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With Issue 99 (issued on May 15, 2006), The Brass Band Bridge became an all-electronic publication. Copies of The Bridge are no longer printed and mailed to NABBA members. The change to an all-electronic format has allowed The Bridge to deliver much more to NABBA members and it especially allows The Bridge to deliver news and information to NABBA members in a timely manner.

Part of the transition to an all-electronic format was the integration of The Bridge with the NABBA website. For many years, The Bridge published things like minutes of meetings of the NABBA Board of Directors. By having The Bridge work in tandem with the NABBA website, we have each delivery system - The Bridge and the website - contain information that is best suited for its own unique format. Things like minutes of meetings of the NABBA Board of Directors, for instance, can be downloaded and viewed on the NABBA website while other information can be found in The Bridge. It has always been difficult for The Bridge to publish high quality photographs. With Issue 99 of The Bridge, we now have a user controlled web-based slide show that contains many more high resolution photos that could not otherwise fit in The Bridge.

These are but a few of the benefits of the new format of The Bridge. But with any change, there are new things to get used to. The purpose of this page is to give readers some tips on how to best download, view and print The Bridge.

Studies show that over 80% of homes in the USA have a computer and 60% of homes have Internet access which includes 25% of American homes which have broadband cable or DSL access. Work is underway to provide universal broadband access to all American homes by 2010 and each week brings more and more homes online. Further, 23% of Americans regularly access the Internet from a place other than at home or work, including at a friend's house or at a public library. It is this nearly universal access to the Internet that allows The Bridge to be delivered electronically with the knowledge that most NABBA members will be able to access it either at home, work or another location.

The Bridge is a high quality publication that is taking advantage of the latest technology in order to be visually attractive, user-friendly, and informative. As such, with color photos and advertisements, web links and a substantial number of pages, each issue of The Bridge will be a large file to download. The Bridge is created in Adobe's inDesign CS2 and then converted to a PDF (Portable Document Format) file using Adobe Acrobat 7.0. PDF technology was developed in 1991 (click HERE to read an interesting history of the PDF) as a way for people to view documents regardless of what type of computer they were using and what system they were running. PDF documents are most effectively used when viewed on a computer screen as such files often have web links imbedded in text and images which makes it convenient to move easily from document to web browser. PDF files can also be printed although they are often large files and will take some time to print on slower computers. Click HERE to read another article with good information about the use of PDF files.

File size is a major issue with PDF documents and every effort is being made to have the low resolution version of each issue of The Bridge be no larger than 2 MB in size. While at one time such a large file would have been difficult to work with, the growing access to broadband and DSL makes downloading such a large file very easy. The nearly ubiquitous downloading of music via the Internet (mp3 music files often are very large, taking up about 1 MB per 1 minute of music) has made many people comfortable with the downloading and using of large sized files. NABBA members who wish to download and view The Bridge who are still using a dial up connection will experience slower download times. For those of you using dial up, it is only a matter of time before such access will give way to faster connections. Technology is moving ahead rapidly when it comes to Internet connections: many computers, including newer Macintosh computers, no longer have modem ports as computer companies realize that with wireless and hard-wired broadband connections, dial up is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

All of the above is to say this: with the growing dependence of our culture on the Internet and the increasing reliability of electronic distribution of information, The Bridge will now be accessible to people in a convenient format. In this way NABBA is looking forward, updating our delivery of news and information to meet the expectations of a marketplace that is looking for high quality, well produced, interesting and easy to access products. We feel The Bridge is moving forward to meet those goals and we are pleased that initial feedback has been very positive.

That said, here are some tips that might make downloading, viewing and printing The Bridge easier and more convenient.

• The faster your Internet connection's download speed, the faster you will be able to download The Bridge. Cable modem, broadband or DSL service will allow The Bridge to be downloaded very quickly.

• If you have a dial up connection, consider getting a faster modem. A 56 kps modem will download The Bridge twice as fast as a 28.8 kps modem.

• The Bridge will be published in two resolutions: high resolution and low resolution. Content in each version will be identical; the only difference will be the quality of photos and other graphics. The low resolution Bridge will be a smaller file and will download and print more quickly - all images and photos will be clear and easy to view. The high resolution version will be a larger file and will take longer to download but will look better on a computer screen with maximum detail in photos and images. Most readers of The Bridge will find the low resolution version to be quite satisfactory; by reference, photos in the low resolution version are clearer than photos that were reproduced in The Bridge when it was a print publication.

• The high and low resolution versions of The Bridge will be optimized for version 5.0 or later of Adobe Acrobat Reader, the worldwide standard program for viewing PDF files. The current version of Acrobat Reader, which is a FREE PROGRAM for both PC and Macintosh users, is version 7.0. Those who wish to view and utilize all of the technology that will be imbedded in The Bridge should download the most recent version of Adobe Acrobat by clicking the icon below which will open a new browser window and take you to the Acrobat download page.
  

  There are programs other than Adobe Acrobat that can read PDF files (such as Xpdf for PC and Preview for Macintosh) so you may have flexibility on your own computer as to which program you use to view The Bridge. However, using Acrobat Reader will allow readers of The Bridge to take advantage of all of its interactive features.

• Every computer and web browser displays and downloads pdf files in slightly different ways. On some computer systems, when you click a link to a pdf file, it will automatically download to your computer. Other systems will display the filie in your web browser. Be sure to download The Bridge to your computer rather than simply view it online - by downloading it to your computer you will be able to take advantage of all of the interactive features and can also view and print it at your leisure. If when you click on the link to The Bridge it displays in your browser rather than download automatically to your computer, go to the "File" menu and "Save As" (for MAC) or, for PC, right click on the link to The Bridge and "Save a Copy." There are other ways to do this that may be unique to your computer and system. Take time to explore The Bridge after you download it to your computer. Double clicking on the icon for The Bridge (remember that The Bridge file will be downloaded to your desktop or a folder that you have designated to receive downloads - check your web browser preferences if you don't know where the file will "live" on your computer or if you want to change its destination) will open The Bridge. As you run your mouse over different parts of The Bridge (URLs, advertisements, the table of contents), you will be able to click to go to websites and internal pages referenced in The Bridge. Not all links will be obvious; part of the fun of the new Bridge will be discovering the unexpected.

• When viewed on a computer screen, all text, images and advertisements in The Bridge will be sharp and clear. High-resolution copies of all photos that appear in The Bridge as well as many more related photos can be found in the user-controlled slide show that accompanies each issue of The Bridge. The link to each issue's slide show may be found on The Bridge website located next the issue you want to download. There you will also find direct links to the websites of all advertisers in each issue of The Bridge - remember to use your mouse to click on advertisements in The Bridge which will also bring you to advertiser's websites.

• Take the time to experiment with viewing The Bridge in a larger size. The default setting of 100% that most computers have when viewing PDF files may seem small. Simply zoom the page to a larger size, say 125% and The Bridge will be easier to read. The Bridge will look sharpest at 100% but can be zoomed to 200% with no decrease in clarity of the text and only marginal decrease in clarity of photos and images.

• Since The Brass Band Bridge is a large file that is produced in full color it may take some time to print. The largest issues of The Bridge will be about 20 pages. A 20 page color intensive file may take several minutes to spool from computer to printer and then several minutes to print out. Be patient: if you don't see anything happening with your printer, give it a little time. There is a lot of data for your printer's RAM to process and depending on the speed of your computer and the amount of RAM in your printer, The Bridge may print quickly or take a few minutes.

• Some printers won't be happy trying to print a large file. If you try to print The Bridge and your printer doesn't respond by beginning to print after several minutes, cancel the printing and try printing out a few pages at a time. PDF reader programs will give you the option of printing an entire document or letting you define which pages will be printed. Most printers will be able to manage printing a few pages at a time.

• The Bridge is produced in full color. If you are printing on a color printer, you may want to set your printer to print The Bridge in black and white which will save your color toner cartridges. The Bridge is designed to print well in black and white/greyscale but will only print as you see it on your computer screen if you print in color.

• Please note that when you print The Bridge the quality of images will not be as clear as they appear when viewing the high resolution version of The Bridge on your computer. That is because the relatively low resolution images that are used to keep the file size of each issue of The Bridge down to a manageable level for downloading and printing means that the images will look excellent on the computer but will not have as much clarity when printed.

By understanding a little about the technology behind the new all-electronic version of The Bridge and by implementing some of the suggestions above that will allow for easier downloading, viewing and printing, we at NABBA are confident that The Bridge will be a more informative, more useful and more user-friendly publication. We thank you for your support as we continue to work together to build bridges between NABBA members and bands.

- - Douglas Yeo

• Editor, The Brass Band Bridge
• Member, NABBA Board of Directors
• Music Director, The New England Brass Band
• Bass Trombonist, Boston Symphony Orchestra