760746 - Add an "Open in external viewer" button to pdf.js

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: PDF Viewer, enhancement)

Description

[Timvde]

pdf.js is very useful for having a quick look at pdf's. But when I need to actually work with them, it's annoying that they're stuck in a browser window. Currently, I need to first download the pdf to my computer and then open it from that location. It would be very useful to be able to open it in an external viewer immediately.

Such a button would also be useful in case a pdf cannot be opened correctly, e.g. the one mentioned in bug 760046.

Comment 1

[Mihaela Velimiroviciu (:mihaelav)]

Currently , there is an "Open with a different viewer" button which is displayed for PDFs that aren't opened correctly (such as http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/organisation/dinf/sm/fichiers_pdf/TP2020_sm_061010.pdf) and which downloads the PDF. It would be nice to also open the PDF automatically after the download completes and maybe display it for all PDFs.
Marking this as an enhancement.

Comment 2

[[:Aleksej]]

(In reply to Mihaela Velimiroviciu [QA] from comment #1)
>  It would be nice to also
> open the PDF automatically after the download completes and maybe display it for all PDFs.

Filed bug 767299.

Comment 3

[Wolfgang Rosenauer [:wolfiR]]

I found that one when I was searching for the big usability issue I have with pdfjs at the moment. This is one single issue from the overall:
"if you choose to use preview there is no way to open in external application afterwards, whereas you choose "always ask" there is no way to open with pdfjs" :-(

Comment 4

[Wolfgang Rosenauer [:wolfiR]]

moving to FF18

Am I the only one thinking this is a very big usability issue? I'd love to use pdfjs as the first step to show PDFs but I'm keeping the "always ask" for now just to be able to simply open in an external viewer.

Comment 5

[drichard]

+1 on the need for this feature.  There are PDFs that render correctly, but have problems scrolling or are too slow and the user should be able to kick off to the normal external MIME application(s) with a single click of a button.  Current technique requires them to save the file and then hopefully be able to *find* that file, which is not a simple task for many people.

I don't see any negative usability issues with the button always being displayed.

Comment 6

[Timvde]

I don't know when this was added, but it seems like the download button on pdf.js now triggers the open/save dialog instead of just asking for a save location. I could find a related issue on Github (https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/issues/2553), but a comment there also suggests it "just works" now.

Comment 7

[Caspy7]

I almost filed this exact bug.
By looking at the interface I had no idea that button would give such functionality. I thought it would simply save it.
I wish there was a way (perhaps through the icon) to communicate the "open as" type of functionality.