Notes on Viewing and Downloading Files
The instructions below provide assistance for downloading several file types housed on the MEPS Web site. This
gives you the opportunity to save many documents directly to your computer, including .txt, .pdf, .html, .shtml, .jsp,
.ssp, .dat, .xls, .csv, and .ppt files. Image files associated with these files will not be included in the downloaded
version.
We do not recommend viewing
public use data files in ASCII format. To view SAS programming
statements in ASCII format, left-click on the file link. To
download an ASCII file while using
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, right-click to bring up
a menu and then
left-click on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up
the "Save As" window
To view a CSV file, left-click on the file link.
To download a CSV file while using
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, right-click to bring up a menu
and then right-click on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up
the "Save As" window.
To view an Excel file, left-click on the file link.
To import HTML tables into Excel, go to Excel, choose Data tab, then choose Get External Data From Web (brings up New
Web Query window). Copy and paste
Web address of the table you want to import from the Internet into Address path of New Web Query window. Click Import
button at bottom of same page.
Direct addresses work most efficiently. Some URL strings may be too long for this process to work effectively.
To view an HTML or JSP file, left-click on the file link.
To download an HTML file while using
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, right-click to bring up a menu
and then right-click on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up
the "Save As" window. Please note that images associated with these files will not transfer.
The following application from Microsoft gives you the ability to view information created in Excel even if you do not
have Microsoft's Excel installed:
Excel
Viewer
The following application from Microsoft gives you the ability to view presentations created in PowerPoint 2007 and
more recent versions:
PowerPoint
Viewer
The following application from Microsoft gives you the ability to share presentations created in PowerPoint 98:
PowerPoint
Viewer for Macintosh
We recommend that users print the PDF versions of files (where applicable) rather than the HTML formats. The PDF
versions of the documents on the MEPS Web site are designed for readability and to produce the most consistent
results.
To view and print PDF files, you need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™,
a free software
program you can download from the Adobe®
Web site. To download a PDF file, right-click on the file to bring
up a menu,
then
left-click
on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up the "Save As" window.
If you are unable to open or experience an error accessing a PDF file, please upgrade to the most recent version of
Adobe Reader from the Adobe®
Web site. Several potential resolutions are posted at Adobe Tech Notes:
We do not recommend viewing SAS files. To download
a SAS file while using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox,
right-click to bring up a menu and then left-click
on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up the "Save As" window.
We do not recommend viewing SAS transport files. To download
a SAS transport file while using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox,
right-click
to bring up a menu and then left-click
on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up the "Save As" window.
To view files in TXT format, left-click on the file link. To
download a TXT file while using
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, right-click to bring up
menu, then
left-click on "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" to bring up
the "Save As" window.
We do not recommend viewing zipped files or self-extracting files.
Downloading data files in the compressed format (designated by
the extension .zip or .exe) will significantly
reduce download times. To uncompress and download, while using
either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, right-click to bring
up a menu. Then, left -click on "Save Target As" or "Save Link
As," which will bring up the "Save As" window, and follow
the directions of your zip file utility to download the file.
Compressed files greatly
reduce download times. Files in zipped format can
be uncompressed using a zip utility (see below). Files in self-extracting
format have Windows® zip utility software built in; the data
may be uncompressed by running (i.e., double-clicking) the downloaded
executable.
If you
do not have a zip file utility already installed on your computer,
there are many vendors on the Internet who can provide zip file
format utilities for Windows®, Mac®, Linux, and Unix.
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