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Why will Firefox open a website's hotkeyed link as a webpage on my PC but downloads it as php file that opens to machine language when using Firefox on my Mac?

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If I use Safari as my web browser, the hotkey opens to another webpage as it should, without going to a php file download process as when Firefox browser is used. What gives?

If I use Safari as my web browser, the hotkey opens to another webpage as it should, without going to a php file download process as when Firefox browser is used. What gives?

Izabrano rješenje

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Here are some things you can do for further testing:

(1) When you download the newsletter, is it in PDF format?

(A) On your Mac, you may need to name the downloaded file with a .pdf extension at the end of the file name in order to get it to open in Adobe Reader (or Preview or other PDF reader you use).

(B) On your PC, can you tell from viewing the newsletter whether it is displaying in the Adobe Acrobat plugin, Firefox's built-in PDF viewer, or another plugin?

(2) More suggestions if needed...

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All Replies (7)

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Could you clarify what you mean by a hotkeyed link? For example, you trigger the link using a keyboard combination instead of clicking it? Do you get a different (correct) result when you use one of these other methods:

  • click the link
  • right-click the link > Open in a New Window
  • tab to the link and press Enter/Return
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Forgive my ignorance...I should have said "when I left click on the hyperlink" it proceeds to download a .php file that when opened displays machine language. The other methods you suggested did not give a correct result either, as in opening to a new webpage that shows the newsletter.

Again, when using my PC, Firefox will open the hyperlink to the newsletter webpage without doing the download process of the .php file. And Safari on the Mac behaves in the same manner. Interestingly, I called the website's office and was advised that they had no reports of trouble with Firefox browser but did have reports of problems with Safari and recommended not using it!

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Could you give a link to the page where you have this problem and indicate which link is the one that pushes a download?

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http://www.alphaprofit.com/norobots/ap-newsletter-issues-04.php?PHPSESSID=bder8b7gac2q9no3fjto87pnj4

I believe all of the hyperlinks will push a download. The one I was using was "March 20 Monthly Update (New!)"

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Odabrano rješenje

Oops, I need to register to get anything from the site...

Here are some things you can do for further testing:

(1) When you download the newsletter, is it in PDF format?

(A) On your Mac, you may need to name the downloaded file with a .pdf extension at the end of the file name in order to get it to open in Adobe Reader (or Preview or other PDF reader you use).

(B) On your PC, can you tell from viewing the newsletter whether it is displaying in the Adobe Acrobat plugin, Firefox's built-in PDF viewer, or another plugin?

(2) More suggestions if needed...

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Manually changing the downloaded file from the .php extension to .pdf worked! Do you have any idea why it only downloads with the .php extension in Firefox on my Mac and why I have to manually change it to .pdf? Again, thanks for the fix!

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Usually the server will suggest a better file name than the name of the script that pushes the file, but either the site isn't doing that or Firefox isn't able to correctly interpret it.

Could you experiment with different PDF settings and see whether you have a viewer that will work on your Mac?

Firefox menu > Preferences > Applications

The list on this panel takes a while to load. Then in the search box above the list, type pdf and pause while the list is filtered. Then you can try changing your PDF preference and see whether that fixes it.

Related article: View PDF files in Firefox or choose another viewer.