You can open PDFs on a web page either within your web browser or in Acrobat or Reader. Find instructions specific to each browser below.
Note:
Each browser has its own settings to control how PDFs open from a web page. Acrobat and Acrobat Reader do not include a preference setting to open web-based PDFs. To change the display behavior, follow the instructions below for your browser, or see the browser documentation on how to control plug-ins or add-ons.
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Click the Enable or Disable button (it toggles depending on the status of the selected add-on):
Enable sets the Adobe PDF Reader add-on to open PDFs in the browser.
Disable turns off the add-on so it does not open PDFs in the browser.
Select Adobe PDF Reader, and click the Enable/Disable button.
For more information, see the Internet Explorer help topic Manage add-ons in Internet Explorer.
Microsoft Windows 10 will ship with two browsers: Internet Explorer 11 and the new Edge browser.
The Edge browser will be the default browser, and Internet Explorer 11 will be available to support legacy workflows. The new Edge browser will not have any support for ActiveX plug-ins. Therefore, the Acrobat/Reader plug-in won't work with Edge. For more information, see Change in support for Acrobat and Reader plug-ins in modern web browsers.
Use Internet Explorer 11 to open PDFs. To enable the Acrobat/Reader plug-in in Internet Explorer, see the steps in the previous section.
The Acrobat/Reader plug-in for Mozilla Firefox is based on Netscape Plug-In API (NPAPI), which is supported only till Firefox version 51. With Firefox version 52, support for NPAPI plug-ins is removed, and hence the current Acrobat/Reader plug-in will not work.
The Acrobat/Reader plug-in for Google Chrome is based on the Netscape Plug-In API (NPAPI) technology. Google announced that in April 2015 NPAPI plug-in support would be disabled by default in the Google Chrome web browser, with an override capability for advanced users. In September 2015, NPAPI support in the Google Chrome web browser was removed entirely.
For more information, see Change in support for Acrobat and Reader plug-ins in modern web browsers.
Note:
The Acrobat/Reader plug-in for Apple Safari is based on Netscape Plug-In API (NPAPI), which is supported only till Safari version 11. In Safari 12, support for NPAPI plug-ins is removed, and hence the current Acrobat/Reader plug-in will not work.
To view PDFs with Safari, you can do one of the following:
- Set Safari preferences to use Adobe Reader plug-in
- Disable AdobePDFViewer plug-in to use the default Safari PDF viewer
You must have root user privileges to change Safari plug-ins. To display PDFs using the Safari PDF viewer, you must disable the Adobe PDF Viewer.
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Log in as the root user. The root user privileges aren't enabled by default because the root user can change system files. For more information and instructions, see one of the following Apple documents: Enabling and using the "root" user in Mac OS X or OS X Mountain Lion: Enable and disable the root user.
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Open the Internet Plug-ins folder, and move both the AdobePDFViewer.plugin and the AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin into the new Internet Plug-ins Disabled folder.
Note:
If both AdobePDFViewer plug-ins are still in the Internet Plug-ins folder, drag them now to the trash. You may be asked for your name and password.
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