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“Right click and save as” needs to go away

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Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#151

Post by wwweston »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #13

There are already ways to force browsers to download using HTTP headers. The author says this is a "server-side solutions to front-end problem", okay. But anyways, when pages use this already, it OFTEN pisses me off, when I want to look at a PDF in browser, but the web app/page is forcing me to save it to disk and then re-open it in another app. What we _really_ need, that we _don't_ have a way to do right now -- is…

That's a pretty good idea -- perhaps a "prompt" attribute instead of a "download" attribute.

Lends itself reasonably well to a JS-only implementation, too:

    http://jsfiddle.net/FLa8P/1/

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#153

Post by rzt »

sirclueless wrote: post #138
rzt wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as people (mostly academia and research orgs) continue to publish their content exclusively in PDF form, then there will be a need to look at that content in a web browser. I work at a university and it is amazing at how much content exists only as a PDF, even if it would be better suited as regular old HTML content. Trying to turn that ship around would also interfere with numerous business processes and ent…

To be fair, there are a number of advantages to having content in PDF's rather than HTML. For example, 1. The formatting is more static. Papers and memos and other documents are created and intended to be artifacts, not just mutable information, and PDFs can preserve that better. In 10 years, the PDF will look more like it did originally than HTML in tomorrow's browsers. 2. They're more durable. As a self-contained d…

No, I totally agree with you on all those points –– and they definitely highlight the value of PDF as a format.

My quarrel is with misapplications of PDF as a way of presenting regular old page content that would probably never get printed, stuff such as lists of contacts, FAQs, blog posts, etc.

I work with folks across a university who know how to make a PDF and embed a hyperlink into a page...and that's all they can do. Their content might be better off as a regular page, but it's a PDF because that's how they learned to upload content to a website in the absence of a CMS. I know, it's weird, but that's what I see on a day-to-day basis.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#154

Post by NewAccnt3 »

After reading the article, I'm still not sure what the problem is that he's trying to solve. The client has front end issues, then there is little you can do about that besides recommending a browser. Forcing a browser or browser behavior is like telling your customers they can't drive certain cars through the drive-through or taking their steering wheel and stuffing your product in their trunk, because your mom isn't comfortable behind the wheel.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#155

Post by porges »

hpaavola wrote: post #20
jrochkind1 wrote: post #13

There are already ways to force browsers to download using HTTP headers. The author says this is a "server-side solutions to front-end problem", okay. But anyways, when pages use this already, it OFTEN pisses me off, when I want to look at a PDF in browser, but the web app/page is forcing me to save it to disk and then re-open it in another app. What we _really_ need, that we _don't_ have a way to do right now -- is…

Yeah, isn't "Content-Disposition: attachment;" header exactly for this?

This way lets you do it for files hosted somewhere you don't have control of.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#156

Post by revscat »

udp wrote: post #136
raverbashing wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is funny, because I absolutely loathe opening in the browser, I prefer saving it. Chrome and FF PDF viewers are better, but with Acrobat it was a bag of hurt. Also, see: saving is the more generic answer. Save and you can see it, open it and before the Chrome 'save' button you had to re-download it.

It's funny how many Windows users seem to think the PDF format is intrinsically slow, and all because of Acrobat Reader. Safari on OS X renders a PDF just as quickly as any other webpage, and always has.

I imagine if you were to test that then the PDF rendering would actually be significantly faster than HTML, since OS X's rendering is all PostScript under the covers.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#157

Post by mcintyre1994 »

harshreality wrote: post #149
sirclueless wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, there are a number of advantages to having content in PDF's rather than HTML. For example, 1. The formatting is more static. Papers and memos and other documents are created and intended to be artifacts, not just mutable information, and PDFs can preserve that better. In 10 years, the PDF will look more like it did originally than HTML in tomorrow's browsers. 2. They're more durable. As a self-contained d…

PDF preserves layout whereas html doesn't (generally, although it can preserve layout somewhat if you specify one font, fix font sizes, and fix all dimensions), but that's a negative for PDFs. Different displays have different resolutions and different dimensions. That makes fixed layouts obnoxious to read on e-readers. The most obvious example of how fixed formatting is an abomination is a PDF on an ebook reader. Th…

I think you're missing a key part of citing (at least for me), paraphrasing. When discussing sentiment or similar without quoting, you wouldn't know what to search for. It makes sense to give a page number to review and get more information on the source, without that you wouldn't know where to look. You'd have to read the entire source.

For text, only section in your "less-granular searching" would work, and not necessarily particularly well. Page number would often be more granular, and that's what's needed for paraphrasing - exactly where to find what you're discussing - but not exactly what it said.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#158

Post by rivd »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #32

Browsers that support the download attribute in HTML5 http://caniuse.com/#feat=download – Chrome, from version 14 – Firefox from version 20 (current) – Android Browser from version 10 (current) – Chrome for Android from version 25 (current).

and again... no IE.

(as the article mentions: work-around needed with conditional comments)

absolutely off-topic and yes a bit unreasonable, but after years of webdevelopment, i'm getting a little cranky at every mention of this "browser" that microsoft forces developers to put up with. Yes, i know this is a "new" html5 feature and that i cant expect corporations or consumers to keep in-house browsers up-to-date, but really: its a microsoft failure. Is it really _that_ hard to keep up with the competition?

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#159

Post by sesqu »

Camillo wrote: post #133
raverbashing wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is funny, because I absolutely loathe opening in the browser, I prefer saving it. Chrome and FF PDF viewers are better, but with Acrobat it was a bag of hurt. Also, see: saving is the more generic answer. Save and you can see it, open it and before the Chrome 'save' button you had to re-download it.

"Before the Chrome save button"? What does that even mean? Half the time I see people praising Chrome it's because of something thoroughly mundane, like an address bar, or saving files, or links . Did you guys browse the web using potatoes before you got Chrome, or what?

It means Chrome comes with a built-in pdf reader that, when you decide to save the file you're looking at, does not re-download it. This is significant when dealing with large files, and not a feature present in all competing products.

However, I would recommend re-downloading any pdf files instead of saving them from Chrome's reader, since I've encountered a couple that Chrome corrupted upon saving.

Re: “Right click and save as” needs to go away

#160

Post by sesqu »

GhotiFish wrote: post #144
sspiff wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the Acrobat plugin was a pain (and I always made sure to disable it in Firefox), but I absolutely love the Firefox in-browser PDF viewer. It doesn't lock up the PC while loading, and it has a convenient download button that doesn't seem to redownload the PDF when clicked (much like saving an already loaded image).

Firefox's reader is an improvement over Adobe's, sure, but that's like beating snail in a foot race. Go Firefox, you show'em Chrome! It's still not SumatraPDF, it's not Evince. Saving the file and having it auto-open these programs takes less time then waiting for the browsers PDF readers to kick in. Of course it could be better, but frankly, I'd rather things be more unix'y, not less.

A major problem with saving all pdf files to be opened in a separate program is having to delete the temporary files afterwards. That's not very unix-y.

Another, less common, problem is erasing the URL in the process.

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