General Discussion - Tips for opening PDF attachments in Gmail queens511 - Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:34 pm Post subject: Tips for opening PDF attachments in Gmail
When I get sent a PDF, sometimes I just want to view it -- I don't always need to download and save it right then. So starting today, you'll see a new "View" link next to PDF attachments you get in Gmail.
Clicking "View" quickly opens the PDF inside your browser, complete with the graphics and formatting you expect to see in a PDF. You may have seen this feature before, in Google Docs. It's the way that we did uploading and viewing of PDFs online.
If you want, you can still view in plain HTML from a link at the top of the new viewer. And if you want to download, save, and view your PDFs later while offline using client software, you can still do that by hitting the "Download" link.
February 21, 2011，a recent Gmail update changed the "View" links for PDF attachments, but only if you use Google Chrome. Instead of opening PDF files using Google Docs Viewer, Gmail now uses the PDF plugin included in Google Chrome. Unfortunately, this makes it more difficult to save PDF files to Google Docs.
Here's a simple trick that lets you open a PDF attachment in Google Docs Viewer. Click "View" next to the attachment and edit the URL: replace "view=att" with "view=gvatt" in the address bar. Another option is to right-click "View", copy the URL, paste in the address bar and replace "view=att" with "view=gvatt".
Obviously, you can also disable the built-in PDF plugin. Just type about:plugins in the address bar and click "Disable" next to "Chrome PDF Viewer".
Review:If You save as a PDF with chromed PDF viewer the downloads bar at the bottom of the screen should pop up and show the file there.
Then in google docs, in the upload section, you can drag files from the download bar to the upload section on google docs.
This may make saving PDF files from gmail to google docs more convenient.
Sorry if you already knew you could drag from downloads bar.