[thelist] Do we still need to say Download Acrobat Reader, and RTF files

Carol Stein techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Sat Jul 20 04:23:01 CDT 2002


Hi, Alan / All --

Apologies for any untimeliness -- currently have to cart PC over to fax line (all other lines becoming digital) once a day to up/download e-mail! If this organization can't get its act together, I'll be quitting soon. Grrr.

<snip> ---------------
RTF is a Microsoft format - they invented it and they re-define it from time
to time.
Some versions of WordPerfect cannot read some versions of RTF produced by
Word for Windows.
----------------------------------------------</snip>
I, also, don't allow MS products (other than OS and its includes) on my machine, but I find I can usually open .doc files with the accessory Wordpad. When I use Wordpad to save something, however, (i.e., a changed source file if I don't want to bother opening my real WP or HTML-Kit), the options are to save the file as .doc (Word for Windows), or as RTF, or as ascii (watch out for the so-called MS-DOS version, though, which wraps). Do you know if the RTF version produced by Wordpad is a "standard" standard, or do they also update this from time to time?

As to the original question, browsers generally include an Acrobat reader component, and those which don't (probably Opera, K-Meleon?) are probably used by more sophisticated surfers (who already have it, or at least know Adobe makes it and they can get it there). Unless you are coding pages for an audience which may use old text-based browsers, I'd guess you can leave it off.

Btw, what does using the pdf format do for (or to?) disabled users?

Cheers --
Carol (techwatcher)






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