problem reading pdf - can anyone help?

[tag]

When I try to open pdfs this is the message I get:

Select the encoding that makes your document readable.

options are: windows default, MS-DOS, other encoding

and then there's a box with a bunch of jibberish.

I did some googling and downloaded something - the software to read pdf I think. No luck!

[Chowder]

you could post the issues you're having here and it's likely someone could try and walk you through the corrective actions for free

[Left]

yep yep... post the issues, and we might be able to point you to something we find on google :D

or you know, tell you the power switch is still turned off...

[tag]

Plugged in and power on, I promise!

When I try to open pdfs

Select the encoding that makes your document readable.

options are: windows default, MS-DOS, other encoding

and then there's a box with a bunch of jibberish.

I did some googling and downloaded something - the software to read pdf I think. No luck!

I really hate asking for free favors - especially difficult in an online forum where I can't run over a batch of cookies or something! Probably should get rid of this "head trash" if I want my own mustache, and/or become very very good at paying forward these favors - which I intend to do.

[JamesAt15]

PDF files are Adobe Acrobat files - you need the Adobe Reader program to be able to display them. If you opened them in Word, Notepad, etc, then yeah, they'll display as a bunch of gibberish.

I assume you're using Windows, so go to http://get.adobe.com/reader/ to download and install Reader to be able to view PDF files.

If you already downloaded it, if you double-click on a PDF file does it open up the Reader application to display it? If not, maybe you got the association of the .pdf extension messed up so it is trying to open .pdf files with Word instead of Reader. If you correct that, it should display the files correctly.

[tag]

Yes - I think you've got it. It's trying to open pdf files with word. How do I correct that?

I did download adobe.
Yes, it's windows.
When I double click on a file - the Reader does not open up to display it.

If someone emails me a pdf, I can open it by clicking view, but I cannot open it if I download it.

[Chowder]

you may have downloaded the software but you have to open the thing you downloaded to install it!

[tag]

So I went to start and found adobe and clicked on it and the program opened. And from THERE i could open the files I've been trying to open, which are stored in dropbox and on my computer. But I should be able to do that without opening adobe like that each time, right?

[Daley]

It's a file/application association problem. Long short, you need to right click on a PDF file and change the default application listed under Open With > Default Application

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/12196-open-change-default-program.html

Any questions, those two links should get you fixed up.

[Daley]

Final bit I should add: I'm not a fan of Adobe's bloated reader and typically won't install it at all unless I absolutely need it. It can be good to have available for complex PDF documents with scripted form fields and whatnot, but I'll typically run something far lighter as the default reader. Under Windows, that's usually Sumatra.

Now that you know how to open files with different apps and set the default through the right click menu, you should be set up. Just pay attention during the install process and make sure you only install Sumatra and none of the crap like the Ask toolbar that goes along with it. (Or am I thinking of Foxit? Or only vaguely related, PDFCreator? Can someone who actually runs Windows a regular basis confirm this for me? I don't support enough Windows boxes to remember anymore. Gone too far down the *nix hole these past few years.)

[Spork]

another option (I think... I run Windows once a year when I do my taxes).  Firefox now has a pdf reader built in.  If you have a current version of firefox, you might just have everything you need.