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If so, read on to find out how you can use the Google Docs Viewer to open any PDF document that's available online without having to download it to your local computer OR have a PDF reader installed to view it.
If you use Chrome, installing the Google Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer Extension will automatically let you open a PDF (or a PowerPoint .PPT) file hyperlink within the browser. The Google Docs Viewer's user interface lets you navigate easily through the document, zoom in & out & search for keywords within the document.
To install the Extension visit the home page of the Google Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer within the Chrome Extensions gallery & click on the Install button.
If IE, Firefox, Safari or Opera is your preferred browser, you can use Joen Asmussen's Google Docs Viewer bookmarklet to view PDF files that are online, without a PDF Reader.
A bookmarklet is a Javascript program stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. The bookmarklet works from the Bookmarks toolbar (which is also called Favorites Bar in IE & Personal Bar in Opera) & in this case the Javascript within the bookmarklet invokes the Google Docs Viewer web service and passes the URL of the online PDF (or a PowerPoint .PPT) file that you want to open.
By default, the Bookmarks toolbar may not be open. You can enable it from the browser's View menu.
To install the Google Docs Viewer bookmarklet, go to the page where Joen has hosted the bookmarklet. Look for the "View PDFs, TIFFs and PPTs using Google Viewer" bookmarklet. Drag & drop this bookmarklet onto the Bookmarks toolbar. The next time you see a link that is a PDF (or a PPT), click on the bookmarklet first & then click on that hyperlink. To make it easy to test this feature on a PDF link, use this URL that does a random Google search for files of type .PDF - http://www.google.co...=filetype%3Apdf
The process to add the Bookmarklet to the Favorites Bar in IE8 is slightly different as you cannot drag & drop it. Follow these steps to install the bookmarklet in IE 8:
- Right click on the bookmarklet link "View PDFs, TIFFs and PPTs using Google Viewer" on this page.
- Select "Add to Favorites..." from the context menu
- Respond to the Security alert that says "You are adding a favorite that might not be safe. Do you want to continue?" by clicking on the Yes button (you will get this warning with any bookmarklet as it involves a third-party script; we assume this bookmarklet is safe)
- In the "Add a Favorite" dialog box that opens, select Favorites Bar from the dropdown opposite to label "Create in"
- Click on the Add button & you will see this bookmarklet in the Favorites Bar
Alternatively, you can use "Open With Google Docs Viewer" Accelerator in IE8.
