It has come to our attention that the ERF System is experiencing compatibility issues with some PDF documents. LSC is asking for your cooperation in identifying these issues prior to filing. If you have uploaded a PDF document affected by this compatibility issue, you likely will not see any type of error message; however, the document will fail to appear when you print/view it prior to filing. You may see a blank white screen, rather than the document that you uploaded, when you print/view the document. If you print/view the document and it appears as it should, the PDF document that you uploaded is fine. This problem only impacts PDF documents (public hearing notices, appendices, attachments, and the occasional rule body filed in PDF form) and does NOT impact any xml or zip files you might upload to a package.

If you have uploaded a PDF document and do not see the document or see a blank white screen when you print/view the document, please contact the ERF Help Desk at 614-387-2078 so that we can assist you in resolving the compatibility issue prior to filing. If you file the package despite seeing that your document is not rendering properly, you will be asked to revise file the package with a corrected PDF document.

This compatibility issue underscores the importance that LSC and JCARR place on agencies confirming, before they file, how accurately the electronic rule-filing system displays their rules. Always print/view all documents from your workspace on the ERF Website, and examine them with great care, before pushing the red "FILE" button to execute a formal filing action. What you, the filer, see from your ERF Website workspace is what LSC and JCARR will receive when the rule is filed.

IT IS NOT WHAT YOU UPLOAD THAT LSC AND JCARR RECEIVE, BUT RATHER HOW THE SYSTEM DISPLAYS IT. That is, when you push the red "FILE" button, you are instructing the system to transmit documents to LSC, JCARR, and the Secretary of State exactly as they would have displayed from your ERF Website workspace prior to filing. Errors manifest themselves before filing. If the system experiences an error in recording an uploaded document, that error will cause a flawed version to display from the filer's website, and that flawed version is what will be filed. Such errors can be caught and corrected before filing if agencies take care to examine how their documents display on the website.

Please contact the ERF Help Desk, 614-387-2078 or erfhelpdesk@lsc.ohio.gov, if you have any questions about this issue.

Thank you,

Julie Hartzell
Ohio Legislative Service Commission

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Posted to the Rule Filers Mailing List on July 29, 2009