RE: Print vs. Electronic and making electronic more accessible

[Louis Paley <paley.louis@epa.gov>]

I appreciate how difficult it can be to find, download, print, and excerpt
electronic documents since I work from home a lot where I have a typical
modem.  However, there are some things which the public can do, and which
EPA can do to make things better, including:

ON YOUR END:

  1) in Netscape (and I presume Internet Explorer too), one can turn
     off the graphics; this is OK as long as one is primarily trying 
     to read text; if infrequently one needs graphics, this can be 
     acquired on a one-time basis.  This results in speedier browsing
     and speedier downloading.

     One can turn off the graphics as follows (for Netscape 4.x
     [earlier versions could be similarly]:

       a)  under "Edit" go to "Preferences", then go to "Advanced"; 
           then click on "Automatically Load Images"; this toggles 
           this feature on and off; with NO check in the box, images
           will not automatically be loaded.

       b)  on a case-by-case basis, one can then get images loaded on
           a specific page by clicking on the word "Images" in one of the
           the toolbars near the top of the screen, in the same line as
           the "Back" button.
           
  2)  Whenever you need to access more than one "PDF" (Adobe Acrobat) files,
      launch it ONE TIME, but do not close it between each use; read the PDF
      file, then hit the "Back" button to return to the browser page showing
      another PDF file of interest; click on it, and it will automatically
      use the already opened Adobe Reader, thus saving one the time to open
      the program each time.

ON EPA's END:

  1)  EPA generally minimizes the download time and PC memory burden
      by breaking up a huge file, e.g., for a 150 page document, into
      multiple parts.  In this way one might be able to download and 
      open the "Executive Summary" or "Chapter One thru Three"
      without having to also open the remainder of the document at the 
      same time.

  2)  After our initial love with "pretty" or extra graphics, EPA is
      now creating very spartan pages; using graphic only when they
      will add substantially to the viewers benefit.