Distributing the ATR?

[intechpc]

Hey guys, I'm still new to a lot of the USSF administrative policies and procedures so bear with me. I recently downloaded the 2006 ATR from the US Soccer website with the intent of distributing copies to all the newly certified ref's in our league (we have a rec league doing it's own assignments). I discovered that USSF has protected the PDF file so you cannot print it. Does anyone know why this is? Do you guys know how I can get printed copies of the ATR to distribute? Not all my referees have emails and I'm sure even fewer want to try to read the whole thing off a computer monitor. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[AlsoRan]

The Referee Administrator for my league makes a bulk order from ussoccer and distributes it at the pre-season clinic.

http://friinc.onet.net/catalog/login3.html

[ref2coach]

intechpc, USSF wants to sell copies of the "advice" to referees. This year they have placed it online BUT you can not save or print a copy. The 2005 was not posted at all until it had been in print for ~10 months. Reading it online is better than having it "only" in "hard copy".

[bluedevils]

Are you s#*#$ing me?! I thought the reason I couldn't print was because my version of Acrobat Reader was out of date. I thought the ref dept had learned its lesson from 2005 -- my assumption being that fewer refs than in the past got their hands on the ATR because it wasn't free as in years past.

Yes, having it online is better than nothing but I can't believe they aren't allowing it to be printable.

Why not just raise everybody's registration fee by $1 or something, and continue making the ATR free? To me, it is a bad idea to charge for it or make it unprintable because you are disincenting people to read the doc and learn more about the LOTG and refereeing.

There's gotta be an easy way around this disabled print thing.

[ManiacalClown]

You can try finding the file in your temporary internet files. You may be able to make a copy from there that is not restricted as such.

[intechpc]

I find this to be an absolutely insane decision. They'll let you download and print the current LOTG booklet, the admin guide, everything else. The one thing they won't let you print is the one thing they should be trying the hardest to get into the hands of every registered referee in the nation. Oh well, that is unfortunately what I feared was the case.

For the record, I was able to download and save it no problem. Right click on the link and choose "Save Target As". Just can't print it or copy and paste any of it. Oh well guess the answer is I need to have each of my ref's download it or order a copy.

Oh well, I guess it is what it is.

[refontherun]

I find this to be an absolutely insane decision. They'll let you download and print the current LOTG booklet, the admin guide, everything else. The one thing they won't let you print is the one thing they should be trying the hardest to get into the hands of every registered referee in the nation. Oh well, that is unfortunately what I feared was the case.

For the record, I was able to download and save it no problem. Right click on the link and choose "Save Target As". Just can't print it or copy and paste any of it. Oh well guess the answer is I need to have each of my ref's download it or order a copy.

Oh well, I guess it is what it is.

I saved it as well. Checking the "properties" tab, I see it has some type of password security. I don't know if that is simply the USSF login metioned previously, or something else. As I recall it has only been posted for about a week. I have my recert this weekend. If I can find out anything about it, I will let you guys know.

[Wahoo]

I can print it just fine from my Linux machine.

I'll let you know a good way to do it from Windows if anyone is still having problems.

Edited to add: Ok, it's done. I was able to take the original PDF, convert it to a postscript file, and then back to a PDF. Neither the PS nor the new PDF have any protection.
However, I am not sure I want to be mass distributing this ... but let me know if anyone needs advice on how to print the ATR for 2006.

[cdin]

I find this to be an absolutely insane decision. They'll let you download and print the current LOTG booklet, the admin guide, everything else. The one thing they won't let you print is the one thing they should be trying the hardest to get into the hands of every registered referee in the nation. Oh well, that is unfortunately what I feared was the case.

For the record, I was able to download and save it no problem. Right click on the link and choose "Save Target As". Just can't print it or copy and paste any of it. Oh well guess the answer is I need to have each of my ref's download it or order a copy.

Oh well, I guess it is what it is.

www.wisref.org (http://www.wisref.org/forms.asp) has the 2003 version in it's publications section. I don't know if there is an updated version since then but it probably hasn't changed much.

[Wahoo]

There are actually a couple ways to print it, so if you really want to do so you can PM me (as long as you don't fill up my PM box).

Personally I don't understand why they'd let you view/read it for free without being able to print it out. Just makes no sense.

[ref2coach]

Thanks intechpc as a result of your post, I went to Adobe and found several updates that I had not downloaded. I have also been able to "save a copy" after the updates were completed. BUT the print copy function is stll "locked" :mad:

[ManiacalClown]

the pdf->ps->pdf idea is brilliant

[aevange8]

Hey guys I know you are trying to help people by giving ways to be able to print the ATR, however, we dont want USSF to revert to making us pay to even look at it.

I want to reitterate the fact that everyone is indeed trying to help all referees access important information, but I dont want them to take it off the website, because it is too important for it to be up for free access.

[Wahoo]

Hey guys I know you are trying to help people by giving ways to be able to print the ATR, however, we dont want USSF to revert to making us pay to even look at it.

I want to reitterate the fact that everyone is indeed trying to help all referees access important information, but I dont want them to take it off the website, because it is too important for it to be up for free access.

Agreed, but you hit the main point.... they made it freely accessible.

They want all refs to have this.
It is FREE to download.

Anyone can save it on a computer and reference it anytime. However, if I want to refer to the document prior to a game, I have to either print it out, or I have to take my laptop to the game.

I actually printed out the original document I downloaded. No problems. However I later find that I can't print it from Acrobat Reader. I'm actually guessing that they just didn't want to have people modifying the document, rather than not print it. Dozens of programs can read/print PDF formats.

Again, this is a document they allowed me to get freely from their own website and printed out the first time when I tried --- without altering the file in any wayshape or form. I just didn't happent o be using Acrobat at the time.

[jkc313]

Agreed, but you hit the main point.... they made it freely accessible.

They want all refs to have this.
It is FREE to download.

Anyone can save it on a computer and reference it anytime. However, if I want to refer to the document prior to a game, I have to either print it out, or I have to take my laptop to the game.

I actually printed out the original document I downloaded. No problems. However I later find that I can't print it from Acrobat Reader. I'm actually guessing that they just didn't want to have people modifying the document, rather than not print it. Dozens of programs can read/print PDF formats.

Again, this is a document they allowed me to get freely from their own website and printed out the first time when I tried --- without altering the file in any wayshape or form. I just didn't happent o be using Acrobat at the time.

For all you fellow Mac users all I did was go to the file menu in Safari and click save as and it's on my desktop no problem