The American Association of Medical Assistants website contains many useful documents, forms and applications in PDF format. Read this page to learn how to use Adobe Reader to open, view and print PDFs, as well as how to download and install Adobe Reader, if necessary.

If you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer, you can either view PDFs online by clicking their links, or you can download the PDFs to your hard drive and open them from there. Once you open a PDF, you can print it as you would print a Microsoft Word document.

Note: You cannot edit a PDF with Adobe Reader.

If you do not have Adobe Reader, follow these steps:

• Download and install this free program. It's easy and takes less than five minutes.
  (Read below for more detailed instructions on downloading and installing this program.)
  
  
• Once you've installed Adobe Reader, click the PDF on the AAMA site that you want to view and/or download.
  
  
• Once the document opens in Adobe Reader, you can print the document by double-clicking the printer icon.
  
  
• To download the document to your system select "File" then "Save As" on your browser and save the document to your computer.
  
  
• Once a document is saved to your computer you can view it or print it at any time by double-clicking the document icon. Or, you can launch Adobe Reader, and then open the document.

Note: For best results, save PDF files to your hard drive first and then open them in Adobe Reader. If you attempt to open PDF files directly in your browser, you may encounter difficulties.

Detailed instructions
Read these instructions for downloading and installing Adobe Reader.

1. Determine your computer's operating system.
   
   
   • If you are using a PC, click the Start button at the lower, left-hand corner of your screen. Then, select Settings and Control Panel. When the Control Panel window opens, double-click the System icon. When the System window opens, you will see the name of your computer's operating system, such as Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
   
   
   
   • If you are using a Mac, select the Finder icon from the top right corner of your monitor. Then, click the Apple icon, and select About this Computer. When this window opens, you will see the name of your computer's operating system, such as OSX.



2. Go to the Adobe website.



3. Scroll down to the grey box titled "Step 1 of 2." Click the dropdown list titled "Choose a platform," and select your operating system.



4. Click the dropdown list titled "Choose a connection" and select the desired connection. If you are connecting to the Internet with a modem and telephone line, select "dialup." Otherwise, select "broadband."


Note: You may see an option to select the full version of Adobe Reader. If so, click that option. You may also see an option to use Adobe Download Manager. It is not necessary to select that option.


5. Click the Download button. Your browser will display a window for saving Adobe Reader on your computer. Select your desktop as the desired download destination on your computer and click Save or OK, depending on the type of computer you are using. The download process should start immediately.



6. Once the download process is complete, a compressed software installer "package" containing Adobe Reader and files necessary for installing it will appear as an icon on your desktop. Simply double-click the installer icon to begin the installation. Follow the directions that appear throughout the brief, simple installation process.



7. Once the installation is complete, click on the icon for the newly installed program. You may now use Adobe Reader to open and view PDF files.