Firefox and the `you have chosen to open ...' dialogue

[Tristan Wibberley]

Alex Mauer wrote:
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> Ian Jackson wrote:
>> As part of the DefaultApplicationsFirefox goal for Dapper, I have
>> suppressed (in the usual case) the dialogue box you get when (for
>> example) clicking on a PDF in firefox.  There has been some queries
>> about this and I'd like to deal with them here.
> 

[snip]

> 2. PDF files.  Sometimes (often) I want to save them for later
> reference, sometimes I want to just read them immediately.  The dialog
> box allowed me to decide at the time of opening what to do.

I think acrobat documents should be rendered in the same tab as if by 
the browser, with incremental loading, and a "File"->"Download and Go 
Back" menu item that will add the currently loading file to the list of 
downloads, and go back where you were as if you had just rightclicked 
the link and selected to download. Or even better, a toolbar button to 
select from the customize dialogue, since it can apply to all sorts of 
files like large desktop backgrounds, svg pictures, even pageinonefile 
saves - when you really are "browsing" a large repository of media, it 
would be a godsend ("Back" if you don't want it, "Download and Go Back" 
if you do).

This is something for a future version, though, and until then I think 
it should just ask what to do. It saves the risk of causing problems and 
is a behaviour that is pretty easy to handle and very well known, if a 
little out of place when you are trying to "browse".

-- 
Tristan Wibberley