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Re: Pdf viewer in web browser

Pdf viewer in web browser

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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Hi: I used to be able to view pdf files in Chrome's native pdf viewer.  Suddenly, I am no longer able to view files through Chrome's viewer, but only through what looks to be some new dropbox proprietary viewer.  I'd like to be able to go back to the Chrome viewer, as the dropbox viewer has cut pdf functionality significantly.  

 

How can I go back to viewing my pdf files on Chrome's native pdf viewer?  Thank you.  

34 Replies 34

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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Thanks so much for this information . . . 

 

The problem here, of course, is that you are asking people to change their global pdf viewer so that ALL pdfs open in Chrome . . . and this is only to solve a problem created by Dropbox alone.  

 

I currently have a 2TB account with Dropbox, 70% of which are pdf files . . . so, i use a lot of pdfs and I use them often.  I would like to be able to access my pdf files (many of which are large files, as well as forms) from other computers (using public computers, etc) . . . as a supposed "cloud-based" solution, making global systemic changes is untenable and not something that Dropbox should be asking people to do.  

 

I don't have this problem in iOS because I've abandoned using the Dropbox app altogether, and instead access my dropbox account directly through Acrobat's app . . . 

apraetor
Super User alumni
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@jaidgossamer I assumed that since Google Chrome was your preferred PDF viewer you would want to use it globally. Your last post said that my work-around "doesn't work in Mac OS X", which is untrue. It didn't include details of your use-case.

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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Thank you for your help in this matter, 

 

Best, 

apraetor
Super User alumni
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@jaidgossamer Anytime! 

 

You mentioned that sometimes you receive an error when PDF previews aren't displayed. If it's the "too big to preview" message then you might want to try Adobe's PDF Optimizer, as there's an 80 mb file size limit for Dropbox's preview.

 

You might also try printing one of your troublesome PDFs on your Mac and choosing "save as PDF"; the reprinting process sometimes fixes situations where non-standard layers in a PDF are causing issues for some PDF handlers (it can also shrink massive PDFs which contain many high-quality layers that weren't sufficiently down-sampled on export). It might be worth finding out if that resolves the issue, as it'll give Dropbox a clue as to where the problem lies. If that fixes the problem then you could use Automator in OS X to automate the process of reprinting them all. Less than ideal work-around, but might get you back to your ideal workflow. 

 

Good luck!

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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Thanks again for your help . . . 

 

I won't be able to optimize these pdfs as much as I would like as they are mostly 3000+ page legal tomes.  

 

Yes, I'm pretty irritated by Dropbox's 80MB limit . . . Chrome's native pdf viewer has no such limit.  I'm pretty sure I can go ahead and take my 15,000+ documents and work towards printing and optimizing each one, and Dropbox would most certainly appreciate the years of effort I put into doing so, 

 

Ultimately, I have been using Chrome's native pdf viewer without issue at all . . . Even the Acrobat app on iOS gives me no issue with very large pdfs.  

 

It would be awesome if I could simply open my pdfs in Chrome's native pdf viewer.  Again, this used to be allowed in my Dropbox account, and when they took away this functionality on March 15, 2016, they inserted a fix that allowed us to force open the pdfs in the native viewer.  Now, for some reason, they have removed this fix.  

 

So once again, thanks so much for your help, I am hoping that Dropbox finds (or makes) a way that will allow us to bypass their viewer. 

 

Best,  

 

Ed
Dropbox Staff
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Hi @jaidgossamer

 

Completely unrelated but somehow related 😄

 

You asked about the option to 'unmark' a post that was marked as a solution. You can do that (as long as you're the original poster (OP) or the author of the solution) by clicking on the ". . ." menu on the right of the post that was marked as a solution.

 

Just click on it and then select 'Not the Solution' :

Screenshot 2017-08-28 10.47.35.png

 

Thanks!




Ed G
Community Manager @ Dropbox
https://dropbox.com/support


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apraetor
Super User alumni
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Years? Nah. Given a simple workflow of "open PDF, print PDF" Automator can do thousands of PDFs an hour.

But it sounds like your issue isn't that the PDFs don't open in Dropbox's web UI, but that you want their web UI to use Chrome's renderer, which adds an attack point which Dropbox cannot control or patch. Dropbox likely prefers their own viewer because it is under their control.

I would suggest you click "Download" instead. Whether the file is being downloaded to open in Chrome, or downloaded to be previewed in Dropbox's viewer, either way it has to download to the local machine before you can see it. When the Downloads bar appears in the bottom of Chrome you can click the file and it will open in the Chrome PDF handler. 

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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@Ed!  Thank you so much for this!  This was so helpful!

Jane
Dropbox Staff
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Hey @apraetor
 
Thanks for posting this workaround here, much appreciated! 
 
Let me just briefly rephrase that, should someone want to preview a pdf file in Chrome, they could use the Print” option while previewing the document on their Dropbox account, as below: 
 
 
Once redirected to a new browsing window, they’d have to Cancel” the printing (this option can be found under Google print”, if someone uses Chrome). This will allow you to preview your .pdf doc in Chrome. 
 
Hope this helps as a second workaround! 
 
Warm regards, 
Jane

 


Jane
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support

 

Heart Did this post help you? If so please give it a Like below. 
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Questions asked in the community will likely receive an answer within 4 hours!)

jaidgossamer
Helpful | Level 7
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Hi Jane:

 

Thank you, this really works, and is totally awesome!

 

The steps to do this are: 

(1) Click Ctrl + [file] - (or Cmd + [file] - to open the pdf in a new tab.

 

(2) In the dropbox viewer, go to the menu that appears in the bottom center of the page to select the "print" icon.  

 

(3) After selecting this icon, the pdf will open in yet another page, with the print document menu overlay.  Just select "Cancel" to get rid of the overlay.  

 

Just as a note, you must select the "print" icon in the bottom center of the page while in Dropbox viewer.  If you click Ctrl+P, then it will take you through a different print process.  

 

Also, this fix only works for those pdf documents that can be seen in Dropbox preview . . . so if the file is too large, it cannot be seen in Dropbox preview, and it cannot be seen after applying this fix.  

 

This fix also only works for Chrome . . . I have not been able to get it to work on Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chromium, or the Tor Browser.  

 

Thank you once again, Jane, this was amazingly helpful!

 

Best, 

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