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MS word will only prompt for download and not open

  • 2 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

hacoppetti
hacoppetti
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With one of the recent updates I am no longer able to open an MS Word or Excel in my firefox browser. Now it will only download. I have searched all of the web questions with no luck. When I go into my settings tab then Applications, under Content-Type Word and Excel are no longer listed as an application to change an action.

This happened with pdf files, but this was still listed and I was able to change that setting to open as Adobe

With one of the recent updates I am no longer able to open an MS Word or Excel in my firefox browser. Now it will only download. I have searched all of the web questions with no luck. When I go into my settings tab then Applications, under Content-Type Word and Excel are no longer listed as an application to change an action. This happened with pdf files, but this was still listed and I was able to change that setting to open as Adobe
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FredMcD
FredMcD
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https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/98.0/releasenotes/ Firefox has a new optimized download flow . . . .

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manage-downloads-preferences-using-downloads-menu Changes to how file downloads are handled in Firefox version 98

  • Firefox no longer asks what to do for each file by default
  • Downloads panel automatically opens
  • Downloaded files are saved to disk
  • Set a default app to open a file type
  • "Always Open Similar Files" option from the Downloads panel
  • Frequently asked questions


You can set this pref to false on the about:config page to prevent opening the download panel on each download.

  • browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel = false

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can right-click an item in the Downloads panel and choose "Always Open Similar Files" to make it open automatically and add this action to "Settings -> General -> Applications". You can change the "Save" action to "Always Ask".

See also: