P Tagg's website information: file formats
P Tagg's website information: file formats
Most documents on this website are in one of the following two formats: HTML or PDF. Both formats have advantages and disadvantages.
Some large PDF files, as well as some (Microsoft) Word DOC files, are stored online in zipped format because: [1] they occupy less server space; [2] they to make downloading to your computer or terminal a quicker and more reliable affair. If you don’t know about ZIP files, click here.
Most simple documents, menus and reference files on this website are written in HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language).This file is in HTML format: it contains hypertext links via icons and via the words in blue.
PDF
(Portable Document Format) is used for final documents where layout and graphics
are important. PDF files on this site contain no hypertext
links.
HTML
Printing and copying HTML | Searches and HTML | PDF
HTML files are problematic if page layout is an important consideration, even more so if music examples, diagrams and other graphics need to be included. For this reason, many documents are best stored in PDF format.
To make HTML files as neat and legible as possible I have put all standard text in size-2 Verdana-Helvetica font (this one). I have also enclosed most text inside ‘tables’ less than 640 pixels wide (standard monitor width in 2001). This means that no text is visible until the complete ‘table’ is loaded and that no horizontal scrolling is necessary.
To speed everything up, I try to keep graphics to a minimum in HTML files. Gratuitous graphics, background images, animation, sound files, etc. take ages to load (online time = money in most countries). They also litter your hard drive by cluttering up your cache. There is none of that fancy junk on this site.
I have also cut down the size of most HTML files by 10-20% by removing a lot of redundant spaces and font commands. This measure should speed up your loading time accordingly.
I have also tried to minimise your on-line time at this site as follows:
From the homepage, it is possible to access practically any part of any HTML file on this website by just pointing and clicking the mouse a few times.
The top of most HTML files on this site features links to the homepage, as well as to all other main pages on this site.
The top of many HTML files of any size is supplied with a Contents section providing links to headings and subheadings within the file in question.
Top-of-file arrows (e,g,
Additional hypertext links are provided in many of the HTML files on this website.
Printing and copying HTML files
To print an HTML document, use your web browser's File - Print option.
To copy an HTML document to your own computer, use your web browser's File - Save As option.
Searches and HTML files
If you use the Search routine provided on this site you will sometimes find that you are sent to a dummy HTML version of a final document which should really be in PDF format. If you want to know more about this procedure, click here.
No display while loading HTML files
The reason you don't see the start of this site's HTML files while they're loading is because many files are, for reasons of neater screen display, usually contained within an (invisible) table. The contents of an HTML table is never visible on screen until it has been completely read by your browser.
The HTML file loaded but wasn’t properly formatted
If you use the Search routine provided on this site you will sometimes find that you are sent to a HTML version of the file that is not properly formatted. Such files always contain a hyperlink to the PDF version, properly formatted, of the same file. If you want to know why this procedure is necessary, click here.
PDF
| General
| Acrobat
Reader test | Installing Acrobat Reader | PDF
bugs
| Viewing,
downloading, printing PDFs
| Search routine and PDFs
PDF (=Portable Document Format) is a system invented by the Adobe® corporation. Unlike HTML files, which are partially formatted according to the particularities of the user's computer or terminal, a PDF document should show up on all computers in exactly the same way as was originally intended (for bugs, see below).
Many files on this site which contain music notation or images, or which include unusual fonts, have been converted to PDF so that: [i] page numbering and page layout will be the same on every user's equipment; [ii] music examples, diagrams, graphics etc. can be created and read with ease; [iii] documents requiring decent layout, music examples, diagrams, graphics, etc. will occupy less space and load more quickly (for bugs, see below).
To read and print PDF files you need to have installed Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 3.01 or higher) on your computer. Please choose one of the following options.
Is Acrobat Reader on my computer? (Test)
This section tests whether Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on your computer or terminal. When you click on the Test text in the next box, Adobe Acrobat Reader should load and you should see a one-page file starting with the text "A VERY SMALL PDF FILE". Don't worry if you get a 'Bad Flags' error message as the file loads.
If no text appears on your monitor after a second or two, try clicking on your browser's Reload button (Netscape) or Refresh function (Internet Explorer). If that doesn't work click on Back and then on Forward.
If the Software didn't load and you couldn't see "A VERY SMALL PDF FILE", run the test a second time.
If you were not able to read all the fonts on the test file it may be because you're using Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4 or higher. If you're using your own computer you can just download and install Acrobat Reader version 3. There's more about this under Bug 3, below.
If Adobe Acrobat Reader did not load and if no file appeared showing the text "A VERY SMALL PDF FILE" even after trying all the tricks described above, then either [i] Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed on your computer/terminal or [ii] you are having problems with your browser.
Bug 1: Acrobat Reader kicks in but I can't see the PDF file.
When Acrobat Reader loads a PDF document it sometimes shows nothing but a blank screen. Do not panic! You do not see anything of a PDF file until the whole document has been downloaded and you might be loading a very large file (e.g. the 587k of Tagg's Harmony Handout). Remember, a file of 700k will take 100 seconds to load if you are running an ISDN line at a rate of 7k per second. Besides, the server you are using might be slow too.
If, after completing the download, your monitor is still blank try one or more of the following:
You may, however, still encounter problems using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (blame Bill Gates) with PDFs. This typifies capitalism's precept of 'free' competition which makes life worse for the end user. Send a rude email to both or either of these corporate giants and complain.
Bug 2: Note tails and stave lines seem to be missing from music examples.
Thin lines may disappear or appear in light grey instead of black when you load a PDF document. There are two possible causes: [1] your printer is set to A4 when the document is in US Letter size, or vice versa (see below); [2] the pixel resolution on your monitor cannot show all 1-pixel lines. In case [2], do not panic: all those thin lines will turn out satisfactorily if your printer is working OK and if you are printing on the same size paper as the original (see below). They will also look right on screen if you bump up the PDF zoom button to 400%.
Bug 3: Some characters seem to be missing in PDFs I get from this site
When you use a later version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4, 5, etc.) you may find that some characters may be missing from some of the PDF files on this site. The problem characters usually appear as a small blank rectangle. The reason for this bug is that Acrobat Reader versions 4 and 5 (the 'upgrades'!) have problems with unusual fonts like phonetic characters and Ancient Greek. There are no such problems if you use Acrobat Reader version 3.01 (from 1997) which you can download free of charge from this site (click on the text in the next box).
|
I want to know more about this bug and maybe even install Acrobat Reader version 3 |
Bug 4: The print-out is too small or has lines missing
This problem usually arises when you print a PDF file using a different paper format to that in which it is stored on the server here. Although some PDF documents on this site exist in both A4 and in US Letter size, most are stored in either one or the other format. In these cases Acrobat Reader ‘intelligently’ shrinks the size of the printout to conform to the paper format you have told your own printer to expect (typically A4 or US Letter size). You can get round this problem by checking the options Expand small pages to paper size and Auto-rotate and center pages in your PDF printer dialog box. You may also need to uncheck the Shrink oversize pages to paper size box. For more about this, click here.
Viewing, downloading
First click the highlighted link to the document or other file you want to read, print or download. Please remember that PDF files do not become visible on your screen until they have downloaded completely (see bugs, above). Please also note that you may need to zoom in to see every single note tail and stave line in a music example (see above) and that you may have problems with some characters in some fonts if you are using the wrong version of Acrobat Reader (see above).
For navigation principles in PDF files, see under Adobe Acrobat Reader's Help button.
PDF files will automatically activate Adobe Acrobat Reader if you have installed it on your computer. You can then print, copy, save, etc. using Acrobat's own command buttons.
Printing PDF files using Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
Please note that the printed page area of PDF files on this site is rarely more than 17 × 25 cm (= 6.7 × 9.84 inches). This means that most PDF pages here will print easily on either US ‘Letter’ size paper or on standard A4. To obtain best printing resolution on these, the world’s commonest paper sizes, therefore, check the Expand small pages to paper size and Auto-rotate and center pages options but leave Shrink oversize pages to paper size unchecked, as follows:
Searches and PDF files
If you use the Search routine provided on this site you will sometimes find that you are sent to a dummy HTML version of a final document which should really be reading in PDF format. If you want to know why this happens and what to do about it, click here.
ZIP
files
PDF files containing a lot of images, notation, tables, etc. are often very big and can be slow to load. Transfer can also be unreliable sometimes. To avoid these problem, I have converted several large PDF files (or collections of PDF files) into ZIP files. ZIPping files makes them more compact.
Microsoft Word documents (*.DOC) occupy a lot of unnecessary disk space. Packing them into ZIP files can reduce their size (and your loading time) to 50%.
When you click on a link to a ZIPped file, your computer will ask you if you want to view it or Save it. Choose the Save option. That way you can decide where on your disk (which Folder or Directory) you want to put the ZIP file, you don’t have to stay online to deal with it, and you can see progress of the file transfer (how many seconds left, etc.). In other words, you know what’s going on and how long the transfer’s going to take. All ZIP files on this website end with the suffix (‘extension’) « .zip ».
A ZIP file needs to be unpacked (‘unZIPped’) to become readable and usable. A ZIP file can contain one or more files of any type, and can only be opened with a special ZIP programme like WinZip. When you use, for example, WinZip to open a ZIP file you have downloaded from the web, choose the Extract option. The file(s) you extract from the ZIP file is/are the one(s) you can then view and use as usual.
