How to set up your Netscape browser to automatically launch the Acrobat Reader What is an Acrobat Reader and Why do I need it? Some documents, such as tax forms and complex brochures, cannot be created in text format, because Internet text is not very flexible. For instance, you cannot indent paragraphs, use tabs or many other standard word-processing techniques. To overcome that problem, FTA and the State Tax/Revenue Agencies use Aldus Adobe products to create our forms/documents in an electronic version. You can tell which documents those are, because the document name has a .pdf "extension." An extension is the three or four characters after the dot in a document name. This document's name is "acrobat.html." The ".html" extension means the document is a "text" document, written in HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language. But, when you see a document with a ".pdf" extension, that means you need to use a free Adobe product -- Acrobat ReaderTM --- to view it. Adobe has upgraded its Acrobat 3.0 ReaderTM so that when it is installed, it automatically seeks out your Microsoft Internet Explorer software ("browser") and installs itself as a plug-in. Once it is installed, the Acrobat ReaderTM will appear automatically within the browser screen when you click on a hyperlink to a file with a .pdf extension. Then, you can view the PDF files onscreen without having to download them, and you can print them right off of the screen! If you use a laser printer, these originals can be used as regular tax forms. (See below for more information.) However, this does not necessarily happen automatically with older Netscape browsers. The Netscape 3.0 browser will incorporate the Acrobat Reader during installation. But alas, the older versions need some manual help. So here is how to set up your Netscape 2.02 browser to automatically launch the Acrobat 3.0 ReaderTM. (If you have an older Netscape browser than 2.02, click HERE to download a free upgrade). TIP: At this point, print out this page for reference because you will be directed to other Internet sites and other software. 1 Click on the Acrobat icon below, and follow the instructions to download Acrobat 3.0 onto your hard drive. You must use version 3.0 to be able to access state income tax forms for some states. Adobe Acrobat Free Reader 2 Once the file ar32e301.exe has been downloaded onto your hard drive (this may take a half-hour or so), use whatever version of a file manager your computer operating system has to locate the folder "Acrobat3" on your hard drive. 3 Open the "Acrobat3" folder, then open the "Reader" folder. The file ar32e301.exe is in the "Reader" folder. Find it, and double-click on it. An installation program will begin. 4 Tell the installation program to do a typical (not custom) installation. Then return to this page. 5 Done? Good! Then, go to the site with the files you would like to download. Click on one of the hyperlinks. This dialog box will come up: 6 Select, "Pick App..." and this dialog box will appear: 7 At this point, you are supposed to type in the Acrobat ReaderTM file path. If you allowed Acrobat to install itself on your "C:" drive, just type in c:\acrobat3\reader\acrord32.exe and click "OK." congratulations! You just programmed your Netscape browser. Now, the Acrobat ReaderTM will launch automatically each time you click on a .pdf hyperlink! We hope you find this site helpful. PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Please remember, you may file tax forms printed off of the Acrobat ReaderTM only IF:   They are laser quality AND   They are NOT photocopies. Use ORIGINALS only. (If you use photocopies, the bar code may not be of good enough quality for our optical readers to read. The result may be a return that gets "lost in the system.") Use your Back Arrow Button to Return your previous page.