Instructions: How to Open, Save, Fill, Print, and Submit Church School Forms
All Church School forms, such as the Registration Form and the Emergency Card Form, are Adobe Acrobat files. They have the file extension .pdf, which stands for "Portable Document Format". They look like regular paper-based forms but can do much more. The most obvious advantage is that you can fill-in an Acrobat form by typing directly into the form using a computer. You can also save the form as a file on your computer and have it available to reuse later (next year).
 
To open and use the pdf files for our Church School forms, the latest version of the program "Adobe Reader" must be installed on your computer (currently, the latest version is 11) . Many computers come with Adobe Reader preinstalled. If your computer does not, you can get a free copy from here: http://www.adobe.com/reader.

Please make sure that Adobe Reader (version 11) is installed on your computer before you continue with these instructions. 
Open: To open a Church School form, simply click on the form's name (its link) to open it up inside your web browser.
(In reality, it is Adobe Reader that gets embedded inside your web browser and opens the pdf file.)
The gray toolbar that will appear inside your web browser belongs to Adobe Reader (see the figure below).
 
 
Save: You can save a Church School form to your hard disk drive, at any time, by clicking on the second icon (it looks like a small floppy disk) on the gray Adobe Reader toolbar (see the arrow pointer in the figure above).
 
Before filling-in a Church School form, it is a good idea to save it immediately to your computer's hard disk so you can print it and fill-it-in by hand, if necessary (i.e., if everything else fails).
 
After you have filled-in a form (using Adobe Reader), it is a good idea to save it again but under a different file name. For example, you can save a completed Registration Form as "2011-12_RF_Doe_John.pdf", where 2011-12 is the academic year, RF stands for Registration Form, and John Doe is the name of the student.
 
Fill: To fill-in a form using Adobe Reader, open it, click on one of the predefined fields, such as "Last Name", and type in the name using the keyboard. At the top of the form, Adobe Reader shows a purple ribbon with the button " Highlight Fields" (see the figure above). This button works like an ON-OFF switch that highlights the fields that can be filled-in so you can recognize them easily. Those fields that are highlighted with a red border are "required" and must be filled-in. More on this later.
 
Year and Date fields: One advantage of computer-based forms is that they can be edited and reused in the future. Fields, like the "Academic Year", are filled-in automatically when you open a new form. Next year, you can edit this field and type in the desired year. The same applies to certain date fields. They are filled-in automatically when you open a new form, but can also be edited manually.
 
Date fields have a small triangle at the right edge of the field. If you click on the triangle you will see a calendar for the current month. If you click on the month's name you will "zoom out" and see all months for the current year. Similarly, if you click on the year, you will again zoom out and see decades, etc. This is a convenient way to get to a date (such as a birth date) which is far removed from the present.
 
Print: There are two ways to print a Church School form. The first is to click on the left-most icon on the gray Adobe Reader toolbar. This icon looks like a little printer and is shown in the figure above. Using this method you can print the form even if it is completely blank (unfilled). This way, you can fill it in by hand if you have to. Whenever possible, however, please type all information inside the form using Adobe Reader and then print it. This makes the data in the form easier to read and less ambiguous.
 
The second (and preferred) way to print a form is to click on the button labeled "Check and Print Form" which is inside the form itself. Clicking this button does two things. First, it checks that all required fields are indeed not blank. If any required fields are blank, it lets you know and gives you the opportunity to fill them in. If all the required fields appear OK, then it proceeds to send the form to your printer. Of course, when filling a form there is no substitute for due care to avoid mistakes.
 
Submit: To register for Church School, print the completed Registration Form and the Emergency Card(s), sign them, and submit them along with the Church School Registration Fee(s) to the Church School office.
 
You can register at any time. Most families register on the Sunday in September when Church School classes begin (i.e., the first Sunday after Labor Day usually).
 
The Church School Registration Fee is a nominal $20 per child per year. Make checks payable to "St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church". Please write on the check "2011-12 Church School Fee(s)" and the name(s) of the child(ren). Also, please write the number of the check on the Registration Form.
We would appreciate your feedback. If you find the forms or any of these instructions difficult to follow please let us know by sending an email to churchschoolaa(at)gmail.com. Thank you!