We know there’s been an increase in calls from customers that can’t interact with an attached PDF.

Many of these issues are ‘preview’ related, where customers open their Hotmail or Gmail emails in a browser and it doesn’t download the PDF document using Adobe Reader. This results in all functionality for payment and other forms being lost.

We then have the added complication of some browsers making changes that make it even more difficult for customers. Unfortunately, sometimes these changes are also implemented without the customers’ knowledge and can result in the document not working as expected with no apparent changes to their system.

Recent Changes

Recently, Google Chrome (Internet browser) made the Adobe Reader plugin the default method of opening PDFs. What this means is that customers who click to download their PDF, open it in another tab in their browser instead of actually downloading it as they would’ve previously.

Who this affects

Potentially any user who uses a webmail client, specifically with Google Chrome as their Internet browser.

What to do

It is recommended that the full version of Adobe Reader is used to view all PDFs and that the preview modes are limited to viewing static PDFs which do not have payment or navigation functionality.

In Google Chrome, after downloading a PDF the customer will be presented with the document link at the bottom of their browser window:

By clicking on the button, the user will be presented with the PDF in the browser (with limited functionality). The customer should be advised to click on the very right of the button on the small down-facing arrow. This will display various options.

By selecting “Open with system viewer”, the PDF will open in the installed version of Adobe Reader which allows for full functionality. It is also possible to change the default viewer. Please follow the link below to the official Adobe support page for more information on changing this behavior in all major web browsers.