PDF Files Online, Open in Adobe Acrobat

For PDF documents linked in a browser, clicking the link can result in the browser attempting to open the PDF, which may not work for a variety of reasons. This article details steps on how to avoid this issue.

Have you seen this error while trying to open and work with a PDF from a campus site?

Error message displayed in a browser saying, "Please wait...If this message...replaced by..."

This message pops up when the system is attempting to use the browser to open the PDF. Instead, better to download the PDF and work with files using Adobe Acrobat, installed on your computer.

To make your browser automatically download PDF files (In this example, Google Chrome is shown)

Chrome's Settings menu is the three-vertical-dot button at the top/right of the window. Click it and select "Settings" (pictured below).

Google Chrome three-vertical-dot menu and Settings option

Along the left, find "Privacy and Security," and then "Site Settings" in the middle/right.

"Privacy and security" and "Site Settings"

Scroll to the bottom and select "Additional content settings."

"Additional site settings"

Find "PDF documents" and select it.

"PDF documents"

On the resulting page, choose the radial button for "Download PDFs."

The "Download PDFs" radial button selected

Close the Settings tab when finished. Find the PDF file in the computer's Downloads folder or whatever location was selected when downloading. You can then open the downloaded PDF file with Adobe Acrobat.

If encountering problems with this process or if you have questions, please reach out to IT Partners @ Gies Help Desk by emailing helpdesk@business.illinois.edu.



Keywords:
"PDF Files Online, Open in Adobe Acrobat", PDF, PDFs, PDF's, Acrobat, Adobe, "online PDF", "PDF online", web, "PDF on the web", Chrome 
Doc ID:
127053
Owned by:
Scott L. in UI Gies College of Business
Created:
2023-04-04
Updated:
2024-10-15
Sites:
UI Gies College of Business