Technical help

 

Browsers

Our site has been developed to work on several platforms and browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari). However, it is best viewed using Internet Explorer 6 (PC) or Safari (Mac) with a screen setting of at least 1024x768 pixels. Use "downloads" in the left menu to get the latest version of various browsers.

We have designed the Forestry Commission website homepage for the default font size setting (i.e. medium in I.E.) of the browsers. In order to check your browser setting (in I.E.), go to the top menu bar under View/Text size and then select medium (default setting). If you still find the font size too small please select larger or even largest.

Searches

If you experience any problem in using the search box in the top banner it might be due to the fact that your browser is not JavaScript enabled. In this case just click on the search link which will take you to the main search area.

Download times

If you experience delays in accessing pages, it might be due to the fact that your network is busy and if you have the opportunity, try again later. Although we use images that are quick to download, you can also try to speed up your download time by turning off the images in your browser.

If you are trying to download a very large PDF with no success, follow the "downloads" link to get the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please contact our enquiries service if you need to arrange an alternative delivery.

Videos and sound files

You will require a multimedia player for those. See "downloads" in the left menu for links to recommended players.

Problems with PDF documents?

In some cases, there may be problems opening a PDF document directly from the web e.g. missing pages, crashing the browser. This is probably due to the known issue of older versions of Acrobat Reader and the "Fast Web View" feature. There are three workarounds.

• Option 1. Upgrade to most recent version of Adobe Reader
• Option 2. Disable the "Fast Web View" feature (see below)
• Option 3. Open and save the PDF document locally (Save to disk) instead of opening it directly from web.

To disable the "Fast Web View" feature if you are using Adobe Reader 5:

1. Load Adobe Acrobat Reader
2. Open the menu Edit/Preferences/General/Options
3. Disable the entry: Allow Fast Web View
4. Save the changes and exit Adobe Acrobat Reader
5. Reopen the web browser and try to view the file.

To disable the "Fast Web View" feature if you are using Adobe Reader 6 or 7:

1. Load Adobe Acrobat Reader
2. Open the menu Edit/Preferences/Internet
3. Disable the entry: Allow Fast Web View
4. Save the changes and exit Adobe Acrobat Reader
5. Reopen the web browser and try to view the file.