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Subject:RE: inter document pdf links on web for mac From:Chris Gooch <chris -dot- gooch -at- lightworkdesign -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:18:09 +0100
Hi folks -
I said I'd provide a summary when I got to the bottom of this, so here
goes;
It seems, for the time being, that it's simply impossible, on
Mac OS X, to properly use Acrobat Reader as a plug-in for
Internet Explorer; which is necessary if you want to provide
interlinked PDF files on a web site.
Someone else having problems viewing PDF files from
within IE on Mac OS X asked about it on the Adobe Customer Forum
for Reader, and the reply is interesting: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50 -at- 146 -dot- CQKgaiUVLeZ -dot- 5@.1de8688f/0
I came across the following background to PDF and Mac OS X,
which makes for interesting reading (particularly last couple of
slides). Basically Apple have made a limited form of PDF
integral to OS X's whole graphics system, but this seems to
cause a deal of difficulty for OS X users and PDFs which use
the full PDF specification (links, search, forms, etc.) http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/pdfs/pdf2k/01W/rosenthol_macosxpdf.pdf
I wasted a good deal of time downloading and reinstalling the
latest Reader (5.1) and following misleading / incomplete information
on Adobe's web site. Here is their misleading account of the whole
issue: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/29776.htm
The tech docs that this one links to explain how to set reader up
as a plug in only for OS 9, not OS X. The installer itself claims
it is setting up the plugin, but it does no such thing.
So, I've had quite a frustrating afternoon (evening now). Hopefully
Version 6 of Acrobat, out soon apparently, will address some
of this.
In the meantime, I'm providing a .zip of all my .pdf documents so they
can be downloaded all in one go and then they'll work with Adobe Reader
using the local copies of the files. And I'll have to put a note on
the web site explaining why there are issues for OS X users.
If you publish PDF files on a web site you may want to do likewise;
otherwise to the Mac OS X user, it just appears that your PDF
docs are "broken" (many of them may not in fact ever have downloaded
Acrobat Reader, since the inbuilt "Preview" functionality is fine
for simple PDF files).
Once again, thanks to those who took the time to reply.
HTH,
Chris.
Christopher Gooch, Technical Author,
LightWork Design Ltd., Sheffield, UK.
www.lightworkdesign.com
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