WHAT IS AN ETD

Frequently Asked Questions

PDF stands for Portable Document Format.

PDF is a hypertext file format developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated for electronic publishing. PDF is like PostScript...only it's like printing to the World Wide Web (instead of a printer).

We request you submit your ETD in PDF because PDF is easy for you to create, it is easy for us to manage, and it works on multiple platforms (e.g., Macintosh, Windows 95/NT, UNIX).

• PDF lets you have documents printed on "electronic paper."
• PDF is an open creation by Adobe Systems, Incorporated, as a successor to its very popular PostScript.
• To view PDF files, you will need the free viewing application Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, available for most platforms (Macintosh, Windows 95/NT, Unix, ...).
• Creating PDF documents is as easy as printing to paper. All you need is the Adobe Distiller product, available in many campus computer labs and from the campus bookstore.

I am using some "non-standard" fonts (by your definition in the submission guidelines). How do I make sure that my PDF file will contain the correct fonts?

You need to set up Distiller to "embed all fonts."

How to embed fonts.

The latest versions of Adobe products all have native PDF support. From the "File" menu, select "Save as PDF..." or "Print to PDF..."

For non-Adobe products, any file that can be printed from Windows/Macintosh can be printed to PostScript and then Distilled into PDF.

Follow the instructions in the How-to section:

• How to make links from the table of contents
• How to make links to external multimedia objects

Yes. First, be sure that you are using Adobe Exchange 3.0 (2.1 has known bugs). Be sure to check carefully that the PDF conversion happened successfully.

If you are experiencing conversion difficulties:

• let us know,
• let Adobe product support know,
• work around the problem by linking to external multimedia objects as external files.

We will ask you for the shortest possible sample file that exhibits the error.

Use Acrobat Exchange or Acrobat Reader to review your PDF files. Get a friend to help! Make sure all pages formatted correctly, and that all fonts converted correctly. Make sure all pages are numbered correctly (no skipping pages), and that the table of contents matches the numbering. Make sure you have included all the document parts, especially your Vita.

Additionally, your committee should review your PDF before they sign the ETD Approval Form. Once your ETD gets accepted into the library, we cannot change it.

Adobe PDFWriter is a one-pass process and will not convert some documents correctly. Adobe Distiller, however, (a two-pass process) generates correct PDF files more reliably.

• Using the "Control Panel," set up a PostScript printer as a printer target (we like Apple Laserwriter), but choose "Print to File" instead of "Print to LPT1:."
• Print each file in your ETD to this printer; save the files as
  • etd.prn
  • ch1.prn
  • ch2.prn
  • etc.
• Launch Adobe Distiller and open each file (etd.prn, ch1.prn, etc.) and create a corresponding PDF file (etd.pdf, ch1.pdf, etc.)
• Check these files with Exchange or Reader

There is now a web-based conversion service from postscript to PDF, available at:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/ps2pdf"

The PostScript file (etd.ps) must contain the appropriate font information *before* you use Adobe Distiller. The file etd.ps is created when running dvips on your DVI file (etd.dvi).

Therefore you must install the PostScript fonts cmps.tgz where dvips can find them.

Configuring dvips is straightforward; however, each site has different instructions---especially Windows or Mac versions of dvips.

We set no limit to the size of any of the files you submit for your ETDs. You may want to split large files into smaller pieces to make it easier for library patrons to download. Name each file according to the submission instructions.

NOTE: If your submission is very large (i.e., >100 megabytes), please send us a message so that we may expect it.

Multimedia is the art of combining several channels to convey information (visual + aural, textual + visual, etc.).

Multimedia data are usually stored as a working unit---as a multimedia object.

In the computer, a multimedia object can be pasted into a word processor document, or stored in its own file that has its own suffix (e.g., house.gif, forest.jpg, tstorm.mpg).

In your word processor file, center an anchor: a figure number, caption, file name, and approximate file size on a line by itself. Create the PDF file as usual.

Figure 1.1 Air escaping through steam portal (steam.wav, 10K)

Then, using the link feature of Adobe Exchange, make a link to the file "steam.wav.'' Be sure to include the "steam.wav'' when you submit your ETD to the Graduate School.

Use the SAS statistics package to print graphics to Postscript (.ps files) or even better, Encapsulated Postscript (.eps files)). From there, you may use the Adobe Distiller product to convert the graphics to PDF and then import the pages into "etd.pdf'' or link to them using the Adobe Exchange product.

If the result is not satisfactory, you may print to GIF or JPEG graphics format from SAS and include those graphics in your document.

When using any extra tools, run a test with a small document early to make sure that everything converts correctly. The minute you take now (when you are relatively unstressed) could save you hours later (when you are completely stressed).

You may “copy'' and “paste'' scanned images directly into your word processor as internal multimedia objects.

Otherwise, save the scanned photo as a JPEG file and make a link to it as an external multimedia object (explained above).

First, we suggest that you provide an alternate view in a standard format (JPEG for images, etc.) for multimedia objects. In this way, everyone who reads your ETD can get an idea of your work without installing a special viewer.

For special cases (e.g., 3-D molecule browsers), you may include the viewer for the multimedia format as an appendix to your ETD. Then you may make links to the external multimedia objects. Make sure that you document the tool and its use carefully. Also be sure that you have correct permissions to redistribute the viewer as well as documentation on the file type.

Converting scanned images into a text format involves optical character recognition (OCR). Scanners attached to systems running Adobe Capture can convert to PDF and OCR at the same time. This allows for corrections if needed.

Be sure that you secure permission to use the scanned text from the copyright owner. You may have to present this proof when you submit your ETD.

Members of your department are aware that theses and dissertations must be submitted electronically and that the electronic copy is the one they must eventually approve. You must work with your committee during the draft stages of your thesis or dissertation.

You can print PDF files from Adobe Reader or Adobe Exchange to regular paper. The printouts will contain readable text, but may not render multimedia objects adequately. However, this document should be sufficient for your faculty to review, especially in the draft stages.

In normal word processors (Word, Word Perfect), when you set up the word processor for your ETD, create the global styles that you will need for paragraphs, headings, lists, block quotes, etc. Set the line spacing for each of these to 1.5 or 2 lines (6 or 12 points). If you use the heading style to mark all of your headings, then you may automatically generate a table of contents. If you choose not use heading styles, you may connect table of contents entries manually, choosing "refer to page number'' from the "Insert'' menu. Otherwise, you must renumber the table of contents by hand (20-25 minutes for large documents).

If you are using LaTeX, put the following in the preamble:

\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{2}

Furthermore, the Graduate School will accept documents formatted as "space-and-a-half" (LaTeX \baselinestretch{1.5}). Your faculty should allow this.