See below for instructions on configuring your Acrobat Reader, how to access journal articles using frames-capable and non-frames browsers, and what to do if you have problems downloading PDF files of journal articles. You can also contact us from here. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDF versions of journal articles. This can be downloaded for free from the Adobe Acrobat Reader (WINDOWS) page, Adobe Acrobat Reader (MACINTOSH) page or Adobe Acrobat Reader (UNIX) page on the Adobe Web site. To access the PDF versions of full text articles please follow these instructions. You should set up the Acrobat reader as a plug-in 'helper application' to your browser to begin with. If you're using Acrobat 3.0 reader, it should have done this automatically and will open itself when you select a PDF document link. The older versions of Acrobat Reader usually require you to configure this manually. For example, if you're using an older version of the Acrobat reader (2.0, 2.1) with Netscape on the PC: Click 'Options', 'General Preferences' and select 'Helpers' Click 'Create New Type' then type 'application' in the MIME type box, and 'pdf' in the MIME sub-type box. Now click OK, and on the Helpers screen, select 'Launch the application', 'Browse' and use the file manager screen that pops up to find the ACROREAD.EXE file. Double click on that file to make sure that the filename appears in that 'launch the application' box. Now click OK. That should have set up Netscape to launch the Acrobat reader. An example of downloading a PDF: Frames-capable browsers If you open your browser and type the URL http://www.currentopinion.com, and then click on 'Current Opinion in Neurology', this will take you into Current Opinion in Neurology. Several different frames will appear inside your browser window. Click on the button down the left hand side which says 'Articles': this will make a contents page for the journal appear in the main screen, showing all the issues available online. Click on any 'Free Sample' issue link to take you to the contents page for that issue, then click on your chosen paper's title. This will bring up the abstract in the main window. Click on the abstract's hypertext-linked title to download the PDF file for that article. Once the article has loaded from the Internet your Acrobat reader should pop up and show you the article exactly as it looks in the printed journal. Non-frames capable browsers If you open your browser and type the URL http://www.rapidscience.com/nu/default.html this will take you into Current Opinion in Neurology. Select the 'non-frames version' link to jump to the Current Opinion in Neurology journal home page. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and you'll see a series of links to other pages. Click on the 'Articles' link: this will make a contents page for the journal appear in the main screen, showing all the issues available online. Click on any 'Free Sample' issue link to take you to the contents page for that issue, then click on your chosen paper's title. This will bring up the abstract in the main window. Click on the abstract's hypertext-linked title to download the PDF file for that article. Once the article has loaded from the Internet your Acrobat reader should pop up and show you the article exactly as it looks in the printed journal. What to do if you have problems downloading PDF files There are several reasons why PDF files of journal documents may not appear to have downloaded properly. To begin with, you should make sure that you have a properly installed version of the Acrobat Reader program. If this seems to have installed properly, check that your browser is correctly configured to read PDF files. It does this by launching the Acrobat Reader program as a plugin or helper application. This help file contains instructions on how to configure Acrobat Reader manually with version 2 or lower of Netscape. Please refer to the Adobe website for detailed guidance on setting up and troubleshooting Acrobat Reader with other browsers. If you have reached the abstract for which you want to download the full text article in PDF format and the abstract has displayed properly in your browser, click on the hypertext-linked title of the abstract to begin to download the PDF file of this article. Some browsers may ask you if you wish to open or save the PDF document at this point. If you see this prompt, it is advisable to save the document to a local drive rather than opening it directly within your browser or the Reader program. Saving to disk will put less strain on your computer's resources than attempting to start the Acrobat Reader in addition to your browser. This method is less likely to cause your computer to hang or crash than attempting to run the Acrobat Reader software at the same time as your Web browser. Remember where you save the file, and you can read it offline at a later time using just the Acrobat Reader program. The PDF file appears to have downloaded properly but when I try to view it I cannot see, or print, the figures within the article. This is caused by a lack of system memory: you may also notice that your browser content suddenly changes colours, or begins to dither certain colours. To get around this problem, try to free up system resources by clearing your browser cache (in Netscape: Options, Network Preferences, Clear Memory/Disk Cache Now - in Internet Explorer: View, Options..., Advanced tab, Temporary Internet files, View... then select and delete) and any temporary files which your computer may be storing in Trash, Recycling Bin, or a temporary Windows directory. ALWAYS close any other applications (especially Word, Excel, email clients etc.) before attempting to view a large PDF file. If this problem persists, use your browser to go to the abstract page and click on the title with the RIGHT mouse button. Choose 'Save Target As...' or Save Link as...' to save the PDF file to disk: once it has downloaded you can close your browser and all other applications, start the Acrobat Reader and view (File, Open...) the PDF file offline. I try to download a PDF file using Internet Explorer with Acrobat Reader 3, but all I see is a blank white page You may find that IE does not give you a status message telling you 'Opening [filename]...' immediately. Due to the large size of some of the journal articles, you may find that they takes several minutes to download. Please be patient. You should see that the Reader starts up within the browser window after a few seconds, and then the status message should appear as the paper begins to display in your Reader. I've waited for the PDF file to appear but nothing seems to happen Some browsers will 'time out' (close the Internet connection to the article) if the article takes too long to download. Try again at a different time of day when both the server and the Internet are less busy. Some of the largest articles in the database (Journal of Materials Science for example, or anything with large numbers of halftones) may take ten minutes to download fully: please be patient. I get a 'Not Found' message in my browser or 'Error opening document' message in Acrobat Reader after the article has downloaded. Why is this? Both of these messages signify server or file problems; please fill in a PDF problem report form and we'll try to rectify the problem as soon as possible. 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