A question for the Firefox users: How do I make Firefox on a PC use something other than Adobe Acrobat to read PDF files?
Background: Opera is my browser of choice for web surfing, but I use Firefox for accessing GMail, Movable Type, and a few other sites that don't play well with Opera, and Firefox is the only browser on the computer in the lab. It works very well, except for when I make the mistake of clicking on a link to a PDF.
Firefox reads PDF's through some sort of Acrobat plug-in, and Acrobat has one of those automatic update-checking things installed. When I click on a PDF file within the browser, it starts up, and if Acrobat is the least bit out of date, it hangs the browser up for several minutes at a time, and drags everything else on the computer down with it.
"So, keep Acrobat updated, you non-updating jackass," you say. Yeah, you might think that would be a good thing to do, but the updates are 1) huge files that take a long time to download, 2) released every two weeks or so, and 3) require me to quit and re-start the browser in order to work properly. If I regularly dealt with PDF files for work, I might be willing to deal with this, but it's more hassle than I'm willing to go to for web surfing. On the exceedingly rare occasions when I encounter something important that won't render properly without the very latest Acrobat update, I'll go through the hassle, but I haven't noticed any of the updates making a substantial improvement in the overall PDF-reading experience, so it's not usually worth the bother.
Off-line, my PDF reader of choice is FoxIt, which is small, fast, and doesn't demand to be updated every two weeks. It renders 99+% of PDF's perfectly well, but while I have it set as the default application for PDF's on my regular computers, Firefox (and presumably Explorer, though I never use that) still uses Acrobat.
So, what I'm looking for is a way to make Firefox use something to display PDF's that doesn't crash my computer. (Yes, I can right-click and save the PDF, then open it outside the browser. That would be a good solution if people would consistently label links to PDF files.) Acceptable alternatives would be a way to turn off the plug-in entirely, and automatically save PDF's to disk (this is what Opera does), or a way to make Acrobat stop asking to be updated.
Suggestions?
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Do you have the ability to add add-ons to the Firefox you use? If so, I would recommend Link Alert which changes the mouse arrow to indicate what kind of a link you are traveling to. That would solve the problem of not knowing you're going to a pdf because the mouse would change to an Adobe pdf symbol when you scroll over it. (It also works for things like mp3s, jpgs, and so on.)
In FireFox, go to Tools:Options. In the dialog box select Content, then click on the Manage button under File Types. You should be able to change what program opens not only pdf but any other kind of files.
Thanks, justawriter. I've been wanting to do that with my Firefox install as well--I'll try that when I get home. (My problem with Acrobat is not with the updates so much, but with the fact that the Reader process continues to run even after I close the document, which I find annoying ...)
No suggestions about alternate pdf readers here, but if Acrobat is acting up when reading an online PDF I kill the acrobat process in taskviewer, open a local pdf file (I always have a few laying around on my desktop that I've been referring to lately), and then F5 reload the page in question. works like a champ. Even though it is a band-aid solution i've found it useful (and quick) enough to not bother finding another viewer.
Also, acrobat pdf creation doesn't play well with other viewers being installed. . .at least it didn't prior to my latest windoze reinstall (maybe 1.5 yrs ago).
Foxit Reader
PDF Download plugin for Firefox
How to use them together to handle PDFs in Firefox without Adobe Acrobat.
If you don't want automatic Adobe updates, you might be able to turn them off - on my Reader version 7.0.9, the option is under: Adobe Reader...Preferences...Updates, then click to choose "do not automatically check for critical updates"
I dumped acrobat long ago for Foxit and I've never looked back. Adobe products may be top notch, but they are soooo bloated.
I'll echo dean's recommendation of the PDF Download plugin for Firefox. Among other options, it gives the choice of converting a PDF to HTML on the fly, but the main advantage is alerting you to a PDF and then giving you options in dealing with it.
I second Foxit. If I remember correctly, upon installing Foxit, it will ask you if you want it to serve as your default pdf viewer, which, at least in my case, included pdfs opened from within FireFox.
Well, I installed Foxit, made it the default .pdf reader and did #1. Now I need an online .pdf file to test it with. Where are all those nasty .pdfs when you need them?
Found one. Setting the options in Firefox and using Foxit works just fine.
Remove Acrobat Reader entirely.
Reboot.
Open Foxit.
Close Foxit.
You're done. Foxit will now read PDF file when you click links to them, and Acrobat Reader will trouble you no more.
Remove Acrobat Reader entirely.
Reboot.
Open Foxit.
Close Foxit.
Sadly, it's not quite that simple, as I do occasionally get sent things that don't render properly in Foxit. Not very often, but it does happen on occasion, and they tend to be documents that I really have to read.
I did set Foxit as the default reader for PDF files, but Firefox didn't pick it up. Maybe there are newer versions where it does work, but it didn't work on either of my desktop machines.
I don't even bother reading PDF's within firefox.
Instead if I feel like reading one, I download it to a pre-ordained folder, then read it with Foxit, a pdf viewer/editor with everythiing Acrobat has, only it's incredibly light (almost not there), and ultra fast.
You can also set up Adobe Reader to either not look for automatic updates, or to ask before installation. I use Reader and Illustrator a lot, and have no intention of letting either do an automatic update when I'm madly working on a deadline.
I usually use kpdf, the KDE reader for PDF. Another option which is supposedly quite good is Evince (the Gnome reader for PDF), but I've no serious experience with Evince.
Both programs are quite standard.
On Linux.
You are using Linux or Unix aren't you? If not, that's perhaps part of the problem...
You should be able to change the Acrobat Reader update settings by going to Edit -> Preferences and selecting the "Updates" section and set it to "Update Manually". At least this is the way to do it on Reader 6.0, which is what I use at home still.
Nothing is more annoying than someone sneering that you should be using Linux. Lots of us have no control at work over what system we have. If we're asking for help to make something work, please don't assume that "change the OS" is helpful.
It's NOT.
I'd like to second that. Speaking as someone who has used Linux fairly regularly since 1996, the notion that a non-Linux user should drop everything and re-image or dual-boot their machine any time they mention the slightest annoyance or misfeature of their current OS or application is really damned tiresome. Those that suggest such idiocy are no better than the Mac evangelistas and frankly, just as useless and annoying. Note: my primary machine at work is a MacBook Pro; replacing a Dell desktop running XP. I like the MacBook despite the malnourished hordes of smug, design-obsessed hipters flogging OSX like it was some sort of religion. FWIW, Leopard is slow and tends to lock up Thunderbird unlike 10.4. Just saying.
Really, the issue is about browsers and documents, neither of which are (in this case) dependent on the underlying OS. Knee-jerk evangelism shouldn't enter into the discussion at all.
Re: #5.
Foxit with PDF Download Extension in Firefox.
Saved me a hell of a lot of hassle.
Adobe is nothing but pure bloatware.
Re: 16
Some important pieces of software don't run in Linux. You're aware of that, right?
And I'm speaking as a dual-boot Linux/XP user. Dominantly Linux, but some scientific applications I use require XP.
F'in A, blf. I dual boot, spend 90-95% of my time in Gutsy, but really. And yeah, Kpdf is awesome for what I can make it do more easily than acroread, but Chad asked a specific question. Stop making us linux users look like asshats.
Anyways, I've never had anything but trouble out of PDF Download and eventually uninstalled it. To my mind it doesn't work the way you think it should and operates inconsistently on pdfs despite being set to behave a certain way. Download and open is the way to go if you're not satisfied reading in-browser. Anything less would be uncivilized.