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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

How to tackle the problem of opening PDF docs in Web Browser when Adobe PDF Reader not installed.

It is often said that you must not forget your enemies however small it may seem.One such scenario came when one of my close acquaintance Mr Sandeep wanted to show PDF docs on his website. Now you may say what makes it a big deal to devote a blog post for this?
However the problem was that my friend wanted to show his PDF links even if Adobe Reader was not installed on his client machine. True that this situation is rare , but what is to be done if as a consultant you are posed such questions. Let's all see how the problem has to be tackled.

There are two important points regarding the problem:

1) The AdobeReader not installed on the machine is very rare situation. It is a free tool easily downloadable and installable from Adobe website. It has penetration of 99.9% worlds computer . That is 99.9% computers using Internet have this already installed. All computer manufacturers give this preloaded and free. So even if your client is having problem of not having this you can ask him to install it without any business, reputational, or efficacy loss.

2) Now a dayz many browsers also have inbuilt AdobeReader. Since adobe does not charge other companies from using this. So new browsers have this automatic pluging. Eg in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 10, Mozilla Firefox. Browsers which dont have this, for them plugins come. So in any case if your client is not able to view PDF, it is not even slightest of your problem to worry. You can also give a link to download Adobe reader, free of cost, Since Adobe has free distribution as well as redistribution policy. Or in best case show them downloadable link from Adobe website itself.


In all other cases if you are too vigorous for perfection (which i wud really say too! coz even if u miss that , its not a big deal). Then in that case I give you the easiest, trickiest, and free to use idea.
This idea uses Google docs.

Suppose you have a PDF doc -->abc.pdf
It is stored at any location on your server-->www.meonshow.com/abc.pdf
Then use the following Link to open that
http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.meonshow.com/abc.pdf

Rest can be tested urself. You can modify the parts of pages that has to be shown. A simple HTML editing and rendering the page in Frame or I-Frame.

For Example: Click Here to view Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz Latest Resume.

Other ideas can be to search the enormous web and to use some quality free tools for the purpose. Or pdf to SWF converters or make some customized Flex/Flash Application that can do that job properly. Search madxperts or codebox website. They have this I guess.

Hey readers, I forgot to mention one important issue in any case. Behold. Its not related to IT. I am married now. Wow!! Please give your blessings to our family. Will give accounts in some other post.
Bye till then.

Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz
TCS/Adobe/Symantec

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