Frequently Asked Questions

After I view a 590 map and click "Back" in my browser, I have to go through the whole process of agreeing to the disclaimer and navigating from the county level. What's up with that?

Clicking "I agree" and navigating the map are not actions recorded in the browser's history. As far as the browser is concerned, the county-level map is the last thing you looked at, and the "Back" button takes you back there. If you try navigating Google Maps and clicking your "Back" button, you'll see the same behavior.

The secret is to let your browser handle the navigation map, and let Adobe Reader (or Acrobat, if you have that installed) do the 590 map. You can set Reader to show PDF files such as 590 maps in a separate window as follows:

  1. Open Adobe Reader or Acrobat from the Start menu, or by double-clicking the desktop icon if present
  2. From the Edit menu, select Preferences | General
  3. A large dialog box will appear. In the lower half of the selection pane on the left side, click Internet
  4. The dialog displays Web Browser Options and Internet Options.
  5. Just below Web Browser Options is an item for Display PDF In Browser. Ensure that this item is off (i.e., unchecked.)
  6. Click the OK button at lower right.
  7. Restart your Web browser.

Now whenever you click the button to download a 590 map, a new Adobe Reader window will open for each map, leaving your browser undisturbed, showing the same portion of the navigation map.

When I try to draw on a 590 map, I get error messages about the document not being enabled. How's that again?

As TerraGo and Adobe have each brought out new versions of their products, they sometimes introduced incompatibilities. These have manifested with messages like: 

The document enabled extended features in Adobe Reader.
The document has been changed since it was created and use 
of extended features is no longer available.
Please contact the author for the original version of this document.

or:

The document is not enabled for communicating in Adobe Reader

For all but a handful of sections, these errors can be fixed by updating to the newest Adobe Reader (or Acrobat) software.

In the past, such incompatibilities have necessitated rolling back to previous versions of Reader to work with a given generation of 590 maps. However, as of Summer 2011, all the maps on this site will work with the current version of Adobe Reader (Adobe Reader X, version 10.1.2 as of February 2012).

Since the Adobe Reader updates often contain critical security patches, we heartily encourage all our users to update to the latest software; there is no reason to continue using 9.0, for example.

Unless, that is, you need to use one of the following maps:

Oconto County, 26N 19E:
  • Section 2
  • Section 3
  • Section 4
  • Section 5
  • Section 6
Portage County
  • 25N 09E Section 7E
  • 25N 09E Section 6E
  • 24N 09E Section 7E
  • 24N 09E Section 6E
  • 23N 09E Section 7E
  • 23N 09E Section 6E
  • 22N 09E Section 7E
  • 22N 09E Section 6E
  • 21N 09E Section 7E
  • 21N 09E Section 6SE
  • 21N 09E Section 6NE

We are working to replace these as quickly as possible; until then, if you must use them, you should use Adobe 9.