[X4U] How do I stop PDFs from opening?

[Nick Scalise]

---- John Baltutis <baltwo at san.rr.com> wrote: 
> On 06/08/06, Eugene <list-themacintoshguy at fsck.net> wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 03:25:27PM CDT, Mark Des Cotes
> ><mark at astroprinting.com> wrote:
> > :
> > : How do I stop PDFs from automatically opening when they finish
> > : opening? I have a site that I have to download several customer PDFs
> > : on a regular basis. I navigate to the site and click on each link to
> > : download the PDF. The problem is that as soon as a PDF finishes
> > : downloading it opens up and Acrobat pops to the front which is very
> > : annoying. I have to close the PDF file, switch back to Safari to
> > : click on the next link. Sometimes another PDF will open before I have
> > : a chance to click on the next one. I'd really like to stop the PDF
> > : from opening but I'm not sure where to do it.
> >
> > I have the PDF Browser Plugin installed, so PDFs downloaded
> > are immediately viewed in the browser in-line.  But I'm an
> > OmniWeb user (doesn't really matter, it behaves the same as
> > Safari with the plugin installed, but I figure it's time to
> > plug OmniWeb again :-).  With Safari, use Safari Enhancer
> > to force downloads of all PDFs.  That might work.
> 
> No need. As the other poster reponded, OPTION-click on the link in Safari
> (without any 3rd party add-ons) downloads the file to your selected download
> location, with or without PDF Browser plug-in installed (my normal
> installation).

Option clicking doesn't always work, as some developer obfuscate links to assets.

As the original question was to 'stop PDFs from opening'. I am going to address that.

The 'official' way is to open Adobe Reader preferences, and then click on the Internet section in the left column. You will then see at the top of the window a check box for 'Display PDF in browser using:"

If you uncheck that, PDF's - no matter how they are presented by the webserver - should download to your hard drive and not display in your browser.

Another way is to go to /Library/Internet Plugins/ and remove the 'AdobePDFViewer.plugin'
--
Nick Scalise
nickscalise at cox.net