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WebCT Vista has been retired as of June 30, 2008.LATTE is now Brandeis University's only online learning environment. |
In WebCT, instructors often post reading assignments and course materials formatted as Portable Document Format (PDF) files. These have the file extension *.pdf at the end of the file name.
This page addresses several known issues which students encounter when downloading PDFs from WebCT.
According to wikipedia, a web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with HTML documents hosted by web servers or held in a file system. It's the program you use to surf the internet, in other words.
Many people who have PCs generally use Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) as their default browser. Those who use IE may come across issues with downloading PDFs because of security settings (and the rest of this document explains how to adjust your settings to make it work).
Of course there are alternatives to IE, such as Mozilla's Firefox, which, when used with WebCT, users have not had this sort of issue.
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When you log into your WebCT class to view course materials, you should see a page like this one (especially if you're using WebCT Vista):
Generally speaking, if you were to click on the "4_mayors.pdf" file, most browsers will open a dialog box to ask you whether you'd like to open the file or save the file. We recommend you save the file locally to your computer, by choosing "Save" (and then choosing a location where you would like the file saved).
Sometimes, students who have PCs and use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) do not get this dialog box. This is because a setting inside the browser is preventing you from being able to download the file.
To be able to download this file, you may need to adjust a setting inside your security to allow file downloading. To access security settings, click on "Tools" from the top bar, and choose "Internet Options..."
This will open the Internet Options window. Choose the second tab, "Security" to access security settings.
Once you have opened up the Security tab within the Internet Options window, you'll want to click on the "Custom Level" button to fine tune your settings to allow file downloading.
Inside the Custom Level Security Settings window, scroll about 1/3 of the way down to "Downloads." Make sure that "Automatic prompting for file downloads" is enabled and that "File download" is enabled.
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You need to have a program on your machine in order to open PDFs. There are at least a dozen programs that can open and display PDFs; the one that is widely used is the free PDF reader provided by Adobe. Many computers will usually have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed; you can also download a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader from Adobe's website.
To check to see whether you have an application set to open a file - if you are using a PC - you'll need to access the folder options window. (Mac users, select a PDF on your machine, and press "APPLE" and "i".) In Microsoft Windows, you can access the folder options panel by clicking on the START button, choosing "Settings" and then "Control Panel."
If your Windows is not set to classic, but is instead set to category view, you'll see something like this screen (below). Choose "Appearance and Themes."
In the category view, you'll then choose "Folder Options" from this screen (in the classic view, once you are in the control panel , choose "Control Panel").
This will open the Folder options window. Choose the third tab "File Types" and scroll down to PDF. If, in the details for the extension area, no program is listed next to "Opens with:", you'll need to set that here. You may also want to make sure, in the "Advanced" area to confirm that the actions you expect to have available to the browser are there.
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You can download a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader from Adobe's website.
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If you are still having problems downloading PDFs, please contact:
WebCT Suport Desk
latte@brandeis.edu
781-736-4739 (ext. 6-4739)
