Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 telvin3d Nov 29, 2009 13:41:08	So, I recently grabbed a few of the new modules to run and went to open them up. Imagine my surprise when all I got was a blank white screen. The tracking and story reward files open fine however. Now, I dual boot OSX and Windows, and at the time I was using OSX and it's Preview PDF viewer. SO I boot into windows and try to open the PDF in Acrobat. No problem at all. So I poke around in the files a bit. Under the security settings Tracking and Story Reward files say "Can be Opened by: All Versions of Acrobat". Older modules say "Acrobat 5.0 and Later". However, every one of the modules that won't open under OSX says "Acrobat 7.0 and Later". Ah-Ha! Now, there are simple solutions for this on my end. I can install Acrobat on my OSX for one. For that matter I am not using the absolute most recent version of OSX and for all I know these files might open fine for the newest version of Preview. But, for many, many reasons people use all sorts of third party software to view PDFs. For example I usually use the OSX preview to run my modules because the fullscreen mode and navigation is nicer than Acrobat's. Many people have older hardware that may not run the most recent software. And, as far as I can tell, there is no reason these modules use no features that would restrict them to the latest versions of Acrobat. So, it would be nice if the RPGA changed back to their previous settings and kept these files as accessible as possible.
#2 Thanlis Nov 29, 2009 19:19:46	Now, there are simple solutions for this on my end. I can install Acrobat on my OSX for one. For that matter I am not using the absolute most recent version of OSX and for all I know these files might open fine for the newest version of Preview. They do in fact open OK for me; I'm running Snow Leopard. But I agree that they should be as broadly compatible as possible.
#3 tetsujinoni Nov 30, 2009 10:15:55	So, I recently grabbed a few of the new modules to run and went to open them up. Imagine my surprise when all I got was a blank white screen. The tracking and story reward files open fine however. Now, I dual boot OSX and Windows, and at the time I was using OSX and it's Preview PDF viewer. SO I boot into windows and try to open the PDF in Acrobat. No problem at all. So I poke around in the files a bit. Under the security settings Tracking and Story Reward files say "Can be Opened by: All Versions of Acrobat". Older modules say "Acrobat 5.0 and Later". However, every one of the modules that won't open under OSX says "Acrobat 7.0 and Later". Ah-Ha! Now, there are simple solutions for this on my end. I can install Acrobat on my OSX for one. For that matter I am not using the absolute most recent version of OSX and for all I know these files might open fine for the newest version of Preview. But, for many, many reasons people use all sorts of third party software to view PDFs. For example I usually use the OSX preview to run my modules because the fullscreen mode and navigation is nicer than Acrobat's. Many people have older hardware that may not run the most recent software. And, as far as I can tell, there is no reason these modules use no features that would restrict them to the latest versions of Acrobat. So, it would be nice if the RPGA changed back to their previous settings and kept these files as accessible as possible. This was also the case on LG Core mods for about the last year of the campaign. Official word then was basically "Get acrobat, it's free. Deal with it."
#4 KarmaInferno Dec 01, 2009 11:41:57	Yeah, and at time I remember installing the Reader, only to find that it completely screwed up the file preferences with my existing install of Acrobat Pro. If I double clicked a PDF from then on it would use Reader instead of Pro. Even if I right clicked and used the "Open using Acrobat Pro" option, it would use the Reader. Upon visiting the Acrobat support site, I found developer posts advising NOT to install Reader if you already had Pro, as they were somewhat incompatible. Seeing as I use Pro for work, I was needless to say a little annoyed. On top of that, there is NOTHING in the PDFs that require the later versions of Acrobat! I even cracked one and re-outputted it in Acrobat 3 to test, and the file looked identical and was actually significantly SMALLER in byte size. In short, there is no real good reason not to have the "Can be opened with all versions" option turned on. Well, other than laziness. -karma
#5 Vamroc Dec 07, 2009 13:48:31	So, I recently grabbed a few of the new modules to run and went to open them up. Imagine my surprise when all I got was a blank white screen. The tracking and story reward files open fine however. Now, I dual boot OSX and Windows, and at the time I was using OSX and it's Preview PDF viewer. SO I boot into windows and try to open the PDF in Acrobat. No problem at all. So I poke around in the files a bit. Under the security settings Tracking and Story Reward files say "Can be Opened by: All Versions of Acrobat". Older modules say "Acrobat 5.0 and Later". However, every one of the modules that won't open under OSX says "Acrobat 7.0 and Later". Ah-Ha! Now, there are simple solutions for this on my end. I can install Acrobat on my OSX for one. For that matter I am not using the absolute most recent version of OSX and for all I know these files might open fine for the newest version of Preview. But, for many, many reasons people use all sorts of third party software to view PDFs. For example I usually use the OSX preview to run my modules because the fullscreen mode and navigation is nicer than Acrobat's. Many people have older hardware that may not run the most recent software. And, as far as I can tell, there is no reason these modules use no features that would restrict them to the latest versions of Acrobat. So, it would be nice if the RPGA changed back to their previous settings and kept these files as accessible as possible. Boy are you behind they're up up Acrobat 9.0 WOTC expects people to have the most current version of Acrobat because it covers the greatest number of updates which in turn benefits the greatest number of people.
#6 elder_basilisk Dec 07, 2009 14:41:33	So, I recently grabbed a few of the new modules to run and went to open them up. Imagine my surprise when all I got was a blank white screen. The tracking and story reward files open fine however. Now, I dual boot OSX and Windows, and at the time I was using OSX and it's Preview PDF viewer. SO I boot into windows and try to open the PDF in Acrobat. No problem at all. So I poke around in the files a bit. Under the security settings Tracking and Story Reward files say "Can be Opened by: All Versions of Acrobat". Older modules say "Acrobat 5.0 and Later". However, every one of the modules that won't open under OSX says "Acrobat 7.0 and Later". Ah-Ha! Now, there are simple solutions for this on my end. I can install Acrobat on my OSX for one. For that matter I am not using the absolute most recent version of OSX and for all I know these files might open fine for the newest version of Preview. But, for many, many reasons people use all sorts of third party software to view PDFs. For example I usually use the OSX preview to run my modules because the fullscreen mode and navigation is nicer than Acrobat's. Many people have older hardware that may not run the most recent software. And, as far as I can tell, there is no reason these modules use no features that would restrict them to the latest versions of Acrobat. So, it would be nice if the RPGA changed back to their previous settings and kept these files as accessible as possible. Boy are you behind they're up up Acrobat 9.0 WOTC expects people to have the most current version of Acrobat because it covers the greatest number of updates which in turn benefits the greatest number of people. Huh? That's nonsense if I ever heard nonsense. If WotC is not using features that are exclusively present on new Acrobat releases, then they could benefit more people more by using backward compatible formats. Backward compatible formats benefits everyone who has/is willing to install the latest Acrobat reader... AND those who are using older releases of Acrobat Pro, Acrobat Reader, or any other PDF reader software. The group of people who are using the latest Acrobat reader is an always will be necessarily smaller than the group consisting of the early adopters plus everyone else. Furthermore, everyone--even those who have the latest acrobat reader and WotC--would derive a small but somwhat significant benefit from reduced filesize, bandwidth requirements and download times associated with older acrobat formats. If, on the other hand, WotC is using features that do not function properly in older acrobat formats, then I would like to know what those features are and if they still work when the module is printed. I seriously doubt that there is any functionality in the latest Acrobat that is required or even advantageous for what WotC is doing with modules--especially since the default assumption is that DMs will be working from printed copies which cannot take advantage of any hyperlinking, indexing, or other such features which seem to characterize more advanced versions of the pdf format.
#7 sir_evets Dec 17, 2009 2:20:31	I am also irritated with WotC right now.  I use a KindleDX and it doesn't recognize the pdf format, yet.  Stupid WotC/Amazon. :p
#8 gristooth Dec 17, 2009 10:56:41	LFR pdfs are b&w text with some low or medium res graphics for the maps. There's no techincal reason they need to be saved to the current version of Acrobat, or require the latest version of Acrobat to be viewed other than whomever is creating these not knowing how to make them compatible with an earlier version of Acrobat, or not caring to.