New answers tagged files
1
Does it matter if the file will be downloaded vs. shown in browser?
A good thing to keep in mind is the performance and user experience of viewing the file in browser vs on computer. Depending on your audience people use different browsers and older browsers which are not good at handling a decent PDF form too. After debating on this, you should decide ...
0
Choice of Downloading or Viewing in browser should be left to user.
Information about the file size and type of file is very useful for the user no matter how big or small it is. The units should be appropriately followed, like, till 1MB, it can be shown in KBs, till 1GB, it can be shown in MBs etc. Rounding File size is not a disadvantage. It should NOT ...
0
Do not bother showing the file size. Exception made with really large files (definition of really large depending on your audience).
It is now easy to undo downloads. If it is too large then the user is going to stop the download and that is it.
What type of file it is is much more interesting for the user because she is going to expect the way it is going ...
0
I would go with some phrasing of "View PDF", or "View as PDF" because:
For certain industries and user-bases, it can make sense to include a
link to a PDF version of a HTML web page — so that visitors can either
view or download it.
The browser and installed PDF viewer will handle this according to defaults (Which means only to view and not ...
3
My recommendation would be to go for Natural language options such as "Download this page as a pdf" as it gives a textual representation of what you would get when you download the pdf. You also need to realize that unless your ALT tag is well defined for the pdf image, having a textual description along with the image would be helpful for screen readers . ...
1
I agree with JohnGB on naming the link to what it is, but I would also consider using the word "Save" or "Download" to it, if you expect your users to have an urge of saving/keeping it on their disk.
a. Save this page as PDF
b. Download this page as PDF
c. View this page as PDF
Keeping the format name ("PDF") in the end of the string also makes it ...
0
"PDF of this Page" and "View Page as PDF" are Good enough.
Google shows options for HTML verions (Standard Version and HTML Version) in Gmail.
You may think of adding PDF option (Website/Page View: HTML | PDF)
3
The user may do many things with the PDF document, but I don't see any reason that you need to refer to any specific action. Simply state what the link is or use a very general action (like 'get') if you feel the need for an verb.
So, I would suggest using:
PDF of this page
or
Get PDF of this page
The example that you gave of just 'PDF' is simple ...
3
The question you should be asking is what is so different about your PDF's that they should be treated differently than other PDF's? Since a PDF can be anything, yours are not special.
What is breaking the user experience of browsing the web these days, is that many websites treat links differently. There is nothing for the user to learn, there is no mental ...
0
If possible it's always best to give the users different options. However, allowing them to have a look before downloading the file, it will allow the user to see if the document would be useful. It is a good user experience to allow them to open it in the browser, read the table of contents and then evaluate if it's worth downloading it. Users will not want ...
2
Firstly, you can (and should?) always give the user autonomy. You can ask the user if he wants to open the pdf in a new tab or download and open the pdf with a preferred application. This is also in line with the UX guideline that the user should always feel in control.
And on the point of opening the pdf in a new tab, here are some guidelines as to make ...
-1
Latest Browser supports Force Downloads.
You can try adding "Download" attribute to your link as below
<a href="path/to/file.pdf" download>Download PDF</a>
P.S : This is only works in mordern browsers, also the same works for images too..
Reference : http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/04/how-to-use-the-download-attribute/
1
In my experience, it depends what the PDF is, and why there's a link to it.
If the PDF contains information they need, then (assuming you can't get that info into a regular page, which should always be Plan A) allowing the user to browse the PDF is probably best; users rarely want to take up hard drive space with a PDF when they just need to open it, read ...
3
Taken from the NielsonNorman website:
It seems that if you have a PDF you want the user to see, make it downloadable - Don't make them view it in the brower, especially if it's a large size.
Forcing users to browse PDF files makes usability approximately 300% worse compared to HTML pages. Only use PDF for documents that users are likely to print.
...
1
There are some situations when opening a pdf in browser is undesirable because it will break some of the functionality built into the pdf. For example your pdf may contain built-in scripts that will be ignored by a browser plugin, or maybe your pdf needs to use advanced features of Acrobat Reader. If (and only if) this is your case, then forcing your users ...
0
I'm not sure that it is even possible to force a download.
I have never tried to implement this solution, and I'm not sure it is completely possible for all platforms. I always let it do what it did, and did not say or imply in the interface it'll download (just indicate it's a PDF and not a link) since so many browsers will view automatically now.
It ...
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