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PDF download vs. view: Out of the box settings may not be ideal

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  • Last reply by Tom Haws

Tom Haws
Tom Haws
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I am a Dropbox user. I have until recently been almost strictly a Google Chrome user. The PDF seamless behavior I have been seeing in Chrome is like this: 1. If I click on a search engine result for a PDF, I see the PDF opened in the browser. 2. If I click on Download at Dropbox, the PDF is downloaded to my PC.

On installing Firefox, the behavior I saw was like this: Whether I clicked on a search engine result or Download at Dropbox, I saw the PDF opened in my browser.

When I changed the Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/pdf) and Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/binary)to "Save File", the PDF downloaded to my PC. But so did search engine links.

I seem to have fixed the issue by making my settings like this: 1. Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/binary) to "Save File" 2. Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/pdf) to "Open in Firefox"

Fingers crossed. ??? I was wondering why it wasn't set up this way on installation.

I am a Dropbox user. I have until recently been almost strictly a Google Chrome user. The PDF seamless behavior I have been seeing in Chrome is like this: 1. If I click on a search engine result for a PDF, I see the PDF opened in the browser. 2. If I click on Download at Dropbox, the PDF is downloaded to my PC. On installing Firefox, the behavior I saw was like this: Whether I clicked on a search engine result or Download at Dropbox, I saw the PDF opened in my browser. When I changed the Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/pdf) and Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/binary)to "Save File", the PDF downloaded to my PC. But so did search engine links. I seem to have fixed the issue by making my settings like this: 1. Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/binary) to "Save File" 2. Action for Portable Document Format (PDF) (application/pdf) to "Open in Firefox" Fingers crossed. ??? I was wondering why it wasn't set up this way on installation.

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Tom Haws
Tom Haws Question owner
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I have more trouble now. I may have spoken too soon.

From Gmail in Chrome, I could drag a PDF attachment to any Windows folder, and it would download to that folder. This was not 100% successful. But almost always it worked to save attachments that way.

From Gmail in Firefox, if I drag a PDF attachment to any Windows folder, I only get a "Preview attachment ___.PDF ___ KB". This is the failure mode I occasionally saw using Chrome. But I can't get success at all with Firefox.

Trying a workaround, I click the Download button in Gmail, and the PDF opens in Firefox. To make matters worse, the file also saves silently to my default download folder (my Desktop) even though I have "Always ask you where to save files" checked.

It seems like things are complicated and possibly mixed up.

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