Opening PDFs in SharePoint 2010

42 comments

6 pings

1. Dries says:

   May 21, 2010 at 3:26 pm (UTC 0 )

   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.

2. Chris McKinley says:

   June 2, 2010 at 9:05 am (UTC 0 )

   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?

3. Arbab says:

   June 9, 2010 at 1:07 pm (UTC 0 )

   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

4. BobS says:

   June 14, 2010 at 3:35 pm (UTC 0 )

   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.

5. Ronald van Vugt says:

   June 21, 2010 at 1:07 pm (UTC 0 )

   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

6. Kimberly says:

   June 24, 2010 at 2:30 pm (UTC 0 )

   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

7. -Jerome says:

   June 24, 2010 at 2:31 pm (UTC 0 )

   Setting the web app browser file handling setting to permissive did fix the same issue for me. Thanks !

8. Nicholas says:

   July 1, 2010 at 6:54 am (UTC 0 )

   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

9. Ruedi says:

   July 6, 2010 at 8:16 am (UTC 0 )

   Same Problem as Ronald van Vugt (Libraries crated from Site Template). Has anyone found a solution other then recreating the library?
   Thank you

10. Sethu says:

    July 9, 2010 at 3:07 am (UTC 0 )

    It worked..Opens the pdf in the brower

    Thanks

    Sethu

11. steve fink says:

    July 21, 2010 at 11:45 pm (UTC 0 )

    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.

12. Ronald van Vugt says:

    August 6, 2010 at 11:52 am (UTC 0 )

    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

13. Kim says:

    August 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm (UTC 0 )

    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!

14. Dave Coleman says:

    August 12, 2010 at 4:18 pm (UTC 0 )

    Do you still get prompted after following all the instructions?

15. David Stokes says:

    August 23, 2010 at 5:01 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

16. Shinyak says:

    August 24, 2010 at 9:07 am (UTC 0 )

    It worked. Thank you very much for your infomation !!

    Shinya-K

17. Renee Hansen says:

    September 8, 2010 at 2:34 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

18. Justin says:

    September 13, 2010 at 2:04 pm (UTC 0 )

    Is there anyway to get the pdf to open in a new window?

19. Dave Coleman says:

    September 17, 2010 at 4:02 pm (UTC 0 )

    Only by using SharePoint Designer and i believe i saw something on codeplex but that was all or nothing.

20. Willie Buczkowski says:

    November 20, 2010 at 4:42 pm (UTC 0 )

    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!

21. Dan says:

    November 24, 2010 at 11:53 am (UTC 0 )

    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

22. Meera says:

    December 28, 2010 at 8:28 pm (UTC 0 )

    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.

23. Leif Hurst says:

    January 4, 2011 at 6:27 pm (UTC 0 )

    Works perfectly on Sharepoint 2010 Foundation!

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!

24. Dave Coleman says:

    January 4, 2011 at 6:40 pm (UTC 0 )

    Thanks for the comment Leif and i am glad it helped

    Dave

25. Paul says:

    January 24, 2011 at 5:18 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

26. Paul says:

    January 24, 2011 at 5:21 pm (UTC 0 )

    Sorry, got that the wrong way round, you need to set OpenControl=”" , thusREMOVING the SharePoint.OpenControl

    Paul

27. Dave Coleman says:

    January 24, 2011 at 5:37 pm (UTC 0 )

    Thanks Paul if you ever fancy doing a follow up post on this and posting on this blog please let me know.

    Dave

28. Jack Divah says:

    February 23, 2011 at 2:47 am (UTC 0 )

    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.

29. Richard Willis says:

    February 23, 2011 at 8:56 am (UTC 0 )

    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.

30. Dmitry says:

    March 10, 2011 at 8:17 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

31. altaf says:

    March 23, 2011 at 6:36 am (UTC 0 )

    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.

32. Joe says:

    April 22, 2011 at 9:36 pm (UTC 0 )

    Worked like a champ on 2010 – Thanks for sharing!

33. DViktor says:

    June 2, 2011 at 10:53 am (UTC 0 )

    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.

34. jatin says:

    June 3, 2011 at 7:06 am (UTC 0 )

    thanks buddy
    thanks lot of…
    

35. Tom D'Acquisto says:

    July 8, 2011 at 8:18 pm (UTC 0 )

    Thanks!!

36. Max says:

    July 29, 2011 at 9:54 am (UTC 0 )

    Thanks alot Chris!

    Initially thought that it was ie 8/9 issue. Lucky to find your post and save my day!

37. Courtney says:

    September 13, 2011 at 4:19 pm (UTC 0 )

    Worked like a charm. Thanks so much.

38. JB says:

    September 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm (UTC 0 )

    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/

39. Eddie says:

    November 9, 2011 at 3:17 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

40. C. Marius says:

    December 8, 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC 0 )

    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

41. Praveen says:

    December 14, 2011 at 1:45 pm (UTC 0 )

    Nice. I like the post.
    Here is what I posted: http://praveenbattula.blogspot.com/2011/12/open-pdf-files-directly-in-browser.html

42. S. Briscoe says:

    January 23, 2012 at 4:33 pm (UTC 0 )

    Thanks this is just what I needed

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