opening a PDF file

[Ron Victoria]

When I try to open any of these files, the pc tries MS Works and it can't. I think I clicked on the don't show me anymore box the other day so don't have the option to open in Adobe. Where in control panel can I change the setting to allow me open these files? The OS is Win7 with Mozilla as the browser.

thanks, Ron

[Mitch Drumm]

Go to start button.

Poke it.

enter "file associations" in the search box

choose make a file type always open in a specific program.

scroll down the list that pops up and find PDF.

Change the association to whatever PDF reader you have.

[Ron Victoria]

I thought I had it downloaded on this new pc. Should I DL the 9.0 ver?

ron

[Mitch Drumm]

Only if you want to use that Adobe product.

There are alternatives:

Foxit

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/index.php

Sumatra

http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sum ... index.html

PDF-Xchange


http://www.tracker-software.com/product ... nge-viewer

Probably others as well. I use Sumatra as I try to avoid Adobe whenever possible.

I think Adobe has something now called Reader Lite.

A simple google search will find a bunch of alternatives.

Use what you like.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Whatever brand of PDF reader you download, always make sure it is from a legitimate company that provide security updates and patches. PDf files are a favorite form of malware distribution.

[Bo Borland]

@WIz> is there a recommended free ware pdf maker?

[Richard Sinkler]

www.openoffice.org

The link above is for Open Office from Oracle. It is a free open source suite of programs similar to MS Office. Using the text editor (similar to MS Word), you can save (export) the file as a PDF. I tried opening a PDF in Open Office and it didn't work. To open PDF's, you can download Acrobat Reader from Adobe free of charge.

[Rich Paton]

Mitch is correct, FOXIT (IMHO) is much better (more features availlable,easier to use, and much, much smaller.)

[Wiz Feinberg]

One thing I recommend for a PDF reader or encoder is to stick with a brand that is updated for security vulnerabilities as soon as possible. Some freeware writers take longer than Adobe to issue patched versions.

Adobe Reader is free and now has an automatic updater. Others may or may not have that feature.

Hackers find exploitable code weaknesses in PDF readers and publish them at MetaSploit and other hacking websites. Then, cyber criminals use the exploit vectors to present malware to anybody they are able to lure to their dens. If you have a PDF reader or writer that is targeted and not the patched version for that attack, you may be infected invisibly, or through trickery.