Reading pdf files in DA?

I am trying to use DA in order to search medical literature. However, try as I may, I am unable to visualize pdf files inside of DA. E.g. I find an interesting article on PubMed with a link to a freely accessible pdf file. When I click the link that points to this pdf file, DA seems to be accessing the file (it loads the correct URL in its menu bar) but nothing appears in the ensuing window. Loading this URL in whatever web browser I want (Camino, Firefox, Mozilla) gives me a correctly formatted pdf file within SchubertIT’s pdf plug-in window; this internet plug in has been in use on several of my Macs for several years without problems.

Now, I really would like to read pdf files within DA, and not switch to a web browser…
What do I do wrong?

Probably this plugin isn’t compatible to WebKit applications like DEVONagent. However, if you’re using Tiger, DEVONagent is able to display PDFs (and add them to DT) without any third-party plugin.

Zeus1, I have to guess that you may be experiencing a conflict with the SchubertIT pdf plug-in. I haven’t run the ShubertIT plug-in since switching to Tiger (Tiger includes built-in capability for rendering pdf in a browser), so that’s why I’m guessing. Try quiting your various browsers, including DA, removing the plug-in, and trying DA again.

As I write this this I’m looking at images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/MacO … _TB_v2.pdf, rendered well in the version of DA that I’m using.

I have done some further testing, based on Your collective suggestions:

  • in my Library/Internet PlugIns, I had copies of the Schubert pdf plugin (installed by me) and AdobePDFViewer.plugin version 7.0.0 (probably through installation of Adobe Acrobat Professional?)
  • after removing both plugins and restarting DA and Camino, I could access the pdf on the Apple site (example given by Fred) with DA, but Camino could not open the page and downloaded it as a pdf file to my desktop
    -after re-installing the Schubert plugin, I could access it with DA and the page normally opened in Camino (without download).
  • after installing the AdobePDFViewer.plugin, DA could no longer access the pdf: according to the menubar it d/l something from the URL but presented after some time a blank page. Camino could not visualize the page, but d/l it to the desktop.

My conclusions:

  • my first problem was caused by an interaction between the Schubert plu-in and the AdobePDFViewer.plugin, with the Adobe plug-in being the “bad one”
  • the Schubert plug-in works perfectly and is necessary in order to have Camino render a pdf file
  • DA can render a pdf file without any plug-in installed

Now, a newer question: Camino purports to being a “real Cocoa” application but is unable to render pdf files under Tiger 10.4.4. If what You say is correct, why can DA open pdf files and not Camino???

DEVONagent uses Apple’s WebKit (the Safari engine) whereas Camino is based on Firefox’s engine “Gecko” which does not use the PDFKit of Tiger (used to render PDF documents in Safari or DEVONagent) at the moment.

I too cannot “see” any linked PDFs as Zeus noted. I am somewhat leery of deleting application support such as the Schubert plug-in without knowing what they are or how to recover them. Any suggestions?

The trouble-maker was the Adobe plugin, not the Schubert plugin, which doesn’t cause problems and can be useful. I use it myself on my Power Mac.

However, as far as I know there’s not an Intel Mac-compatible version of the Schubert plugin.

Note that every time Adobe updates Acrobat or Reader it reinstalls that pesky plugin and you should immediately remove it again.

Removing the Acrobat plug-in worked for me.

Thanks for the heads up

R. Joe