Up until recently there wasn't a choice and a PDF file was treated simply as a file and you could only download it. This was irritating if you wanted to read it because you would need to download it first, then run a PDF reader like Foxit or Adobe, then delete the PDF afterwards or leave it cluttering up the disk drive.
A recent update now enables you to read PDFs in SkyDrive in the web browser. If you click a PDF file the browser uses whatever plug-in, add-on or extension is available to display the document. This is useful. (If you do actually want to download a PDF you just tick the box next to it and click the download link on the right.)
The new feature appears to be experiencing some teething troubles though. I prefer Foxit Reader to Adobe Acrobat because it is a small, lightweight and fast application. Foxit is a 14Mb download (36Mb installed) and Adobe is 65Mb (108Mb installed), which gives an indication of the size difference. I've always found Foxit Reader to have fewer problems than Adobe Reader too. However, SkyDrive doesn't recognise Foxit. Click PDFs on other websites and you can view them in the browser using Foxit, but not on SkyDrive. It just says go and get Adobe Reader. Chrome works fine though and this is because it has a built in PDF viewer.
If you want to view PDF documents on SkyDrive without downloading them the only option is to install Adobe Reader at the moment. This works as advertised and it's a shame I can't use my preferred reader, Foxit.
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