How to open a PDF file in directly in PDF Viewer instead of in SharePoint?

Question

Hello, i apologize if the title is confusing.

So, whenever users open a PDF file, it's opened in SharePoint first regardless of the 'Site Collection Features' setting for 'Open in Browser'.

When a user selects a file, only way that person can open in PDF Viewer on Chrome is if they select the below 'Open in Browser' button after the file is opened in SharePoint.

Is there anyway to change this so whenever a user opens a PDF file uploaded in SharePoint, it will opened up in PDF Viewer in Chrome directly?

Thank you

Answer 1

You would need to develop your own file handler. Otherwise, it will be handled by SharePoint or if you integrate something like Adobe Document Cloud, opened by Doc Cloud (which is still in the browser, but Adobe's service instead).

In essence, no PDF application out there (such as Adobe Reader) implements a Chrome plugin to automatically open in the desktop application. Chromium-based browsers will always have the PDF open in the browsers' renderer. Adobe provides a plugin for Chromium browsers that allows you to then click and open it in the desktop, but that's not quite applicable in this case.

So, until a company like Adobe, Foxit, etc. produce a handler that allows for registration and opening in the desktop application, we're a bit out of luck here.

Answer 2

We have the same issue and solved it with a few extra clicks. If you have the browser extension for Acrobat, you can choose 'open in browser', then click the Acrobat button to pull into Acrobat.

There is an extension for Chrome and Edge

Answer 3

@Hendrix, Jesslyn

While that works, how are you then saving any changes you make to the PDF file back to the SharePoint/Teams site? In my test just now, I was able to open the pdf file in the browser and then click on the "Open in Acrobat" link (I'm using Edge in Win 11). Once in Acrobat, I can make necessary changes, but can't save it back to the SharePoint library without first saving it to my local computer and then uploading to the SharePoint site.

Answer 4

This was also incredibly frustrating to me, but I figured out this morning that if you add "#page=1" to the end of the PDF URL, seems that the garbage SharePoint PDF viewer doesn't know how to handle that so it reverts to the default viewer, which is what everyone wanted. So just make sure to add that to all PDF links. Also, if you didn't know about it, the #page and #section bookmark things are super useful for having a URL jump to a specific page/bookmark in a PDF. Not sure that this has ever been officially supported, can't even find the reference document to it now, but it's always worked for the hundreds of pdfs I've worked with over the years.

Answer 5

I had high hopes for this pure-cloud solution that integrates into SharePoint Online (it's the one on the left):
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/o365pdf/start.html

Since it's a decent viewer, basic editor, doesn't require logging into Adobe Cloud, and crucially allows you to save seamlessly back into Sharepoint (so no downloading of PDFs and then re-uploading them).

However, I just can't seem to get it deployed properly:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/744900/34grant-admin-consent34-on-company-behalf-appears.html