Advice on Viewing Maine Rule Chapters
Most recent advice (December, 2007)
Some versions of MS Word cannot read the files created by older versions. This problem began recently when an agency converted to Office 2007. It seems that the new version won't read MS Word files created prior to Word 2000. Then Microsoft installed a "fix" on its 2003 version, and those users were similarly shut out.
Microsoft offers a downloadable Word Viewer, the latest one (2007) enabling you to read previous versions of Word as well as a variety of other formats such as Rich Text Format (.rtf) and WordPerfect.
General advice
on handling Maine's rule chapters
Perhaps when you
click on a chapter number, your browser pulls up the text of the rule,
and you find that it's not usable -- lines overlap, for example, or
pour off the screen into infinity.
Nearly all of Maine's rule chapters
are currently in one of two formats: Microsoft Word for Windows,
and in a number of Department of Agriculture files, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. We are slowly converting the WordPerfect
files to MS Word.
If you have the
appropriate word processor, or a recent version that translates well
the earlier formats of itself and its competitors, then simply download
the rule chapter to disk, get out of the browser, call up the word processor,
and view the file.
One trick that
appears to work under many conditions is to position the cursor over
the link you want to download, hold down the shift key, and hit the right mouse button. This brings up a pop-up download menu that includes a save-target-as-file option.
Further Assistance
If you are still unable to view a rule chapter after trying the Word Viewer or following the general advice, please e-mail this office for further assistance, or with any questions about the State's online rules.
