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Economic Service - Download Problems
The files available for download on the Quickstats page are in either
Microsoft Excel (xls) or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. You need appropriate
software on your computer to view these files.
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is part of the Microsoft Office suite of products.
You will need to purchase this if you wish to use it.
There are alternatives available. Microsoft offers a free Excel
viewer (see below), and other software makers offer free alternatives to Microsoft Office (see bottom of this page).
Microsoft Excel Viewer
You can get a free viewer for Microsoft Excel at the following
web address:
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx
This download is about 3.8 MB. On a dial-up modem, this
will take between 20 and 60 minutes depending on the speed
of your connection.
Adobe Acrobat Viewer
You can get a free viewer for Adobe Acrobat files at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Note that the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat viewer
(v6.0) is 15.3 MB and will take at least 1 hr 15 minutes
on a dial-up connection.
The
previous version of the Adobe Acrobat viewer (v5.1) is
available at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html
This download is 8.6 MB, and will take a minimum of 45
minutes to download on a dial-up connection.
Note: Many computer magazines (e.g. NZ PC World) include
a “free” CD
containing sample software. The Adobe Acrobat viewer is frequently included
on these CD’s. (Check the contents page before you
buy the magazine).
Download vs Viewing Files Within Your Browser
When you click on a link to a file within the QuickStats
page, your browser will attempt to open the file within
the browser display. This
will start
an instance of Excel or Acrobat within your browser.
You may find it better to download the file to your PC,
then open the file using the appropriate software at a
later time. To download the
file rather than opening it within your browser:
- Right-click on the link (rather than using a normal left-click) and
choose “Save
Target As …” from the short-cut menu that appears.
- A “File download” information box will appear, followed by
a “Save As” dialog box. Select a destination
location using the dialog box, then click on “Save”.
The file will now be downloaded.
- Click on the “Close” button when the file download
is complete.
Microsoft Works
Many home PC’s come with Microsoft Works pre-installed. Works CAN
read Excel files, but it does not support all of Excel’s
features. Follow these steps to use Works to read the Excel
files:
- Download the Excel file using the procedure outlined
above.
- Start Microsoft Works, and open the Spreadsheet
application. Try to open the saved Excel file.
Works will ask you
to select one of
the worksheets
contained within the Excel spreadsheet for display.
Select one of the worksheets, and click on “OK”.
Works will now display the contents of the selected
worksheet.
- Repeat step two to view other worksheets within
the Excel file.
Alternative Software
While there are alternative products available to view
PDF files, most of them are not free. We recommend
that you use the Adobe Acrobat viewer
(see links at the top of this page) to view the PDF
documents.
There are a number of alternatives to using Microsoft
Excel. Two of these are “Open Office” and “602Pro PC Suite”. Both
of these are free to use, but involve substantial downloads. You will
sometimes find these software suites on the cover CD’s
of computer magazines. Web sites for these suites are:
http://www.openoffice.org/ Download size: 62 MB
http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/ Download
size: 17 MB
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