Closed Bug 354971 Opened 18 years ago Closed 14 years ago

Insufficient options when opening PDF files

Categories

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

PowerPC
macOS
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: bugzilla_spam, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-11-15])

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

When I click on a link to a PDF file, I am offered the opportunity to open the file with an application or save it to disk. So far so good. The problem is that the only application I'm offered the opportunity to open the file with is Adobe Acrobat Professional. I have that application and it works, but I would generally prefer to use a different one, Apple's Preview.

There seems to be no way I can add a different application to the pull-down list. There should be a way to browse for a different application from the ones listed, and a way to add new applications to the list for each file type. There should also be a way to see the complete list of file types that have associated applications, and a way to change what those applications are (with multiple options possible for each file type).


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Click on a link to a PDF file.
2. Click on the pull-down list of applications available to open the file.
3. Observe the paucity of applications listed, and know that many more applications that can open PDF files are available on your system. Feel grumpy because you're not offered a choice.
see http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/options#downloads

You can assign a different application in the Options Dialog Box, under Downloads. But that's for the default application. The list of applications that you see when you open a PDF file, is actually presented by the operating system, not Firefox.
(In reply to comment #1)
> You can assign a different application in the Options Dialog Box, under
> Downloads. But that's for the default application.

What you say is not true. See bug 354969 (duplicate of 234245), where I explain that I can't change what happens for PDF, MP3, etc.

> The list of applications
> that you see when you open a PDF file, is actually presented by the operating
> system, not Firefox.

Then Firefox is the only application using that API of the OS, because when I use other applications, they allow me to open PDF files with Apple's Preview. In fact, Preview is the DEFAULT application to open PDF files in my OS setup. I find it hard to believe the OS is telling Firefox -- and only Firefox -- something different.

Please explain in more detail how I can configure the set of applications the OS presents to Firefox.
Are these all dupes of each other? Or perhaps related to another meta-bug?

Bug 283038 – Mac: firefox suggests Adobe Acrobat as default PDF app instead of Preview (edit)
Bug 354971 – Insufficient options when opening PDF files (edit)
Bug 290609 – Downloaded pdfs not recognized as pdfs (edit)
Bug 299849 – Mime type ignored for a PDF or JPEG responses. (edit)
I've encountered a bug that seems to be related to Ray Kiddy's list in Comment #3.

I'm using 2.0.0.6 for Mac OSX.  When I click a link to a PDF file to download it, I'm given Acrobat Reader as the default application.  All the help documentation I've read indicates that Firefox should offer me "Other" as an additional option if I don't want to use Acrobat Reader.  Since I have Acrobat Professional, I'd rather use it for PDF files, but without the "Other" option, I can't tell Firefox to handle all PDF files this way.  I don't even have Acrobat Reader on this computer.

I tried the Manage File Types option in Content Preferences, but it will not allow users to add a new Action.  It generates its action list from past downloads, which brings me back to the original problem of the lack of an "Other" option in the Download Manager.

I was able to recreate this bug 10 times with a 100% success rate.  For now, I can use OSX's "Open" options in the download manager to circumvent the Firefox bug, but it's an unnecessary additional step in the process.
This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.
Whiteboard: [CLOSEME 2010-11-15]
No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
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