Using PDFs in EdWebs

 

Adobe PDFs can be used in Edwebs sites. The PDF document can not be edited or created with Contribute, but Contibute can help you move PDFs onto your website. 

PDF documents, like Word and Excel documents, present accessibility problems as outlined at http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/edwebs/accessible.html.  Accessibility problems can be minimized by either:

1. Having both an HTML and PDF version of the document.  This can be done by creating a web page from the original document format (Microsoft Word, Excel, etc).   See http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/edwebs/officecontent.html

2. Creating a well tagged PDF.  This takes a fair level of training and technical skill.

 

Adding a PDF to your site

1. Create the PDF.  You can create PDFs from with Adobe Acrobat on Windows machines.  You may need to purchase Abode Acrobat.  On Macintosh machines, you can use the "Save as PDF" option in the print dialog box, without purchasing Adobe Acrobat.
2. In Contribute, select Insert -> Link -> Files on my computer from the file menu, then use the browse button to find the file.  When you publish the page, the PDF will be moved to your site. 
3. Alternatively, you may use the PDF link in the shared assets library.  The image helps warn people that a PDF is coming. The shared asset looks like this:
   
   Download the PDF version of My Document Name. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.
   
   Select Insert -> Shared Asset and select PDF Link to get this text.  Then change the "My Document Name" link to link to your PDF.

Changing a PDF already on your site

 

1. When you need to change a PDF, you must edit it in its orginal form; usually a Microsoft Word document.
2. You can then turn it into a PDF as in step 1 above. 
3. To replace the old file on your web site, right click on an existing link to the PDF and select link properties.  In the link dialog box, select files on my computer and browse to the new PDF file.  When you are finished and hit "OK" you will see the following (unless you have changed the name of the PDF).  Unless you are keeping old versions of the PDF on your site, you will want to replace the file.