When I right click a PDF file link and select "open link in new tab", why does Firefox then ask me how I want to treat the file? I just asked it to open the file in a new tab, so it should be obvious what I want to do - asking again is illogical.

I assume the same dialog appears if you just left-click the link.

Firefox will always show the download dialog if the site specified

Content-Disposition: attachment

which is intended to force downloading. You can use an add-on to override that. More details if you're interested.

I also get the file handling dialog box when I ask to "save link as", when logically I should just get the save location dialog box.

Hmm, that's strange. Do you want to test this link and see whether right-click > Save Link As... gives you a download dialog:

http://www.jeffersonscher.com/res/servepdf.php?f=protected.pdf

You don't need to save that PDF, it's just a demo for something else.

Hi, Thank you for replying Firefox always opens the dialog box regardless of whether the link is trying to force a download or not.

Which still seems crazy when I'm asking very specifically for it to open the link in a new tab. An add-on will perhaps treat the symptom, thank you - but still seems as if it should not be needed - "open link in new tab" is a pretty specific command, after all.

Using "save link as" on your link opened the save location dialog as it should.

I have to look at a lot of product specification sheets, so this new behaviour has actually become a problem - I don't want to download every potential cut sheet or have to waste time reminding Firefox that I just asked it to "open link in a new tab" or "save link as".

Plus the address bar will now show an address in my temp folder rather than the web url of the pdf file

Thank you for your time

Okay, at the risk of self-promotion...

I created this extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/content-type-fixer/

After you click the Zzzz button to turn it on, what is does is:

(A) Make sure any file with a .pdf extension is identified as application/pdf, so Firefox can apply your setting from the Options page

(B) If selected on the drop-down (click the button a second time), override forced downloading so Firefox actually does follow your setting on the Options page:

Select the second option in the Content-Disposition section (inline):

Hope that helps.

Thank you sir!

I will give it a try - A pity that Firefox can no longer follow its own instructions though.

I will give it a try - A pity that Firefox can no longer follow its own instructions though.

Or you could question, why obedience to the direction of the server takes precedence over the direction of the user. (But this is nothing new; it's the "adherence to standards" thing that Mozilla can be rather stubborn about.)

I think that they have tried to fix a problem and have instead made it worse

Problem Solved - Switched to using the Brave browser

Bye-bye Firefox