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DESIGN CENTER
CONTENTS
Printing the Free Patterns
Is it safe to download things from the Net? What about viruses?
How do I save and print Web pages on my PC?
How do I save and print files on my Mac?
How do I save and print files on my WebTV?
How do I just copy images from a Web page?
I've downloaded, saved, and printed the files. Now what do I do?
DOWNLOAD ADOBE ACROBAT READER 4.0
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BBB Online
USING THE FREE PATTERNS
If you have any questions about using our free patterns, and this page doesn't answer them, please let us know by sending a message to our editor.
Is it safe to download things from the Web? What about viruses?
It is prudent to be cautious when downloading files from the Web or opening e-mail. Your first defense is a trustworthy site. Look for a privacy or "trust" associatation such as BBBOnline or eTrust.
Your second defense is investing in inexpensive or free virus-scanning software. We recommend McAfee, which is not only one of the best, but very reasonable.
(Here's a good price on McAfee software.)
How do I save and print Web pages on my PC?
Some of our patterns are available as Web pages. Since you might not find it convienent to sew while sitting in front of your computer, you'll want to print the pages.
Patterns on Web pages may not print out in the exact sizes the authors intended. When size really does matter, we'll also provide a version of the pattern in PDF format.
Here's a good primer on printing web pages.
How do I just copy images from a Web page?
How do I save and print files on my Mac?
How do I save and print files on my WebTV?
I've downloaded, saved, and printed the files. Now what do I do?
What are ZIP files?
To make downloads faster, Web sites frequently ZIP some of their files. ZIPPED files are compressed. It's sort of like taking Wonderbread and squeezing all the air out of it—you still have the same amount of bread, but it fits in a much smaller space. Sites also ZIP files to combine several files into single (and sometimes smaller) files.
There are two types of ZIP file: standard and self-extracting. Standard ZIP files end with the letters (extension) .zip and require the use of a zip utility (get a free one from Winzip) to restore them to useful life. Self-extracting ZIP files end with the extension .exe and—as you might guess—do not require another program to restore them to useful life. Whenever possible, we use self-extracting files, for your convenience.
What are PDF files?
PDF is an e-paper (electronic-paper) format that makes it possible for you to print documents exactly as their designers intended them to look. If you simply save and print the project pages as they appear on your monitor, the sizes and shapes of the actual pattern pieces may come out wrong, depending on your computer, monitor, software, and/or printer. For accuracy, you need to download and print the pattern pieces from the PDF files. This requires a free, downloadable software tool called Adobe Acrobat Reader.