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Thread: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 9:02AM
Subject: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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I have a couple questions regarding Adobe Reader and PDFs.

In Reader, the user has the ability to enable or disable viewing of PDFs inside the browser window. What is the default setting for the Accessibility Setup Wizard in Reader?

My second question is about techniques. It's been a long time so I don't remember how to do this.

Basically, I was looking at a prototype that displays a PDF for the user. However, if the user has disabled the viewing of PDFs in the browser window, the user interface tells the user they need to download the Reader. What is the technique that would allow the PDF to be viewed either in the browser window or in Reader?

Thanks!
Tim

From: Angela French
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 10:03AM
Subject: Re: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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Tim - I can answer your question about how to configure Reader to read PDFs in Reader or browser.

Launch Reader (I have reader 10)
Select Edit > Preferences
There is a checkbox at the top that is labeled "Display PDF in browser".

It is my understanding that this is checked by default when Reader is installed.

Angela French



What is
>the technique that would allow the PDF to be viewed either in the browser
>window or in Reader?
>
>Thanks!
>Tim
>
>
>>>messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Angela French
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 10:05AM
Subject: Re: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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Tim -
I missed a step in those instructions I just sent. The Display PDF in browser is available when you are in the "Internet" Category/Tab

>-----Original Message-----
>From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto:webaim-forum-
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Tim Harshbarger
>Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 8:03 AM
>To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>Subject: [WebAIM] A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
>
>I have a couple questions regarding Adobe Reader and PDFs.
>
>In Reader, the user has the ability to enable or disable viewing of PDFs inside
>the browser window. What is the default setting for the Accessibility Setup
>Wizard in Reader?
>
>My second question is about techniques. It's been a long time so I don't
>remember how to do this.
>
>Basically, I was looking at a prototype that displays a PDF for the user.
>However, if the user has disabled the viewing of PDFs in the browser window,
>the user interface tells the user they need to download the Reader. What is
>the technique that would allow the PDF to be viewed either in the browser
>window or in Reader?
>
>Thanks!
>Tim
>
>
>>>messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 10:20AM
Subject: Re: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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Thanks, Angela.

I probably should explain my second question better.

Basically, I want the web application to honour the user's settings. If the user has enabled the ability to view PDFs in the browser, the PDF should be displayed in the browser. However, if the user has disabled viewing PDFs in the browser, I want the web app to allow the user to view the PDF document with Reader or whatever they have on their system for viewing PDF documents.

So, I am looking for the technique for the developer to use.

Thanks!
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Angela French
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 11:05 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs

Tim -
I missed a step in those instructions I just sent. The Display PDF in browser is available when you are in the "Internet" Category/Tab

>-----Original Message-----
>From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto:webaim-forum-
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Tim Harshbarger
>Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 8:03 AM
>To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
>Subject: [WebAIM] A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
>
>I have a couple questions regarding Adobe Reader and PDFs.
>
>In Reader, the user has the ability to enable or disable viewing of PDFs inside
>the browser window. What is the default setting for the Accessibility Setup
>Wizard in Reader?
>
>My second question is about techniques. It's been a long time so I don't
>remember how to do this.
>
>Basically, I was looking at a prototype that displays a PDF for the user.
>However, if the user has disabled the viewing of PDFs in the browser window,
>the user interface tells the user they need to download the Reader. What is
>the technique that would allow the PDF to be viewed either in the browser
>window or in Reader?
>
>Thanks!
>Tim
>
>
>>>messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: David Farough
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 11:21AM
Subject: Re: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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This setting also appears in the adobe Accessibility settings. For
screen reader users in particular The adobe reader should be used rather
than viewing the document in the browser. I suspect that allowing the
document to open using the user's windows file associations is the best
option. I however do not know the specifics for doing this so I hope
someone will elaborate.

David Farough
Application Accessibility Coordinator/coordonateur de l'accessibilité
Information Technology Services Directorate /
Direction des services d'information technologiques
Public Service Commission / Commission de la fonction publique
Email / Courriel: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Tel. / Tél: (613) 992-2779

From: John E Brandt
Date: Thu, Aug 23 2012 1:50PM
Subject: Re: A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs
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I think it depends on your OS. In Mac OSX, if you encounter a PDF, the file
will open with the text reader (which, interestingly works with VoiceOver
while Adobe Acrobat Reader does not).

In the Windows OS, if you don't have Adobe Acrobat installed, the OS will
ask you if you want to download the file or open it and give you some
choices it thinks will allow you to open the PDF file. I'm not sure if there
is a native reader in Windows 7 - I've always just installed AA Pro when
setting up a new computer.

In both OSs you can assign different applications to open different file
types. I know how to do this in Windows, but not Mac.

In Ubuntu UNIX, there is a native PDF reader which will open up PDF files.

Others have already answered the question about settings in Adobe Acrobat
about whether to open in the browser or not. I think then answer to your
last question is that there is no way to do this "on the fly" - maybe others
know of a way to have this choice. It actually sounds like a neat feature.

~j

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Tim Harshbarger
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 11:03 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] A Couple Questions about Adobe Reader and PDFs

I have a couple questions regarding Adobe Reader and PDFs.

In Reader, the user has the ability to enable or disable viewing of PDFs
inside the browser window. What is the default setting for the
Accessibility Setup Wizard in Reader?

My second question is about techniques. It's been a long time so I don't
remember how to do this.

Basically, I was looking at a prototype that displays a PDF for the user.
However, if the user has disabled the viewing of PDFs in the browser window,
the user interface tells the user they need to download the Reader. What is
the technique that would allow the PDF to be viewed either in the browser
window or in Reader?

Thanks!
Tim


messages to = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =