I'm looking for advice on the best way to put county data
pages on our Web site. Can you help?
Most
KIDS COUNT projects have individual county data pages
posted as PDF files. This preserves the
layout of the original
and lets users print as many clean copies as they need. The
Acrobat Reader software required to read PDFs is free and
easily downloaded and installed, meaning just about anyone
with a computer and an internet connection can view PDFs.
(Just go to the Adobe Acrobat Web site at http://www.adobe.com to download the free reader.) Your graphic designer can create
the PDF files for you. Also, Excel has a “save as HTML” option,
making the data in Excel easy to upload on the Web. However,
what is uploaded would be absent any design formatting.
If I want to use
a software program for tracking data requests, data book
distribution and other such things, what would be the differences
between a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) and a database
program (such as Access)?
Perhaps it is best to think about it in terms of what you
want as an end product. If you want to be able to sort and
categorize in several ways by asking questions of the data
(i.e., how many requests did I get from state agencies compared
to how many requests from local government?), perhaps a data
base program would be the best choice. If you only need to
list responses and do simple sorts (such as requests by date,
quantity, or name), Excel would do the trick.
What software do I need to buy to be able
to create PDF files?
The Adobe Acrobat
suite of programs (not just the free Reader portion) is the
industry standard
for making and modifying
PDF files. The program costs about $260 (as of the year 2001).
It allows you to make a “create PDF” option within
other programs you or your graphic designer may be using.
The suite includes:
1) Exchange, a
program that lets you add, delete, resize, or rearrange
PDF documents as well as create searchable PDF
indexes, combine two or more PDFs, copy protect a PDF,
and more;
2) Acrobat Distiller,
a program that creates PDF files from a PostScript file
of a document (PostScript is a print
format
used by commercial printers to drive a commercial printing
press; it is NOT a default format on all systems);
3) The Acrobat
Reader (tossed in as a freebie); and,
4) Acrobat PDF
Writer, which sets up a PostScript printer driver on your
computer and adds a “PDF create” button
to your toolbar in MS Word and Excel.
You can also install
a PostScript printer driver separately on your computer
to create a PostScript
file from any
source you can send to a regular printer. The PostScript
printer
driver appears in the list of printers on your
computer, and you select it as you would a physical printer.
The difference is that instead of your document
being
printed
on paper,
it is saved as a PostScript file which anyone with
Acrobat Distiller can then distill into a PDF file.
Colleagues of mine often send me copies of PowerPoint
presentations to read, but I don't have PowerPoint
software on my computer. How can I open and read
these documents without purchasing the software?
Microsoft has created a “viewing” program to
allow users who don't have PowerPoint to read and view PowerPoint
documents. The PowerPoint Viewer is a free download and is
available from the Microsoft web site at http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/ppview97.aspx.
This download is for Windows® 95, 98, and 2000 and Windows
NT® operating systems only.
Is anyone familiar with the computer requirements for ArcView/GIS?
We are thinking of purchasing a new computer, and I would
like it to have the capacity to run a GIS program. What are
the requirements for ArcView?
ESRI, the makers of ArcView, list the following
system requirements for ArcView 3.2, the version that KIDS
COUNT supports:
- Computer: Industry-standard personal
computer with at least a Pentium or higher Intel-based microprocessor
and a hard
disk - Memory: 24 MB RAM (32 MB recommended) - Operating
System: Windows 98/ME, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000,
Windows XP
On the basis of my own experience and that
of others who use ArcView, these are the *minimum* requirements
to run
ArcView well. ArcView (or any mapping program) is very
graphics- and computation-intensive. Each time the view
changes (e.g.,
zoom in or out: scroll up, down, or sideways) the computer
has to redraw the screen and may need to recompute the
map display altogether.
For example, I run ArcView on a Windows
ME laptop having a 700-MHz Pentium III processor and 128
MB RAM...and
sometimes, the program bogs down. The bottleneck for
me is my graphics
card, which is just average. But ArcView only gets
sluggish when my project files get very large; in general,
it
runs fine on my machine. A desktop computer with the
same processor
and memory and a better graphics card would be even
better.
The good news is, this is a great time
to buy computers. You shouldn't have any trouble getting
an off-the-shelf
machine that will run ArcView. If you're working
with a vendor and
they aren't familiar with GIS programs, tell them
that you need a machine that could run CAD/CAM software.
The graphics
and computation needs are similar.
And in terms of
affordability, ESRI is very good about making deals with
Kids Count grantees. Many
grantees
have gotten
ArcView at the educational price or other special
prices, and a few have even had the software donated.
Check
with Megan at Casey for more info on obtaining
the software.
How do I create a Web site that is ADA compliant?
There are many good resources for checking
your Web site and making it ADA compliant. The Bobby Web
site validator
for disability access is a FREE program you can download
from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST).
You type in a URL on a page you want to analyze, and Bobby
returns with an analysis and suggestions for making the
page accessible. CAST also has an online version of Bobby
to check pages that are already up on the Web, but for
in-house Web page building, the downloaded version is a
must: you can check pages as you create them and fix problems
before the pages go up. You can learn more about Bobby
and download the software for yourself at http://www.cast.org/bobby/.
IBM has created a text reader called
IBM Home Page Reader, which is an amazing, sophisticated
piece of software. It
works with Netscape to “read” Web pages, converting
the text into synthesized speech. You can find the Home
Page Reader 30-day trial at http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.htm.
Adobe also has a plug-in which can be
used for reading PDF files by many reader software programs
for the visually
impaired. They also have an email service whereby the user
can email the PDF file to Adobe for conversion to an ASCII
or HTML text file which can be read easier. You can learn
more about this option at http://access.adobe.com. And
Adobe has a document called “Optimizing Adobe PDF
Files for Accessibility,” which includes tips for
designing the original source documents from which the
PDFs are created. The article can be found at http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=870.
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