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In hotmail, when I click on a PDF attachment, the only option is to download; I can't get it to open automatically, even though I have preferences set to use Acrobat Reader for files with PDF extensions.

  • 2 replies
  • 26 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by parnianbob

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I am using a Mac operating OS X version 10.6.8. I would like to open PDF attachments with a single mouse click in emails that I view in MS Hotmail. Now, when I click on the document I get a dialog box and the only option is to download the file. Thus, I have to download the file and then click on the document in the download list in order to open it. Note that within websites, I am able to open PDF files with Acrobat with a single mouse click. Thank you.

I am using a Mac operating OS X version 10.6.8. I would like to open PDF attachments with a single mouse click in emails that I view in MS Hotmail. Now, when I click on the document I get a dialog box and the only option is to download the file. Thus, I have to download the file and then click on the document in the download list in order to open it. Note that within websites, I am able to open PDF files with Acrobat with a single mouse click. Thank you.

All Replies (2)

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This is actually based on how the site handles different file types; Hotmail gives it to the browser as "application/octet-stream" or something like it, whereas sites that properly open it in the browser tag it as "application/pdf". Unfortunately there's nothing you can do about this without setting up a proxy to rewrite the HTTP headers. Complaints to Hotmail in the past haven't worked, and it's not possible to override the behavior in Firefox.

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Thanks much for the reply. Given that Safari can handle the attachments appropriately it seems like is should be possible for Firefox to.