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Display of PDFs in 5.1?

I've just updated from 10.6.7 to 10.6.8 and from Safari 5 to Safari 5.1. To my surprise, PDFs are now displayed in QuickTime (first page only), where they had rpeviously been displayed in Preview. I moved the QuickTime plugin from Library/Internet Plugins to Library/Disabled Plugins, restarted Safari, and PDFs resumed being displayed in Preview, but I could no longer view movies (for example, from lynda.com). I saw that I had an AdobePDFViewer plugin, which I also disabled.

I did a search of the discussisons and found similar problems dating back to 2005 and 2006, but didn't come up with anything regarding Safari 5. I'm a long-time Mac user and have never encountered this before. I do not have Adobe Reader installed, as I have always preferred to have Preview display PDFs in Safari (although I do have CS5 and Acrobat 9 Pro installed).

So, right now it seems I can either view PDFs in Preview, or view QuickTime movies in Safari (depending on the status of the plugin), but not both, which I could easily do in 10.6.7.

Does anyone knwo of prefernce or plist files that can safely be deleted to fix this? Or si there some other fix? This seems as odd problem as it only involves Apple software which should work together.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 8, 2011 8:34 AM

24 replies

Aug 17, 2011 7:48 PM in response to silvermoonbeam

Actually silvermoonbeam, I found this thread because my contextual "Open In Preview" has disappeared, too. I have always opened pdfs in Safari, which is fine, since I like to see if that's what I want before taking a closer look or saving to my disk. But I NEVER read pdfs in Safari, since Preview is so much more capable.

So, what happened to the "Open in Preview"? I really want it back.

Aug 20, 2011 8:09 AM in response to silvermoonbeam

Thanks silvermoonbeam. I'm on 10.6.8 and finally found the file. Opened in TextWrangler and typed in false. It seems to work. I had downloaded Schubert, which also worked, but more slowly. Should I delete that now?

Aug 20, 2011 8:36 AM in response to John Newell

I'm glad that worked for you! I actually don't know anything about the Schubert plugin and only heard about it from these Apple discussions. If there's nothing else it's doing for you, then, yes, I'd go ahead and delete it.

tcp

Level 1

0 points

Aug 22, 2011 8:19 AM in response to Kevin James

For me, once I had removed the adobe/reader extensions, the trick for getting back the contextual menu option was to go into the safari prefs and under the general tab, selecting "open 'safe' files after downloading" – for me, at least, while that's unchecked, my contextual menu option for opening in preview is gone. (note, I had to reload my 'test' pdf to see the contextual menu item after enabling that pref).

Now, there are security ramifications for enabling that option, so be mindful/do your homework before enabling it, but it may well solve your contextual menu troubles...

Aug 22, 2011 8:26 AM in response to tcp

I found that if I have selected nothing in the Safari-displayed PDF and right-click, I do not get the "Open in Preview" option in the contextual menu. But if I select a word in the PDF, or click the cursor in the document, then I do get the "Open in Preview" option. It took some exprimeting to figure it out. It looks like Apple changed this behavior slightly in Safari 5.1.

Aug 23, 2011 10:54 AM in response to silvermoonbeam

I bought a Mac so I didn't have to learn to debug a computer. Does anyone know when Apple is going to fix this basic problem of not being able to read pdfs in Safari. Seems like a simple patch that a tech could fix in an hour.

L Rider

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2011 7:07 AM in response to silvermoonbeam

Thanks so much this worked for me. I am not too tech so your detailed instructions were very helpful.

Oddly the problem occuerd on my iMac when updating to lion 10.7.2........but not on my 2 MacBook puties. Very strange. I started to downlaod pdfs on the smaller puties and then move to the big iMac, what a hassle.

Much appreciated!!

Feb 24, 2012 3:33 PM in response to silvermoonbeam

I have been haviing the same problem and found the solution. Just delete the Adobe plugin in Safar. Here its the link: http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/safariplugin.htm . This solved the problem and I can open PDFs in Safari.

Cheers,

Feb 25, 2012 1:51 PM in response to 767flymac

I did what you suggested, but I had to remove the Quicktime plug-in (QuickTime Plugin.plugin) from the Library; Internet plug-ins. If you read the discription of this plug-in (when you go to Safari>Help>Installed Plug-ins) it states that this is to read .pdf in QT. However, in doing so, I can no longer listen to .mp3 on-line—instead they are downloaded. SO, I think I'll re-install the plug-in and use Chrome when I want to view .pdfs on-line.

Display of PDFs in 5.1?