Linking to PDF's has default setting to 'Preview in Firefox', however Firefox does not handle all PDF's (i.e. Flash content) so it just displays a blank page.
I realise I can change options in Firefox to use Adobe Acrobat as default viewer; however I teach at a University and publish multimedia presentations within PDF's with the result I have to answer constant emails from students who cannot open the PDF (and of course students glaze over earlier advice).
If Firefox cannot handle all types of PDF content then DO NOT MAKE IT DEFAULT VIEWER, or at least have trigger when it cannot display to ask if user wants to use another program.
Regards, Weary academic.
All Replies (1)
There should be a warning in a notification bar at the top of the page when Firefox comes across a PDF it may not be able to render correctly. There's a button to open the file in the default application on the right side.
You can prevent PDFs from being displayed inside the browser by sending the Content-Disposition: attachment header. This will trigger a download prompt with the choice of either saving the file, or opening it in the associated application.
You can report issues with the PDF viewer by filing bug reports in the Firefox product, PDF Viewer component (switch to the advanced form to show those fields).