What's covered in this section:
Using the Navigator Plug-in
Configuring Navigator to Use Acrobat as a Helper Application
Downloading a PDF File to Your Hard Drive

You can open Adobe PDF files from Netscape Navigator in one of two ways:
-- By using the Adobe Acrobat Navigator plug-in to display PDF files within the browser window
-- By specifiying Adobe Acrobat 4.x or later or Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.x or later as a helper application to open PDF files in a separate window

Adobe recommends that you use Navigator 4.x, which supports Acrobat features such as page-at-a-time downloading (byte-serving) and online form submission.

Using the Navigator Plug-in
If you use Navigator 4.x, which is included with Netscape Communicator, you may need to manually move the Acrobat Navigator plug-in into the Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins folder.

The Acrobat Navigator plug-in (Nppdf32.dll) installs with Acrobat to the following folder:
-- Acrobat [5.0 or 4.0]/[Acrobat or Reader]/Browser

If you select a PDF file after installing the Navigator plug-in, the PDF file will download to the Netscape Temp folder, and Navigator will open the Acrobat viewer to display the file within the browser window. The Acrobat toolbar at the top of the browser window is an indicator that the Navigator plug-in installed correctly.

If you install Navigator 4.x and keep a previous version of Navigator on your system, you may need to reinstall the Acrobat viewer to use the plug-in in both versions. Otherwise, Navigator 4.x may use your Acrobat viewer as a helper application.

Configuring Navigator to Use Acrobat as a Helper Application
After you configure an Acrobat viewer as a helper application, Navigator starts the Acrobat viewer in a separate window and displays PDF files within that window. Acrobat 4.x and later viewers include a preference option that enables you to specify the viewer as a helper application.

To configure an Acrobat 5.0 viewer as a helper application:
1. Start the Acrobat 5.0 viewer.
2. Choose Edit > Preferences > General.
3. Select Options from the column on the left.
4. Deselect the Display PDF in Browser option in Web Browser Options, and then click OK.
5. Exit from the Acrobat 5.0 viewer.

To configure an Acrobat 4.x viewer as a helper application:
1. Start your Acrobat 4.x viewer.
2. Choose File > Preferences > General.
3. Deselect the Web Browser Integration option in the Options section, and then click OK.
4. Exit from the Acrobat 4.x viewer.

The next time you select a link to a PDF file in Navigator, a dialog box will ask what you would like to do with the file. If you select "Open it," Navigator opens the PDF file in your Acrobat viewer as a helper application; if you select "Save it to disk," Navigator saves the PDF file to your hard disk.

For more information about the general preferences in an Acrobat viewer, see the online Acrobat help guide.

Downloading a PDF File to Your Hard Drive
You can download PDF files to the hard disk either from a Web page link or by using the Save As command in an Acrobat viewer. After you download a PDF file to the hard disk, you can copy text, distribute the file, or save the file to a disk.

To download a PDF file from a link:
1. Right-click the link to a PDF file and choose Save Link As from the pop-up menu.
2. In the Save As dialog box, select a location on the hard disk, and then click Save.

To download an open PDF file:
1. Choose File > Save As.
2. In the Save As dialog box, select a location on the hard disk, and then click Save.