If you have your nice SP2010 setup you may notice that when you go to open a PDF file it prompts you to save it rather than opening.
This is really annoying and would send everyone here at the school completely bananas! Not to mention the fact that we try to get everything on SharePoint only to force people to save it to their own area!
Never fear there is a solution. It’s in central admin.
Go there and click ‘Manage Web Applications’
Click on the web app you want to change, and go to ‘General Settings’
Scroll down the list until you reach ‘Browser File Handling’
Change the radio box from Strict to Permissive.
Click ok.
Go back to your PDF document and click on it – and it will open up without forcing you to save it somewhere first.
You may have noticed in the first screen shot there was no PDF icon. Well, follow this guide to right that wrong!
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43 comments
7 pings
Dries
May 21, 2010 at 3:26 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I’ve tried this solution, but nothing changes. When I try to open the PDF I still get the dialog to save the file. Opening in the browser doens’t work.
Additionally I’ve installed the PDF iFilter…
Do you have any idea on what the problem could be. Opening the PDF in FireFox or Safari works as expected…
Thank yo ufor the feedback.
Chris McKinley
June 2, 2010 at 9:05 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks for the comment.
I can only think that it may be the default programme settings on the local computer. Is the behaviour consistent across machines in your organisation? Also what version of IE, windows and Office are installed on the local machine?
Arbab
June 9, 2010 at 1:07 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Same problem here, this solution does’nt work for me. I have IE8, FireFox 3.0, winxp sp2, and office 2007 locally. It occurs on other machines as wello
BobS
June 14, 2010 at 3:35 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
We too have gone through this and what we’ve noticed is that the only doc library affected by the “strict to permissive” change, when changing to permissive, is the home page library. All of the sub site and tertiary site librarys will prompt for read only/edit, but then prompt for a file save regardless of which is chosen. This only seems to happen in IE 8 – FireFox works perfectly.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated, and thank you for writing the article.
Ronald van Vugt
June 21, 2010 at 1:07 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I have the same problem. What I notice is the following:
-> if I deploy a new site from a saved templates, all document libraries from this new site has the PDF problem (only SAVE AS possible)
-> If I remove one document library from the new site and recreate the document library, the PDF problem is solved
It looks like it has something to do with deploying a new site from a template.
Has anybody any idea?
Best regards,
Ronald van Vugt
Kimberly
June 24, 2010 at 2:30 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I just want to say THANK YOU for making my life easier..
When I did a search on this topic, I was lucky enough to find this one first. Nothing is EVER that easy and your directions were perfect!!
Kimberly
SP 2010 Newbie
-Jerome
June 24, 2010 at 2:31 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Setting the web app browser file handling setting to permissive did fix the same issue for me. Thanks !
Nicholas
July 1, 2010 at 6:54 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hi,
I am experiencing the same issue as detailed by Ronald va Vugt:
I have sites created from site templates, and .msg and .pdf files are being prompted to save, not open or save, despite having the web apllication Brwoser File Handling set to Permissive. However, if i creaate a new document library in those sites, they respect the browser file handling setting of the web appliation.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this so that all my existing site’s document libraries allow permissve file handling (i.e. allow open)?
Thank you
Ruedi
July 6, 2010 at 8:16 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Same Problem as Ronald van Vugt (Libraries crated from Site Template). Has anyone found a solution other then recreating the library?
Thank you
Sethu
July 9, 2010 at 3:07 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It worked..Opens the pdf in the brower
Thanks
Sethu
steve fink
July 21, 2010 at 11:45 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
THANKS! that worked. WTH Microsoft? As if people dont upload and view .pdf’s to document libraries to view?
I found this solution while trying to resolve another issue though. I cannot get my PDF icons to display. I have gone to the 14 hive and added the icon to images and edited the icon .xml file. No typo’s or anything, still wont display the pdf icon and in the X / image properties, it does now know what file type it is anymore (yet opens in proper PDF app when clicked). Therefore cannot locate its icon.
Ronald van Vugt
August 6, 2010 at 11:52 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hello,
I still was unable to solve my problem (see my comment on june 21). Has someone already found a solution?
Best regards,
Ronald van Vugt
Kim
August 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Having the same issue as well. I also tried going onto the doc lib > Settings > Advanced settings > Opening Documents in Browser > Open in Client Application
Still getting prompted to save. This is a huge issue for current & potential clients!
Dave Coleman
August 12, 2010 at 4:18 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Do you still get prompted after following all the instructions?
David Stokes
August 23, 2010 at 5:01 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
The answer for this is here…sub sites that previously exist before doing this require you to set them explicitly using powershell:
http://nerdtastictips.blogspot.com/2010/08/sp2010-forces-users-to-save-pdfs.html
Shinyak
August 24, 2010 at 9:07 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It worked. Thank you very much for your infomation !!
Shinya-K
Renee Hansen
September 8, 2010 at 2:34 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I am having the same problem as Ronald Van Vugt.
If I create a site from a template, and add a pdf to one of the libraries. They will not open… If I create a NEW document library on that same site, it works fine. I don’t want to have t creat the document libraries after I create the site. Did I miss the fix for this?? PLease help
Justin
September 13, 2010 at 2:04 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Is there anyway to get the pdf to open in a new window?
Dave Coleman
September 17, 2010 at 4:02 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Only by using SharePoint Designer and i believe i saw something on codeplex but that was all or nothing.
Willie Buczkowski
November 20, 2010 at 4:42 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Many thanks for your excellent blog post! I found your post very interesting, you are a great author. I just bookmarked your blog and will come back in the future. I want to encourage you to continue the exciting job, have a great daytime!
Dan
November 24, 2010 at 11:53 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Is it possible to get documents, which are currently located in a Sharepoint 2010 Document Library, to open in a new window?
Also, is there a facility in Sharepoint 2010 for performing a Check-In for multiple documents, all at once? (it appears there are 3rd party products to do this, but should this not exist in Sharepoint 2010, at this stage)?
It also appears that you can’t upload more than 100 documents, at any one time, to a Document Library, in Sharepoint 2010. Is this correct, or is there a way around it?
regards,
Dan
Meera
December 28, 2010 at 8:28 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
How can i set the document in a document library to open in a new browser window in sharepoint 2010. I have successfully done this in MOSS 2007 but when i try to use same steps in sharepoint 2010 its not working.
Could any one please let me know what is the process to open a document in a document library to in a new browser window in sharepoint 2010
Appreciate your help.
Leif Hurst
January 4, 2011 at 6:27 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Works perfectly on Sharepoint 2010 Foundation!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Dave Coleman
January 4, 2011 at 6:40 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks for the comment Leif and i am glad it helped
Dave
Paul
January 24, 2011 at 5:18 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I would caution tho, that the Strict setting is there for a reason. If you only want to fix the issue with PDF’s, then editing the docicon.xml entry for PDF and adding
OpenControl=”SharePoint.OpenDocuments”
if possibly a more secure fix for you.
Paul
Paul
January 24, 2011 at 5:21 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Sorry, got that the wrong way round, you need to set OpenControl=”" , thusREMOVING the SharePoint.OpenControl
Paul
Dave Coleman
January 24, 2011 at 5:37 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks Paul if you ever fancy doing a follow up post on this and posting on this blog please let me know.
Dave
Jack Divah
February 23, 2011 at 2:47 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hi Dave:
Thank you for a helpful article. Do you think PdfForms at http://www.pdfsharepoint.com qualify for SharePoint 2010 and Pdf integration? I just consider ability to use Pdf forms (not only documents) is essential for full integration between both products.
I know that Adobe Acrobat X allows some kind of integration with SharePoint. What is your opinion?
Thanks,
Jack D.
Richard Willis
February 23, 2011 at 8:56 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Do NOT do this without a full understanding of the huge security hole you are opening in SharePoint. Maurice Prather has just blogged about the dangers of this at
http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=328
The fact that you can embed Javascript in a pdf and the new client object model allows a malicious script in a document to do anything the user can, including deleting files. From that it seems to me that you should only allow the opening in the browser if you can complete control of the pdfs and the machine they are created on.
Dmitry
March 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Hi:
There is a better way to handle “Browser File Handle” issue. Take a look at my blog here: http://www.pdfsharepoint.com/sharepoint-2010-and-pdf-integration-series-part-1/
Solution #2 addresses Pdf extension without exposing entire Web Application to “Permissive” browsing. Setting “Browsing File Handle” to “permissive” opens too many vulnerabilities with other file extensions.
Thanks,
Dmitry
altaf
March 23, 2011 at 6:36 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I have created Shared document library and uploaded PDF files in it. when I am opening the PDF file its opening in the same browser. I want that PDF file should open in new window.
please suggest me the solution.
Joe
April 22, 2011 at 9:36 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Worked like a champ on 2010 – Thanks for sharing!
DViktor
June 2, 2011 at 10:53 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks a lot, it worked for me, without Powershell procedures as well. The solution is no secret; .PDF files will only open in browser as well, if Adobe is installed on the server that runs Sharepoint. I figured it out, by trying to open the .pdf files of the Sharepoint site, on my local machine.
jatin
June 3, 2011 at 7:06 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
thanks buddy
thanks lot of…
Tom D'Acquisto
July 8, 2011 at 8:18 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks!!
Max
July 29, 2011 at 9:54 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks alot Chris!
Initially thought that it was ie 8/9 issue. Lucky to find your post and save my day!
Courtney
September 13, 2011 at 4:19 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Worked like a charm. Thanks so much.
JB
September 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks, great article!
Here you find another sample to add a custom action to a ribbon bar. The sample adds a “Export to PDF” button to export SharePoint list data into a PDF document using a templating system:
http://www.parago.de/2011/04/how-to-export-sharepoint-task-list-data-to-pdf-using-a-templating-system/
Eddie
November 9, 2011 at 3:17 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks! Our consultants upgraded our SP 2007 to 2010 last night and didn’t bother to turn this on (or at least let us know about this option), and were too slow in response getting back to us. This was perfect…thanks again!
Eddie
C. Marius
December 8, 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Actually, to have the solution working you also have to enable the feature in Site Collection to “Open Documents in Client Applications by Default”
Only when enabling these 2 options the feature will work fully as described.
Hope it helps,
C:\Marius
Praveen
December 14, 2011 at 1:45 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Nice. I like the post.
Here is what I posted: http://praveenbattula.blogspot.com/2011/12/open-pdf-files-directly-in-browser.html
S. Briscoe
January 23, 2012 at 4:33 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Thanks this is just what I needed
Gurudatta
February 29, 2012 at 10:17 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
It helped for opening both pdf and html files . Thank you.
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