On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Tony Firshman <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Aug 18, at 13:43 | Aug18, Geoff Wicks wrote: > >> >> >> This discussion is becoming an absolute farce. >> >> !: I changed the subject for a good reason. No one has taken any notice. >> >> 2: I am told there are no PDF files on my site. Strange, because, with one >> exception, all the files on the help and advice page are PDF. >> >> 3: Do we know the difference between a PDF file and a web link? These are >> two distinct things. >> >> Let's take them one by one: >> >> PDF files appear in a frame. There is a good reason for this. A PDF file is >> part of the website. The PDF is displayed on the screen and people can >> decide whether they want to download it, print it or just ignore it. When >> they have finished a simple click takes them to another place on the site. >> >> There is considerable evidence from the statistics that this type of >> presentation is encouraging people to browse and look at things that they >> probably would not look at otherwise. >> >> >> Web links take you to another site. Because you are going to another site, >> there are genuine grounds for criticism for the way I have done this and I >> am quite happy to make a change. In fact the two YouTube clips do not open >> in a frame because YouTube does not permit this. >> >> I suspect that Ralf made a "slip of the tongue" in his original email and >> that he meant to say web links. Easily done. But can the rest of us please >> be careful in our terminology, > I had not looked at that page. > > Your efforts fail in my Firefox under Mac which is using the default setup. > Your pdfs do not open within the browser (let alone a frame) but get > downloaded to the "Downloads" folder. > This is how *all* pdfs from every site I use are handled. > > I agree with you - it is far better to open within the existing window. > I wonder if there is a method that would work for Firefox/Mac - I would very > much prefer this. >
It maybe needs restating that PDFs are a file format, and are passed to a helper application. The web designer does not get to define the behavior of the viewer's helper application. The web designer should make no assumptions about the viewer's helper application, or how the data will be presented on the viewer's machine. Further, PDF is a very non-conventional way to present information within a website, and is typically reserved for presenting consistent static data in a downloadable format for later/external use. Dave _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
