246481 - Customized cursor when hovering a .pdf link

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, enhancement)

Description

[Gérard Talbot]

Considering the annoyance and fear of clicking .pdf link because it triggers the
opening of Acrobat Reader and the referenced .pdf resource size can be
considerably big to download for a dialup connection, I believe that clearly
identifying such link would benefit the user's experience as it would give him
more reliable info *before clicking the link* and therefore helps his surfing
decisions.
One example which occured to me is explained at
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=169678#c10

Related references:
PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption
Users Hate PDF
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030714.html

Avoid PDF for On-Screen Reading
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010610.html

"Use link titles to provide users with a preview of where each link will take
them, *before* they have clicked on it."
Ten Good Deeds in Web Design
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991003.html

A very slim minority of websites do identify with an image or logo that a link
points to a .pdf file. The goal of this bugfile is to help the user
nonetheless/despite poor webpage design.

Somewhat also related to this bug are bug 90213 and bug 169678.

Comment 1

[Gérard Talbot]

"You always need to provide an *explicit warning when linking to files in any
other format than HTML* for at least two reasons:
o the user may not have the necessary software installed and it is very 
impolite to make them wait (these files are usually bigger than simple HTML)
for something they can't use
o the non-standard file format will cause a non-standard behavior: for 
example, a PDF file will start up Acrobat (if the user has it installed, of
course), thus giving users a nasty surprise in terms of an even longer wait
and the appearance of new and different interface controls" 
J. Nielsen
Linking to Non-Standard Files Without Warning
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530_comments.html

Comment 2

[Sergey Sokoloff]

adding bug 38447 as a dependence

Comment 3

[Sergey Sokoloff]

This is a subcategory of the wider bug 169678 and thus should block bug 169678
(as, for example, bug 90213 does already).

Comment 4

[Gérard Talbot]

I removed the cursor and the image of the cursor at the provided URL. PDF is an open format: therefore such file format should not and must not be associated (or linked) with a single software like Adobe Acrobat Reader and its logo/icon. There are many other softwares which can render PDF file format. I will redo that cursor and do an image accordingly.

Comment 5

[Gérard Talbot]

I've created another cursor to notify, indicate the PDF file type. This one is not identifying a company or a particular software.

Comment 6

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Filter "spam" on "guifeatures-nobody-20080610".