This is what I am telling our campus.

"Concerning what you need to process grants, you can believe your IT
Support staff or you can believe Grants.gov staff.  The Grants.gov
staff say to use ADOBE READER 8.1.1 to download, open, fill in and
submit grant applications."

In so far as federal grant applications are concerned, I suspect most
IT Support staff are, in most cases, under-informed.  They are well
meaning people who think they are doing what is in the best interest of
those whom they support.   I am sorry if I sound harsh here, I have
been, shall we say, politely, "discussing" this issue with a number of
well meaning people on our campus.  I would like to think, in grants
management, our IT colleagues will carry out the necessary support
role, once the grants people tell them what is needed.

This is turning out to be painful for everyone.  I hope General
Dynamics had planned for a better outcome than they have gotten when
they sold Grants.gov on using Adobe, a program over which they have no
control, and which is much more complicated, for a University, than
they could have anticipated.

Back to IT.  No matter what those folks say, you need to use ADOBE
READER 8.1.1.  You cannot use Professional and believe, as some IT
people have told me, it will work "just like Reader."  If you believe
that, then move your submission deadline back a few days to compensate
for all the invalid applications.  I know that most IT managers must
centrally control what goes on peoples' computers. This can be at a
department or even an institutional level.  I suspect this did not go
into the General Dynamics calculation for success.  They probably
assumed everyone just installed whatever was wanted, whenever it was
convenient. So cause for more pain.

The proverbial "bottom line" is that you should make ADOBE READER 8.1.1
your browser default program to open all .pdf files from the internet.
You can still use other Adobe programs to make .pdf attachment files.
The other Adobe programs will still work in conjunction with Reader.
Be careful, however, when you open up Professional as it will ask you
to make it your browser default.  Just say no.

The newest statement from Grants.gov staff, who are trying to be as
helpful as possible as they are caught in the middle of all this, is
that you should not use both Reader 7.0.9 and 8.1.1 on the same file or
you will get even more problems.  Thus I am, as well, asking our campus
to use only ADOBE READER 8.1.1.

I hope this long explanation sheds some light on this as Suzan requested.

Bob
____________________________
Robert Beattie UMich Grants.gov Liaison
Managing Project Representative for eRA
Division of Research Development and Administration
University of Michigan
734 936-1283
xxxxxx@umich.edu

Quoting Suzan G Lund <xxxxxx@UNLNOTES.UNL.EDU>:

> Does anyone out there know how having the Adobe Acrobat Professional
> (version 8.1.1) affects the use of the new forms packages?  We've only had
> limited exposure to the forms packages thus far and are not clear if using
> Acrobat Professional, which our office has, creates/solves any problems.
> We're only hearing about the use of Reader 8.1.1.  Even our IT guys aren't
> sure.  Any light you can shed would be helpful.  Thanks.
>
> Suzan G. Lund, CRA
> Associate Director
> Sponsored Programs
> University of Nebraska-Lincoln
> 312 N. 14th St., Alexander West
> Lincoln, NE  68588-0430
> Ph:  402-472-1930     Fax:  402-472-9323
> email:  xxxxxx@unl.edu
>
> Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
> the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.  Margaret Mead
>
>
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