guy about PDF, plus my own experience with viewing and printing PDF documents.
You need the most current version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Older PDF versions can cause trouble with **any** PDF files which are recently published on the web, not just newer TSLL files. Acrobat versions up to version 5 were fairly "forgiving". With Acrobat Reader version 6 (and version 7 is coming) the compatibility is not as forgiving. To download the most current Acrobat, go to http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html and read through the screens closely to match the operating system and for your computer.
A mouse with a wheel and the settings for wheel in your computer so that the wheel actually works makes it so much faster when scrolling in a site or document.
You should have a newer computer and be running on internet speeds higher than 56K. Try to avoid dial up access. All the computers in our library at the University of Nebraska School of Law pull up TSLL quickly and have the entire page/s easy to read on the screen. It is easy to page forward and backward and jump to whatever page you want. Our computers are Pentium 4's with 512 MB RAM, 40 Gig harddrives, and 17" monitors. They all have Acrobat Reader 6.0. It is nice, but not necessary to have a current version of a common internet browser, like Internet Explorer or Mac OS-X "Safari."
Prior to reading TSLL you may wish to download the PDF file to your computer and then view it with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Displaying a file from your computer's hard disk is typically much quicker than waiting for it to display from a web server. In many browsers, right-clicking a link often displays a menu which allows you to "Save Target As..."
When printing TSLL, do NOT use the browser print icon. Always use the Acrobat Reader print icon on the toolbar. Printing, when done correctly from PDF, will give you an EXACT printout of what a normal "print" TSLL issue looks like -- you get great printouts of photos, borders that are precise, columns, etc. All print out exactly as you see on the screen. (If you print from HTML, depending on several factors, it is common to lose indents, have lines and borders all mis-aligned and type fonts and sizings can get lost.)
My guess is that we have the perennial problem of "technology-spectrum" readers of TSLL. If you take the steps I recommend, and even if you had to go to another department or another institution to see how THEIR configuration pulls up TSLL, and having done all that you *still* are having issues with the TSLL PDF issues, then notify me. I will try to accommodate as best as we have the resources and expertise and time. With technology, though, there may be a situation where I simply cannot make the frustrations disappear.
Brian Striman, TSLL Editor
bstriman [at] unl.edu.
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