Number 211 - December 2000

ESOTERICA Every once in a while, some obscure technical point may come up that is of little interest to the casual or nontechnical user, but may be of interest to those of you with a more technical or analytical makeup. Here is an example. Can't Always Use http:// For Adobe Acrobat File
by Bob Thomson, Tacoma Open Group for Microcomputers
When you see an active "link" to a website on any on-line screen presentation, including the on-line version of the newsletter, it is usually invoked by the HTML code:     <A Href="http://www.website.xxx/">website name</A>,     where <A ...> and </A> are the beginning and ending "anchor tags" for the link to remote site, "website" is the address (name) of the website and ".xxx" is the type of website such as .com, .org, .edu, ... etc. The "website name" usually appears in red or blue underlined on your screen and is a "clickable link"--left click it and you go there, via the Internet.     The other day I found an exception to this rule. From within an article I was preparing, I wanted to link directly to an on-line newsletter article at another user group's website and it just happened to be an Adobe Acrobat .PDF file. My browser sent me an error message telling me it couldn't find the address requested and suggested that I go directly to the User Group website home page from which I could maneuver to the newsletter. I could have left it at that, and required readers to seek it out, but I wanted to send them directly to the specific newsletter without any intermediate steps, especially if a "beginner" was trying to use the link. To send them directly to that specific newsletter I had to use a File Transfer Protocol command:    <A Href="ftp://ftp.website.org/nl.pdf">Newsletter Titlelt;/A>.	Why ftp:// instead of http://? Because, in order to read that particular newsletter's .PDF file, you have to use the File Transfer Protocol (ftp) to download the entire newsletter .PDF file to your machine. Then your copy of Adobe Acrobat will be invoked, automatically, to open it so you can read it. You will, of course, have to maneuver through the .PDF file to the referenced article, but at least you are reading the right issue of the newsletter. It should be noted that not all websites with their newsletters in .PDF format use the ftp: protocol. Most use http: as expected, and allow those with fast Internet access (cable or DSL) to read it on-line, but recommend that those with a slower modem save the file on their own computer by right clicking and selecting "Save Target As", or whatever terminology your browser uses. Then you can read it to your heart's content--off-line.     My principal reason for even mentioning this relatively uncommon experience is to make newcomers aware of different ways in which some websites handle file transfers and to urge them not to become discouraged from seeking out ways to acquire a file when otherwise thwarted by a seeming roadblock.     BTW: You do have Adobe Acrobat on your computer don't you? You should--it's free and .PDF files are ubiquitous--not only that they're practically everywhere :-).
Number 211 - December 2000