Changing the default pdf reader

Wow. Since Endnote 7 - what's that, six years ago - I have periodically revisited that application on my hard drive but always ended up giving up and formatting bibliographies by hand. With 150 to do on my latest paper, after my latest failure with Endnote in desperation I did a web search and discovered Zotero. It took a couple of days to re-find all the sources and download the citations (awesome!) but then one click and the job was done. Learning curves to functionality: Endnote - 6 years and counting, Zotero - two days and done.

Question: how do you change the default pdf reader? Under Firefox preferences, pdfs don't seem to be one of the file types given an option; the written documentation suggests otherwise but I'm not succeeding.

[I want to change the default to Skim, a Mac only software popular for viewing and annotating pdfs.]

Thanks
  • edited January 25, 2008
    Under mac, the pdf reader is a firefox setting...
    So you have to tell FF to use skim to display your pdf; and zotero will do it too.
  • "Question: how do you change the default pdf reader? Under Firefox preferences, pdfs don't seem to be one of the file types given an option; the written documentation suggests otherwise but I'm not succeeding."

    In order to make pdf downloading and opening part of FF's prefs, you have to first download a pdf file. When you're asked what you want to do, check the box at the bottom of the dialog box that says "automatically do this from now on" or whatever it actually says -- I forget exactly.

    THEN when you go into Prefs > Content > File Types you'll see PDF as one of the listed file types and you can now set the default app to Skim.
  • I want to use Skim, the PDF reader and annotator, to open PDFs in my Zotero database.

    The instructions above are not working for me. FF doesn't ask me what I want to when downloading a PDF. It simply opens a window for saving the file. There is no option to check "automatically do this from now on."

    I've made Skim my default PDF reader system-wide, but it has no effect on Zotero. It still uses Adobe Acrobat.
  • you can change FF's pdf reader in
    Prefs > Content > File Types
    you can also use skim just for files opened from Zotero:
    see the LauchNonNativeFIles hidden preference:
    http://www.zotero.org/support/hidden_prefs
  • How about if I'm using Chrome? I checked the settings for the extension, but couldn't see anything about changing the default. I'm on Mac and also have the Mac client, but there are no settings available there.
    I'd prefer to not change system-wide, as it's only in Zotero I want to use Skim instead.
  • How do I set the default reader in Zotero 5 without changing the system default?
  • General tab of preferences --> Open PDF using --> custom

    Then select the tool you want to use (this is newly available since somewhere around version 5.0.36)
  • I read this thread recently and I installed quicklook

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/310135

    it provides another option. Quick Look appears on right clicking pdf.
  • You can also type the Space bar to QuickLook
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