PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It's a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993, and it's used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system.

To view a PDF, you will need what is called a reader, but don’t fear, the reader is nothing complex nor expensive. In fact, many computers come with one already installed. If you do not have one, you can get a PDF reader for free, and it should be no trouble obtaining a version which works with your computer and its specific operating system. Much like the way a web browser works, once you have the reader for your operating system, you can open PDFs and see the same thing a person with a totally different computer sees.

If you do not have a PDF reader installed on your computer, you can get Adobe Acrobat Reader for FREE by clicking here.

There is nothing special about downloading a PDF file. The one thing the user should be aware of is that a PDF file may take a bit longer to download than a simple, mostly text, web page. However, there are advantages to a PDF file which make it worth the time!

When you click on a link to a PDF file, your web browser will download the file and open your PDF reader. When the file is downloaded, it will appear in the reader's window. The user should not feel as if the link is not working, simply because at least part of the file does not appear fairly instantaneously, like many web pages do in a browser. It will depend on the size of the PDF file, and the speed of your internet connection, as to how long it may take to download a PDF file. Because this is true, our site marks those links which open a PDF file by following them with the symbol . Some web browsers will even show the download progress at the bottom of the browser window, and some PDF readers will bring up a progress bar in its window. These features are helpful in knowing the file is, in fact, downloading and about how long it will take.

Saving a PDF file is easy. After downloading a PDF file, you can simply go to the menu bar on the PDF reader, and there you will find a drop-down menu or icon for saving the file, much like all standard programs have. Once you have saved the file to your computer, you can bring it up at anytime and view the document in your PDF reader without having to use your web browser and download it each time. Plus, when the saved PDF file is opened in your reader, the pages will look just as they originally appeared in your web browser.

Printing a PDF file is also very easy. On the menu bar of the PDF reader, you will find a drop-down menu or icon for printing the file, and it should print page for page just what you see on the screen. Of course, you can change print settings to fit more than one page on a single sheet of paper, as well as make other adjustments; but printing just what you see on the screen should require no extra effort.

Also, we have endeavored to make the page format of our PDF documents with margins which easily allow the user to punch holes in the printed pages and put them in a binder of their choice.

We use PDF because it's a file format you can easily save and view on your computer anytime you want. It's also a very printer friendly format which allows you to print our materials for reading and sharing with others. You can use just the pages you want, print pages out for use on an overhead projector, and do other things which add to your ability to use the materials Living Springs Institute produces!

All we ask is that you do not attempt to remake or reproduce our materials under your own copyright and/or for profit. Feel free to give and share with as many people as you like, that’s why we do the work of producing it. Our materials are meant to be teaching tools, and if we can provide them for free, we know others can afford to do the same!

We hope this simple introduction to PDF, and why we use it, has been helpful to you! If you have other questions or comments about PDF files, especially those produced by Living Springs Institute, please use the comment form on this page, or feel free to contact us directly. Our contact information is on our Contact Page.