ShortGuides.com: Using the 2000 Federal Tax Forms CD-ROM

Installing the 2000 Federal Tax Products CD-ROM

Installing and working with the Federal 2000 tax forms is very easy, even if the instructions on the packaging are not. The three steps to installing and using the Federal Tax forms are below:

Ensuring that you have the appropriate version Adobe Acrobat installed
Installing Adobe Acrobat, if needed
Creating a link to the CD on your desktop, or some other convenient location

This ShortGuide will walk you through this process, step by step.

Which version of Adobe Acrobat do you have?

Adobe Acrobat 4.0 is not included with the 2000 Federal Tax forms CD-ROM, although I would highly recommending installing the program. If you know that you need to install Adobe Acrobat 4.0, the easiest method would be to install it from the State of Michigan Tax Forms CD-ROM, if you have it. If you do not, I have put an online tutorial for downloading and installing the most current version of Adobe Acrobat. Select this link to view that tutorial. If you are not sure if you have a current version of Adobe Acrobat, you can use the steps shown below. There are many ways to determine which version of Adobe Acrobat you have, but the instructions below are the most consistent method of determining what you’ve got. This will be painless. J

Pull up your Start menu and select Settings From the menu that appears, select Control Panel
From the window that appears, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
You will then see the Add/Remove Programs dialog box. In the list near the bottom of the dialog box, look for any items that say Adobe Acrobat. If you have an item that says Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, then you are just fine. It might read Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, 4.01, 4.02, 4.03, 4.04 or 4.05 – all of which are just fine. In which case, you can just move on to the section of this ShortGuide entitled Using the 2000 Federal Tax Forms. If, however, you have an item that says Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.01, then you must Remove the program before installing Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0. To remove the program, click on the Add/Remove button near the bottom of the dialog box. When prompted, answer “Yes” to all of the questions that you are asked. Eventually, you will see a dialog box that telling you that the uninstall was successful.
If you need to install Adobe Acrobat 4.0, do so with the State of Michigan 2000 Tax Forms CD-ROM. Select this link to view the instructions for installing Adobe Acrobat from the State of Michigan 2000 Tax Forms CD-ROM. If you don’t have that CD, you can use the ShortGuides.com tutorial for downloading and installing Adobe Acrobat. Select this link to view the ShortGuides.com Tutorial.

Installing the 2000 Federal Tax Products CD-ROM

Once you have Adobe Acrobat 4.0 successfully installed, you can then easily use the Federal Tax forms off of the CD-ROM. However, the CD must be in the computer that you are using in order for the files to work. So, if you are using both the Michigan Tax Forms and the Federal Tax Forms CDs on the same computer, then you will need to put in whichever CD you are trying to use. If you have a local area network in your library, it is possible to access the CD from any computer in the building, although that falls beyond the scope of this ShortGuide. If you need or want help with networking the products, you can send me an e-mail at richard@truxall.com and I will try to help you if I can.

Insert the CD-ROM into the drive and double-click the My Computer icon.
You should then see an icon labeled 2000_1 Double-click the CD-ROM icon You will then see an icon labeled Setup, as shown on the far right. Double-click the Setup icon to begin the installation process.
You will then see the Welcome screen. Simply click on the Next button to continue the process. You will need click on the Next button again to continue the process.
You will then have the opportunity to install the Federal Tax Products to run from the CD-ROM or to copy all of the files to a network location. If you are unfamiliar with installing products for network access, I would strongly recommend simply running the Tax Products from CD-ROM. To do that, simply be sure that the first option is highlighted (as it is in the example on the right) and click on the Next button.
Next, you will be asked to name the Folder that you want the program installed to. Just click on the Next button.
In order to use the Federal Tax products, Adobe Fill In will also need to be installed. Fortunately, this installation will happen automatically, which will mean that you will be clicking on the Next button a few more times… There should be a total of 3
So far, everything has been pretty smooth. However, when you get to the screen shown on the right, you must select either the Business or Individual Radio button. You must also fill in the First Name, Last Name and Company fields before continuing on with the installation process. Once you’ve entered the data, click on the Next button.
Believe it or not, the installation will be complete, which you should be informed of with the Setup Complete dialog box. Uncheck the Release Notes check box and click on the Finish button. (Unless you would like to read the Release Notes, in which case, don’t uncheck the check box and click on the Finish button).
A new folder should open up that looks like the image on the right. To run the Federal Tax Products, all you would need to do is double-click the Federal Tax Products … icon. However, I would recommend placing an icon on your desktop to make using the CD-ROM easier.
To put an icon on your desktop, simply click your RIGHT mouse button on the *Federal Tax Products* icon and select the *Send To* choice. From there, select the Desktop (create shortcut) menu choice.
You will now have an icon for the Federal Tax forms on your desktop. As long as the CD is in the CD-ROM drive, you should be able to double-click this icon an open up the Federal Tax Products. Simply click on the category that you interested in viewing and that should be about it.