Opening PDFs in split screen (HTML) window

skr8
Hi -

Is it possible, when viewing a saved PDF, to open the file in the active Firefox tab, as an HTML file? (HTML may not be the correct term.)

Basically, I would like a saved pdf to open in the split screen, just as a snapshot does, rather than in a complete different window via Adobe or Preview. This would allow me to more easily take notes and view the pdf document. Currently, it's difficult to see both my Zotero library and the pdf document because I need to switch windows.

Thanks,
-SR
  • dstillman
    Do PDFs normally open in Firefox for you when you're just browsing?

    If not, and you have a PPC Mac, you need the Acrobat Reader plugin installed, which I believe should happen if you reinstall Acrobat Reader. On an Intel Mac you would need the newly available Firefox PDF plugin. You also would want to check your Firefox settings by going to the Applications pane of the Firefox preference (in Firefox 3.0) and searching for "pdf" to see the current setting.

    If PDFs do normally open in Firefox, you'll need to provide debug output for clicking on a PDF in Zotero.
  • Catherine
    edited August 20, 2008
    Hello,

    I would like to open attached PPT or DOC files in the Firefox window just the same way as PDFs. Currently PPT or DOC files attached to a reference in my Zotero library (and stored in the library) open in a PowerPoint or Word window.
    Thank you very much in advance,

    Catherine
  • dstillman
    Catherine: Do PPT and DOC files normally appear in Firefox when you click on them on web pages?
  • Catherine
    No, the PPT and DOC files do not normally appear in the Firefox window. They are downloaded. And I can't see how to change that. I can't make sense of the Applications menu of the "options" section of Firefox...
  • dstillman
    You need a plugin to view files of a given type in Firefox—if you had one, Zotero would open files of that type in Firefox automatically. I don't know if there are any plugins that will let you view MS Office files in Firefox.
  • noksagt
    The OpenOffice.org plugin for mozilla can view MS Office formats, but you must install/enable it and also edit your pluginreg.dat file to add the MS Office filetypes to the list.
  • Catherine
    edited August 22, 2008
    Hi,

    Thank you very much. I enabled the plugin for mozilla in OpenOffice.org and set writer and impress as the default applications for .doc and .ppt files.

    Currently when clicking on a .doc file on a Google page result, I can choose to open with Microsoft Windows or with Mozilla Firefox. Unfortunately when I click "open with mozilla firefox", I get the following error:
    C:\TEMP\[filename].doc could not be opened, because an unknown error occurred. Try saving to disk first and then opening the file.

    With a ppt.file, I can only choose to open the file with PowerPoint or OpenOffice (no Mozilla Firefox option here).

    I suspect that this should be somehow related with the pluginreg.dat file but I don't know how to edit it.

    Could you please help me a little bit further with this matter?! I use Windows 2000.

    Many thanks in advance! I do hope of being able to read .doc and .ppt file in my browser in order to take notes with Zotero in the same window!
  • noksagt
    edited August 22, 2008
    You must do two more things: (1) enable the plugin (easy) and (2) edit your pluginreg.dat to add the MS filetypes (a bit harder).
  • Catherine
    I had already done point 1 and had found the website your are pointing to in point 2 but I am not on Linux and my pluginreg.dat file does not look like this one...
    Any hint?
    Thanks a lot!
  • noksagt
    So the file you will need to edit is actually mimetypes.rdf. Remove the current entries for the microsoft formats & add entries that look like:

    <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.te
    xt"
    NC:value="application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text"
    NC:editable="true"
    NC:fileExtensions="doc"
    NC:description="OpenDocument Text Document">
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/vnd.oasis.ope
    ndocument.text"/>
    </RDF:Description>
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