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How to open a downloaded PDF in a new Firefox tab by default?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

spaceman101
spaceman101
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Recently switched from Chrome to Firefox on macOS, and I'd always open PDFs directly in Chrome. I've set my default PDF viewer to Firefox but when I open any downloaded PDFs from Finder, they go directly to a new Firefox window instead of a new tab (as I'm used to from Chrome).

Any way around this? I'd love to have any offline PDFs to be opened in a new tab by default, but nothing has worked so far.

Recently switched from Chrome to Firefox on macOS, and I'd always open PDFs directly in Chrome. I've set my default PDF viewer to Firefox but when I open any downloaded PDFs from Finder, they go directly to a new Firefox '''window''' instead of a new '''tab''' (as I'm used to from Chrome). Any way around this? I'd love to have any offline PDFs to be opened in a new '''tab''' by default, but nothing has worked so far.

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
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You can override how external links are opened via the browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external pref. If this pref has the default value -1 then browser.link.open_newwindow is used. The meaning of the value of browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external is the same as of browser.link.open_newwindow

  • 1:current tab; 2:new window; 3:new tab;

You can set this pref to 3 to always open external links in a new tab.

  • browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external = 3

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can click the button to "Accept the Risk and Continue".

spaceman101
spaceman101 Question owner
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cor-el said
You can override how external links are opened via the browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external pref. If this pref has the default value -1 then browser.link.open_newwindow is used. The meaning of the value of browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external is the same as of browser.link.open_newwindow
  • 1:current tab; 2:new window; 3:new tab;
You can set this pref to 3 to always open external links in a new tab.
  • browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external = 3
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can click the button to "Accept the Risk and Continue".

Tried this but it didn't work :( When opening a PDF from Finder, it still opens in an entirely new Firefox window. Maybe because the PDF isn't technically an "external link" but is an offline file? I'm not sure...

Firefox is currently set as the default PDF reader app on my Mac, which is the same as how I had previously used Chrome. Is there perhaps something else I'm missing that could replicate this behaviour?

cor-el
cor-el
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If this is about using Firefox as the default application to handle PDF files then it is probably not possible to open this file in a new tab like is possible if you open a link in an email with Firefox being the default browser.