PDFs in firefox question

Golden Ape · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:48

Evening all. So I've got quite a straight forwards question. I've got both Adobe reader 7 (the free reader) and Adobe Acrobat 6 (the paid for product but not the latest version) on my laptop. When I use firefox to open a link to a pdf it always seems to use acrobat and not reader to open links. I'd really prefere to use the lighter and more up-to-date reader instead. How can I change this? I've tried changing the 'open with' setting in windows explorer but predictably this only applies to pdfs that I try to open outside of firefox. Thanks for your help.

MarcLister · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:54

This might help. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/plugins/

This plugin should force PDFs to load in your browser window rather than the links opening Adobe stuff up in addition to FF.

Edit - Hmm, just seen the links and it seems it just downloads Adobe Acrobat. You don't want that obivously. Sorry. I swear there is something somewhere that makes PDFs open in FF.

Another edit - Found it. Used it before a while ago, can't remember if it was any good. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/636/

Golden Ape · 20 Apr 2006 at 22:47

Ah thanks MarcLister. I'm at home right now can't try that plugin but it looks like it should work. I've also had a google around and have come accross this forum (http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=9572) where someone had a similar problem to me. There seems to be a fix on there that doesn't require a plug in, I'll give that a go in the morning as well!

marc2003 · 20 Apr 2006 at 22:56

why can't you use the download preferences within firefox?

goto tools, options, downloads, view & edit actions, select pdf, click change action and you get a box like this....

Golden Ape · 21 Apr 2006 at 09:48

marc2003. I don't think the download preferences help me at all. I did have a look at this but by options looks exactly like your screen shot. In other words firefox is set to use adobe acrobate plugin to open any pdf but there is no way to change this setting (it's greyed out) in order to make it point to adobe reader. Correct me if I'm wrong!

edit: I can force it to open with the adobe reader application but this will open the pdf outside the browser, I'd still like to keep it in the tab

Golden Ape · 21 Apr 2006 at 10:09

Arrrgghh. I've made it worse. Now pdf don't open inside the browser at all, they just get downloaded and opend with eiter acrobat or reader. What's more anoying is that somehow I've lost the 'pdf' file type from the 'tools/options/downloades/file actions' menu so now I can't change things back. I've also tried the pdf download extension suggested above and that just does the same thing (downloades then opens in acrobat) even if I tell it to open pdfs in the browser. That will teach me to fiddle. Any ideas how to fix this without reinstalling the lot?