FF 3.0.3 (and earlier) forces saving pdfs in gmail

[usen...@hotmail.com]

I use gmail.

With Firefox, going back several versions well back into the 2's, if I
receive a gmail message with an attached pdf, clicking on the pdf
(except "view as html") will force a save to my computer. I don't get
an option to open it in the browser.

My gmail will open all other file types - Word documents, photos,
etc., in the browser (or of course give me the option to save).

Firefox will open pdfs from all other sites in the browser by
default. My tools > options > applications settings appear correct,
with none of the many types set up to "save file" without asking.

In internet explorer 7, gmail pdf attachments give me a choice to open
or save, then they open in acrobat reader outside the browser.

So how do I configure FF to do the same thing (that is, not force me
to save the file)?

[Andrew Giles-Peters]

I have a problem very much like this with ScrapBook and Firefox which
also started some versions back.

When I try to save a RTF format file to my scrapbook I only get the
alternative of saving to disk (well actually ScrapBook tries to save but
hangs and when I cancel I get the save option).

I thought this was a ScrapBook problem but it sounds like it might be a
Firefox one.

[David Pyles]

To the OP in this thread, try the PDF Download extension from
http://www.pdfdownload.org/ It will give you options for saving the
PDF, opening in your PDF reader outside or inside Firefox, as well as
some options for saving web pages as PDF or converting PDF to html.

Dave Pyles

[usen...@hotmail.com]

On Oct 12, 11:53 am, David Pyles <non...@user.invalid> wrote:
>
> To the OP in this thread, try the PDF Download extension fromhttp://www.pdfdownload.org/ It will give you options for saving the

> PDF, opening in your PDF reader outside or inside Firefox, as well as
> some options for saving web pages as PDF or converting PDF to html.
>
> Dave Pyles

Thanks. The download did not help me though.

The issue is that attached pdfs in webmail (gmail, yahoo, hotmail) are
force-saved from FF (currently still 3.0.3) instead of giving an
option to just read the document or open it in the browser.

IE 7 gives this choice for attached pdfs in webmail.

FF gives a choice when opening other types of attachments (.doc, .xls,
for example) from webmail. Just not pdfs.

[Traveller]

Can you read PDFs from other websites without saving them? If you are
getting the same behaviour from all websites, the check
Tools>Options>Applications to see what your current settings are for
handling PDFs. If it is set to "Save file" you should be able to change
to your PDF reader (Adobe, Foxit or whatever you are using)
HTH
Dave

[usen...@hotmail.com]

On Oct 13, 4:55 pm, Traveller <travel...@doglover.com> wrote:
> Can you read PDFs from other websites without saving them? If you are
> getting the same behaviour from all websites, the check
> Tools>Options>Applications to see what your current settings are for
> handling PDFs. If it is set to "Save file" you should be able to change
> to your PDF reader (Adobe, Foxit or whatever you are using)
>         HTH

>                 Dave- Hide quoted text -
>

I can and do, automatically, read pdf content right in my browser. No
problems.

In tools>options>applications there are five "flavors" of Adobe
Acrobat documents.

For Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document (text/html), the setting is "always
ask"

For the other four, the setting is "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)."
These other four are:

* Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document (application/pdf)
* Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document (application/pdf)
* Adobe Acrobat Forms Document (application/vnd.adobe.xfdf)
* Adobe Acrobat Forms Document (application/vnd.fdf)

I don't know if it means anything, but I have Adobe Reader 9 on my
computer, not 7.0 as three of the above five indicate.

[David Pyles]

Try this. Open Adobe Reader. Under the help menu click "Repair Adobe
Reader installation." I had a problem with Adobe Reader 8 not working
correctly with Firefox and that solved the problem for me.
Dave Pyles

[usen...@hotmail.com]

On Oct 13, 7:16 pm, David Pyles <non...@user.invalid> wrote:

> Dave Pyles- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks Dave.

Your suggestion did not seem to work. I did the "repair
installation" (again, I'm using 9) and then the repair forced me to
restart my computer.

Upon the restart, I still had the problem with attached pdfs not
opening in gmail.

So then I figured I'd jigger with the tools>options>applications.

I picked the Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document (application/pdf) choice and
from the pulldown menu, I changed "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)" to
"Use Adobe Reader 9.0 (default)." That fixed the problem of gmail
forcing me to save pdf attachments!

BUT... it also made it so that pdfs linked to from other web pages
would open in Acrobat Reader, rather than in the browser. So then I
changed it back (that is, I changed "Use Adobe Reader 9.0 (default)"
back to "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)"

For some wacky reason, now it works! FF/gmail asks me how to handle
pdf attachments (save to disk or open with Adobe 9), but FF just opens
pdf web content in the browser.

Very weird.

Thanks for the help. And I'm going to bet that, even for me, this
isn't 100% over yet, even though it appears to be now.