PWOC International Blog

PWOC.org hosts loads of resources for local and regional leaders, from forms to videos and everything in between. For the less tech savvy among us, though, these files are only as useful as our ability to download them to our local machine.

The specific instructions will vary depending on which web browser you are using and the personal settings within the browser, but all browsers follow the same general guidelines. In most cases, simply right-clicking the file name (or download link) will produce a contextual menu (a menu relevant to the task or application being used). From this menu, selecting the item that reads Save As, Save Target As, or something similar will save the source file to the local machine. At that point, you need to know where to find the file on your local machine and this is where many people get lost. This location is one that is set in your local preferences so could be different for each user but recent browser updates have produced pop-up notices informing you that downloading is complete. Clicking the filename in this pop-up will often open the file. Given the option, however, saving to the desktop is often the easiest way of finding the file later – just remember to re-file it to keep your desktop free of clutter.

When I click the download link, the file opens on my computer and I never get the option to download it? In reality, you have most likely downloaded the file and your computer automatically opened it. Right-clicking the download link will bypass this automatic feature and simply save the file to your hard drive.

When I try to download one of the videos, I get an error message. Videos on pwoc.org come in two different formats. Viewing the videos online requires a flash player AND Internet access, which is not available to most chapel computers. The downloaded file requires QuickTime Movie Player, which is already present on most, if not all, military computers. If it’s not already there, a simple request to the agency that manages those computers will satisfy the requirement. To get QuickTime Movie Player for a personal computer, it is available as a free download here.

When I download a form, I can’t seem to open it without error. There are typically two file formats available on pwoc.org, MS Word and PDF (there are a few exceptions, of course). The most common, and most reliable, file format is PDF (Portable Document Format) and is readable using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader available here. PDF files are not editable by the user and are not dependant on the user’s local computer to display the file correctly.

This tutorial is incomplete, at best, and is not meant to answer every question nor every situation encountered while downloading files from pwoc.org. Please take advantage of the vast resources available online through your favorite Internet search engine (Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc.).

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“Tech Tuesday” is published by Tracy Hathaway, PWOCI Web Manager. To reach Tracy with comments or questions, email her here.