# Why Warn Folk When Linking To A PDF File? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865 "2010-01-21T17:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/1 "2010-01-21T17:57:36Z")
I guess this is gonna be a stupid question, because everyone here seems to just “know” that we warn when a link we post is to a .pdf file. So I suspect that the answer is somewhere very obvious and I have missed it. Oh, well, it’s been a while since we had a good pile on here; I’ll volunteer, Sarge! So what problem might someone have when clicking on a link to a .pdf file? FWIW, I’ve never had my computer or display do anything untoward when I do this, and I’ve opened a lot of them through a linky. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/2 "2010-01-21T18:01:58Z")
Because PDF files can be large, and are opened by another application. Therefore when you click on a link, it will do much more than just go to another web page. People do not like to be surprised by clicking on a link that takes a minute or so to load and brings up another app in the process. It’s not so much a real warning as a heads-up. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/3 "2010-01-21T18:02:50Z")
1. Dial-up. 2)Acrobat Reader often freezes or crashes the browser. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/4 "2010-01-21T18:05:52Z")
Because people are overly paranoid about .PDF files these days. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/5 "2010-01-21T18:06:53Z")
Here is the thread started on 01/09/2010 in About This Message Board. [Why the PDF warnings?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=547153) ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/6 "2010-01-21T18:09:11Z")
Its not necessarily that PDFs are large, but the damn acrobat plugin is a slow and bloaty app. Youre looking at several seconds to just start it on top of the file download time. The real solution is to get browser makers to default to downloading a pdf instead of attempting to display it inline with a plugin. In the meantime, I find using foxit is a good compromise. Its faster than acrobat and seems more stable. > [@](#): > > So what problem might someone have when clicking on a link to a .pdf file? I read that pdfs are now the biggest virus/trojan vector on the internet. MAcrobat is such a unsecure application that it has quite a few buffer overflow exploits. Its advised that users go into preferences and disabled javascript or switch to Foxit. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/7 "2010-01-21T18:11:55Z")
Do people still blindly click links without checking the status bar to where it points? . I guess that’s kind of rhetorical. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/8 "2010-01-21T18:14:38Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > Do people still blindly click links without checking the status bar to where it points? . Even if they did, not all PDF links will explictly have .pdf extension in the URL. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/9 "2010-01-21T19:23:04Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > Do people still blindly click links without checking the status bar to where it points? . > > I guess that’s kind of rhetorical. Some mobile browsers don’t preview the URL. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/10 "2010-01-21T19:45:06Z")
Ah, I see. Many thanks for informing me! > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Here is the thread started on 01/09/2010 in About This Message Board. [Why the PDF warnings?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=547153) Heh. I figured I was missing it somewhere. Just didn’t realize there was a thread that recent. Need to use search more/better. Thanks, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/11 "2010-01-21T19:50:10Z")
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#): > > Ah, I see. Many thanks for informing me! Another interesting observation based on your username… imagine if you have internet access on an airplane. While it’s convenient to browse the web in the flight, the bandwidth is very low – pages load slowly. Imagine you inadvertently clicked on a mega megabyte PDF without realizing it. Clicking on a PDF without warning could be annoying to some folks. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/12 "2010-01-21T19:53:54Z")
The problem is that people are still using Adobe Reader for reading their PDFs, and Adobe Reader is slllooooowwww. I don’t know why more people don’t use the incredibly fast [Foxit reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/). It makes PDFs a much smaller concern. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/13 "2010-01-21T20:52:52Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > The problem is that people are still using Adobe Reader for reading their PDFs, and Adobe Reader is slllooooowwww. I don’t know why more people don’t use the incredibly fast [Foxit reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/). It makes PDFs a much smaller concern. Interesting. I’ll check into that one when I get home, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![OccamsTaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ec8ea/32.png) [@OccamsTaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OccamsTaser)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/14 "2010-01-21T21:18:53Z")
I’m new and not versed in the ettiquette of the forums here, but I can tell you from personal experience that not all browsers deal with PDF’s the same way. On my desktop Mac, in Safari, they’re rendered just like a webpage, but on my laptop running Ubuntu Linux, in Chrome, they are automatically downloaded, which sort of annoys me. Bill ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/15 "2010-01-30T03:43:35Z")
pdf files?! think of the children! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/16 "2010-01-30T03:57:30Z")
I’ve heard about malware in pdf’s. I no longer install Acrobat on the pc I use for surfing the web. [http://news.techworld.com/security/111127/adobe-flaw-could-lead-to-more-pdf-malware/](http://news.techworld.com/security/111127/adobe-flaw-could-lead-to-more-pdf-malware/) > [@](#): > > There are a couple of defences PC users can employ until the patch arrives. Users should not open PDFs from untrusted sources, Symantec said. Also, since the attack relies on JavaScript, users can disable that function in Acrobat and Reader, Shadowserver advised. Anyone know if Foxit reader has the same vulnerabilities? > [@BrandonR](#): > > The problem is that people are still using Adobe Reader for reading their PDFs, and Adobe Reader is slllooooowwww. I don’t know why more people don’t use the incredibly fast [Foxit reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/). It makes PDFs a much smaller concern. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/17 "2010-01-30T05:34:50Z")
> [@BrandonR](#): > > The problem is that people are still using Adobe Reader for reading their PDFs, and Adobe Reader is slllooooowwww. I don’t know why more people don’t use the incredibly fast [Foxit reader](http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/). It makes PDFs a much smaller concern. I liked Foxit Reader but I found [PDF-XChange Viewer](http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/pdf-xchange-viewer/pdfxchangeviewer.html) to be even faster. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/18 "2010-01-30T05:38:20Z")
> [@pope\_hentai](#): > > pdf files?! think of the children! [Know the difference!](http://www.monkeyreview.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/1237521984934.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/19 "2010-01-30T06:24:02Z")
> [@OccamsTaser](#): > > On my desktop Mac, in Safari, they’re rendered just like a webpage… Which is precisely the reason for warning about PDFs. Before Acrobat 7 came along, clicking on a big PDF file by accident pretty much meant I had to go get coffee and chat with some co-workers before my computer became usable again. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865/20 "2010-01-30T11:43:53Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Even if they did, not all PDF links will explictly have .pdf extension in the URL. Not necessarily - I’m pretty sure .asp and .php links can end up opening a non-html target - in fact, I think it’s possible not to even have an extension in the URL - depending on how the web server is configured [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-warn-folk-when-linking-to-a-pdf-file/525865.md?page=2)