Viewing PDF documents and forms

To view the Publications requires Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This is freely available from the Adobe web site.

It is strongly recommended that you use the latest version.

It is also strongly recommended that any previously installed versions of Acrobat are fully uninstalled before you install the latest version.

Occasionally problems can arise with the larger documents when they are displayed within the browser. The following action can resolve this problem. Right click on the link to the document and then choose to save the file to a local drive, then open the file directly in Acrobat Reader.

If you still experience difficulties then to help us to provide a better service email our webmaster and state the operating system, browser version and Acrobat version being used together with the details of document concerned.

There are two ways to save your chosen PDF. Either open the document in Adobe Reader, right click on the paper shown in the viewer and select 'Save as...'. Alternatively, instead of clicking on the link to open the document, right click on the link and then choose the 'Save Target As' option this will enable you to save the file where you wish.

To complete and submit one of our PDF forms, your web browser needs to be configured to open the form using Adobe Acrobat Reader in a tab/window of your web browser. Some newer web browsers include their own PDF viewer software which works well for reading documents, but does not allow forms to be filled in. Also, some browsers will open a PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader but not as part of your web browser, so when you submit the form there might be an error.

Unfortunately we can't advise on how to configure every version of every web browser product, but below are a few examples that may work for you. There are also many helpful pages on the web that describe how to make these configuration changes. You can find these using your web browser search tool.

Ensure you have a current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.

Firefox

1. In the Firefox menu select "Tools" and then "Options". You will see a pop-up window and a series of tabs. Select "Applications".
2. Scroll down the list until you see "Portable Document Format (PDF)". To the right of this is the action your web browser will take when it receives a PDF file. From the dropdown list select "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)". Click OK.
3. Close Firefox and open it again.
4. Firefox should now open any PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Reader in a web browser tab.

Chrome

1. In the Chrome address bar type "chrome://plugins/" (without the speech marks). This displays a page of all the programs that Chrome interacts with. Scroll down the list to find "Chrome PDF Viewer". If there is a "Disable" link beneath it, click this link to turn off Chrome's PDF viewer.
2. Scroll to find "Adobe Reader". If there is an "Enable" link beneath it, click this link to turn on Adobe Acrobat Reader in Chrome.
3. Close Chrome and start it again.
4. Chrome should now open any PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Reader in a web browser tab.

Opera

1. In the Opera menu select "Settings" and then "Preferences". You will see a pop-up window and a series of tabs. Select "Advanced".
2. On the left is a menu. Click on "Downloads". In the list you should see an entry called "application/pdf". Click this and then click "Edit".
3. Another pop-up window will open. You will see a series of options as to what Opera should do when it receives a PDF file. One of these should say "Use plug-in" to the right of a option circle. Click the circle or the "Use plug-in" text and the circle will become filled-in to show you have selected this option. You should see text below starting with "Adobe Acrobat". Click OK and then Click OK on the window below.
4. Close Opera and start it again.
5. Opera should now open any PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Reader in a web browser tab.

If you don't have Acrobat or Reader, or haven't installed the PDFViewer plug-in, then Safari shows PDF files using the Mac OS X native PDF support. Support for many Adobe PDF workflows (such as the Collaboration feature or many Forms and Security features) is unavailable.

The Adobe website offers further information.

Sorry, mobile devices typically use a cut down version of the Acrobat reader software, for many of these devices the cut down versions of the software do not provide enough capability to be able to submit PDF forms on-line.

You will need to use a device that has a full version of Acrobat Reader installed.