The Portable Document Format (PDF) is one of the options on the list of file formats that the FCC offers for selected documents posted on the FCC web site. Documents saved as PDF files retain all of the formatting of the original document including fonts, footnotes, headers, footers, and graphics. These documents can be viewed, navigated, searched, and printed from any Windows, DOS, UNIX, MAC, or OS-2 platform that has Acrobat reader software (free from Adobe Systems, Inc.) installed and configured for use with the browser.

To view PDF files you must first download Acrobat Reader Software for your particular platform. The downloaded file will be a self-extracting file that will expand into several separate files when you double-click on it's filename. One of the resulting files will be named setup.exe. To install the reader on your system simply double-click on this file and follow the on-screen instructions.

NOTE: If you're using Windows from a network, ask your network administrator if the reader has already been installed and where it's located (it's directory path). If it's not already installed, ask your network administrator to install it on the network since Acrobat needs access to Windows directories during installation (normal users probably will not have write permissions to Windows system files on the network).

Once you've downloaded and installed the reader you may need to configure it as a browser plug-in or helper application so that you can view any PDF file on the Internet automatically by clicking on its hotlink (just as you would any other web page link). After this one-time setup, you can automatically view any PDF format document.