PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

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Sheri Steeves
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PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Sheri Steeves »

Hey,

I have an issue where if I'm viewing a PDF file in the Edge or Chrome PDF viewer, my external links (other web pages, image links to YouTube videos) do not open in a new tab, but rather replace the open PDF in the current tab.

I've double checked and I've correctly set my external links to open in a "new window". If I open the PDF in Adobe Reader, clicking the link opens a new tab every time.

Is this a PDF viewer extension issue or is there something else I have to set to have this work?

I can send you links to my PDF's on the external website, if you need, to see the behaviour.

Sheri
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Tim Green
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Sheri,

This is being changed in the next update. You can already get this functionality in the current beta if you want to try it out:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/download/ ... p-v822.exe
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Sheri Steeves
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Sheri Steeves »

Great, thanks Tim. I'll try it out. What is the timeline for 8.22 release?
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Sheri Steeves
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Sheri Steeves »

Tim,

I tried the new beta and have the same behaviour.

I tested both a link to an external web page, as well as a image link to a YouTube video; both again opened the link in the same tab, replacing the loaded PDF file.
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Sheri,

Are you viewing the PDF in a web browser? Opening in a new tab probably won't work there, but it will in a proper PDF reader like Adobe Reader or Acrobat. Generally speaking, however, PDF is not suitable for interactive help and shouldn't really be used for it. A PDF is really nothing more than printer output in a file displayed on the screen with a special printer driver, and nothing Adobe can do can change that basic fact. If you need interactive help use a proper interactive format like WebHelp or eWriter. PDF is for printing and for reading linearly from start to finish. 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Sheri Steeves
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Sheri Steeves »

Tim,
Are you viewing the PDF in a web browser? Opening in a new tab probably won't work there, but it will in a proper PDF reader like Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
Yes, it's when viewing the PDF in Google or Edge that we see this.

We're using all the formats - eWriter in the apps themself, PDF and HTML on the web.
Our help is available online as both embedded html, or as a PDF - user's choice.

A lot of our quickstarts are PDF links on pages though, with the pdfs having links to external pages/other PDFs. We may need to rethink/restructure this now.

This is something our web/support people brought to my attention and I couldn't remember if it ever worked that way, or if it was a "feature" of the PDF viewers inside the browsers. I wanted to confirm that it's "just how things work" and not a new feature/setting I needed to update or change.
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Tim Green
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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Sheri,

Thanks for the confirmation. Unfortunately, links in a PDF displayed in a browser will always open in the same browser tab/window. That can't be changed as far as we can see. But again: PDF really isn't suitable for any kind of interactive documentation. :?
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: PDF Links Do Not Open In New Tab in Browser

Unread post by Simon_Dismore »

Sheri Steeves wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 4:07 pmA lot of our quickstarts are PDF links on pages though, with the pdfs having links to external pages/other PDFs.
How about putting the code for a PDF.js viewer onto your server and using it to display the PDFs in a new tab? For example, try control-clicking this or pasting it into your browser address bar: https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/vi ... it-v10.pdf

Caveat: this probably only works if you have your WebHelp, the PDF.js viewer and your PDF files all being served from the same domain.
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