# It's polite to warn people if your link is to a PDF **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 1, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953 "2005-05-01T15:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/41 "2005-05-11T01:54:22Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Adobe reader integration with IE pretty much sucks on anything but a really fast connection with a relatively small file; mostly it sucks because there’s no progress bar, so you don’t know for sure that it’s still loading and how long you’ll have to wait if it is. Warning people that your link goes to a PDF helps because it means they are slightly less likely to just click is and that they have the opportunity to right-click and Save Target, then open it locally (which typically works a lot quicker than the browser plugin. > > Yes, people should probably use a different browser, or hover before they click, but they don’t and they don’t, so warning them that it’s a PDF is a nice little courtesy that costs nothing. There is also the problem that a huge percent of people don’t even know there is anything else besides IE. With barely computer literate folks I know, I have installed Firefox on their box and said “use this, and NOT IE!” because I know they’ll have less problems they want me to fix on their system. 🙂 However, as a webmaster I have to presume the user is using IE, because that is reality. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/42 "2005-05-11T02:05:53Z")
Here’s my take: Its nice to label your links (.pdf, .mov, .vsd, etc) but its neutral to not do so. If people are having trouble with certain common files types, they _must_ become accustomed to checking for that file type. There’s a huge internet out there and SDMB is a tiny, tiny fraction of it. To put it another way (and not to change the topic), its much like the ‘no edit option’ on SDMB. You can scream and yell at the admin or whoever (“Its not fair”…“You’re trying to make me look dumb”…“Aghhh!”) but it was **YOU** who didn’t properly proofread/consider your post. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/43 "2005-05-11T02:23:46Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Which browser is that, so I can avoid using it? This happens in both IE and Firefox. Interestingly, in IE, Reader tends to crash before even opening the PDF. It’ll just hang there indefinitely, or throw an exception, or something. In Firefox, often the PDF will open okay, but then when I go to close that window or navigate away from it, it hangs indefinitely and then crashes the browser. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/44 "2005-05-11T03:19:49Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > This happens in both IE and Firefox. Interestingly, in IE, Reader tends to crash before even opening the PDF. It’ll just hang there indefinitely, or throw an exception, or something. In Firefox, often the PDF will open okay, but then when I go to close that window or navigate away from it, it hangs indefinitely and then crashes the browser. Not to me it doesn’t, but then I used the [IE Adobe Reader SpeedUp patch](http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/prods/misc/) that disables most of the rarely used acrobat plug-in features. You can re-enable them individually if you want. but it will load much faster without them, and I don’t miss them for just reading PDF files. This makes PDF’s run great on IE; can’t say if it works on Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/45 "2005-05-11T05:43:18Z")
> [@](#): > > And AFAIK it costs money to get software that creates .pdf documents, which limits many webmasters from ever doing so. On Windows-based PCs, yes. On a Mac, anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF, as part of the built-in print prompt in the OS. And I’m pretty sure that most Linux distros have a similar functionality. But, of course, the market share of non-Windows OSes is even smaller than the market share of non-IE browsers, so at the moment, it’s unfortunately pretty accurate to say that you need to pay for something to make PDFs. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/46 "2005-05-11T07:35:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > On Windows-based PCs, yes. On a Mac, anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF, as part of the built-in print prompt in the OS. And I’m pretty sure that most Linux distros have a similar functionality. > > But, of course, the market share of non-Windows OSes is even smaller than the market share of non-IE browsers, so at the moment, it’s unfortunately pretty accurate to say that you need to pay for something to make PDFs. Not true. There’s lots of free PDF-creation software for Windows. However, they produce inconsistent and unreliable results - as does the Mac’s facility. 99% of documents that are put online as PDFs should not be using that format, but do so precisely because somebody has the option to ‘just print to PDF’, rather than do the work necessary to make it into a usable online resource. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/47 "2005-05-11T18:37:29Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Yeah, great. Your great idea is ruled out by the comments earlier, that many of us choose to download PDFs and open them up separately - note that not all of us have said we don’t want to open PDFs, just that we don’t want to have Acrobat crash our browsers. Actually, the idea I was referring to is not ruled out by the comments. Perhaps you could point out how it is? I didn’t actually say it’s great, and of course you did not quote me using that word. However, it appears you think I think it’s “great” from your, shall we say, ironic use of the word. What I did say is “it’s something anyone can think of”, and I don’t see how you get from that to my thinking it’s “great”. But please correct me if I’m wrong in my interpretation of your remarks. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/48 "2005-05-11T19:45:55Z")
I was assuming your idea was to uninstall Acrobat. What was it? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/49 "2005-05-11T20:22:00Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > I used the [IE Adobe Reader SpeedUp patch](http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/prods/misc/) that disables most of the rarely used acrobat plug-in features. :eek: Snap! My life is measurably improved. (I am required to use Acrobat at work.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/50 "2005-05-11T20:38:26Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > :eek: > > Snap! > > My life is measurably improved. (I am required to use Acrobat at work.) [costanza] Alright, that’s it for me, you’ve been great! Good night everybody! [/costanza] ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/51 "2005-05-11T21:38:59Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > [costanza] > Alright, that’s it for me, you’ve been great! Good night everybody! > [/costanza] [George’s Boss] **Fear** , you really handled yourself well out there. I got rid of the other mods and admin, I want YOU as the #1 problem solver here on the boards! [/G’sB] ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/52 "2005-05-12T20:02:47Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > I was assuming your idea was to uninstall Acrobat. What was it? That would contradict this statement of mine: “It involves **zero** extra intervention on the part of either those who don’t like PDFs”. Here’s my idea. Don’t format the URL. Let the board software autoformat it. You get this where the file extension is clearly visible: [http://DO.NOT.CLICK.NOT.A.VALID.URL/graphics/formsfee/forms/files/i-9.pdf](http://DO.NOT.CLICK.NOT.A.VALID.URL/graphics/formsfee/forms/files/i-9.pdf) I said, “There is another option that’s even easier than posters identifying PDFs.” Check. “It involves zero extra intervention on the part of either those who don’t like PDFs”. Check. “or those who post links to them.” It actually involves a little less intervention, because they won’t be doing the minor fiddling to format the URL. “it’s something anyone can think of” Check. Only disadvantage I can think of: it doesn’t look as nice as a formatted link. But I doubt anyone on the SDMB will care. I see **Fear Itself** has come up with a patch. I hope it works for everyone. If not, my idea is still an option. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953/53 "2005-05-12T20:20:26Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Here’s my idea. > > Don’t format the URL. I like this idea. Either way (putting a PDF warning after the link, or just leaving it unformatted so the .pdf at the end is obvious) would be great by me. Can I just say that when I started this thread I had no idea it would go to two pages? Jeez. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-polite-to-warn-people-if-your-link-is-to-a-pdf/301953.md?page=2)