Join The ReadFilm Mailing list
 

April 2007: Adobe Reader 8 Preference Settings
==================================
Making these changes in your Preference settings will make the experience of How To Read a Film: multimedia edition more enjoyable.

Documents
UNCHECK Open cross-document links in same window. Important!
ALLOW documents to hide the menu bar. . . .

Page Display
Page Layout: Automatic
Custom Resolution: 72 pixels/inch
Choose the appropriate setting for Rendering: Monitor (CRT) or LCD/Laptop
Make sure Smooth Line Art and Smooth Images are checked
If the fonts don't look right uncheck "Use Local Fonts"

Javascript
Enable Javascript

Multimedia
Preferred Media Player: Quicktime

Multimedia Trust
Allow Multimedia Operations:
Trusted documents
Other documents
Change Permission for selected multimedia player to ALWAYS
Allow all three PLAYBACK OPTIONS

Trust Manager
ALLOW Opening of Non-pdf file attachments
ALLOW external content

Adobe Reader Update (2/17/06):

Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader) has gone through numerous revisions since How To Read a Film was completed. It is now a much more complicated program. In addition, since you probably use Adobe Reader for other things, some of your Preference settings may have been changed to conflict with the How To Read a Film disc.

Here are some notes that will help you use the disc effectively with newer versions of Reader.

A single click on one of the active areas in the MainMenu will sometimes open the document behind the menu. Double-click to open the new document in front.

Similarly, you may see a broken-movie icon with some of the QuickTimes. Just double-click; the movie isn't broken.

Adobe Reader 7 has an elaborate security system which can get in the way when you try to play multimedia. To avoid the security questions go to Preferences/Trust Manager and "Change permission for selected multimedia player to ALWAYS." Do this for both Trusted and Nontrusted documents. Double-check to make sure the changes have been recorded (by matthew at tforge). Allow all the choices here. Also, make sure that QuickTime is the "selected multimedia player"! Also make sure that "Allow documents to open other files" is checked.

In Preferences/Page Display set Default Page Layout to SINGLE PAGE or CONTINUOUS. Set resolution to Custome Resolution: 72 pixels/inch. This way the diagrams will display properly. Use CoolType and Smooth Text should also be active.

In Preferences/General deactivate "Open cross-document links in same window." This is very important (and noted in the original installation guide).

In Preferences/JavaScript make sure JavaScript is enabled.

"Acrobat Hints" in the booklet notes that F7 will toggle the Adobe Reader menu bar on and off. Adobe has since changed this switch to avoid a conflict with OS X. It is now CMD-SHIFT-M.