Link to PDF not displaying in IE

Andy001 · Post by **Andy001** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 9:48 am

Flare 11. IE 11.
I tried to use a link to a pdf for the first time.....

I placed a PDF file in resources folder with windows explorer and immediately got a popup in Flare saying install ghostscript. I ignored this warning because my company has major lockdown on SW installs.

Went ahead and linked to the PDF. Build the document to run in webhelp. Click the link to the PDF it displayed properly.

I moved the compiled document to the server for others to review and use. When the document is launched off the server the link to the PDF does not work (nothing happens). When I hover over the link, a tooltip path appears and points to the correct location of the PDF file (now at drive X:server.../resources/images). I go in to windows explorer and look to see PDF is there, it is. I locate the htm file in windows explorer (drive X:server/..../content..../topics) and launch it directly in IE11. I test the link to the PDF and it functions properly.

I launched the document from the server in FireFox and it functions properly.

Other info: Mark of the Web was not set.

Any clues as to why the pdf wont display when the document is on the server? IE settings?

Post by **Nita Beck** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 3:24 pm

I just hit this problem this week. In my case, it was because MOTW WAS set, and I learned that there is a flaw in IE (not in Flare) such that IE won't launch a PDF if MOTW is set.

But that's not your case, I realize.

Here on the forums, I saw that someone suggested (I think back in 2009) that the problem might be spaces in the PDF filename, that IE doesn't interpret the space correctly and insists on substituting %20%. Why not give that a try, that is, removing the spaces in the filenames? I can't guarantee it'll work but it's worth a shot.

Andy001 · Post by **Andy001** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:22 am

Every file name in my document uses underscores orhyphens between words and there are no spaces. So that's not it.

Still stuck....

MattyQ · Post by **MattyQ** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:35 am

Andy001 wrote:Any clues as to why the pdf wont display when the document is on the server? IE settings?

This is super unlikely, but is it possible your server is using an outdated/incorrect MIME type to serve the pdfs? I've run into issues before with incorrectly configured servers causing problems with IE. Chrome and Firefox are generally more forgiving, and I think they accept commonly incorrect/nonstandard MIME types. Internet Explorer tends towards draconian enforcement, in certain cases. It can also be malformed/different in the actual PDF itself, which will cause issues in IE. See this Adobe KBA: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/pdf- ... -some.html

Update: StackOverflow for the PDF MIME type, as well: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3122 ... -pdf-files

Have you tried using the Inspector (Right-click, Inspect Element) feature in Internet Explorer? Is it throwing a 404 error when it tries to load the PDF? Or are you seeing other errors that may be causing a potential issue?

Andy001 · Post by **Andy001** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:32 am

One additional piece of information is that the PDF I'm linking to is a multiple page file. Could that be part of the issue?

Post by **RamonS** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:02 am

Multiple pages should not matter. What you may want to do is uninstall/reinstall any PDF viewers or alternatively check the application > file association in Windows. Maybe your IE is confused on what to do with a PDF? I ran into this once where applications attempted to pass PDF display to a PDF viewer that left references behind after uninstall. The result was that no PDF displayed and no error message of any kind trickled up to the top either. Just a guess....

Post by **Nita Beck** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 6:59 am

Might this Microsoft forum discussion offer any insights? http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/f ... ed6?auth=1
This doesn't appear to be a Flare issue at all, but an IE issue.

JMD101 · Post by **JMD101** » Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:00 am

I have the same problem. Thought I had a workaround but not quite. If I take out the line:

and change my tag from
<a href="../Guides/HE.pdf">HE</a>
to
<a href="../Guides/HE.pdf" target="_blank">HE</a>
and open the htm file itself, it works. But when opening the page from toc in build, get a blank page.
I want "Mark of the Web" for my overall project, but this will cause the pdf not to open. Anyway around this?

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