Downloading PDF Files

With the default settings of most browsers and computers, downloads of replacementdocs' PDF documents may appear to not be working. In all likelihood this is because the browser is attempting to load the PDF for display in the actual browser rather than downloading the PDF to disk and then opening with the Adobe Reader.

Our PDFs tend to be pretty large, so when the browser attempts to open the PDF, you'll see a blank page and the browser will look like it's just very very slow and waiting indefinitely. The PDF plugin for web browsers gives you no progress bar and won't show you anything until it's completely loaded, so my recommendation is to disable this plugin and force PDFs to be opened externally. There are several ways to do this.

Method A
The first method is for Firefox users. I highly recommend using Firefox over Internet Explorer for numerous reasons.

Firefox 1.5
Go to Tools -> Options -> Downloads-> View and Edit Actions

Firefox 2.0
Go to Tools -> Options -> Content -> File Types -> Manage

This will list all of the different file extensions handled by Firefox. Find the PDF extension and click "Change Action". Now, depending on your preference, you want to change the PDF action from using the Adobe plugin to either saving to your computer or opening with the default application.

Method B
The second method is a more generic method for any browser. All you need to do is open up the Adobe Reader.

Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Internet

Then, uncheck the "Display PDFs in browser" box and click OK.

Method C
This is another option for Firefox users. You can install the excellent PDF Download Firefox Add-on. This simple add-on will pop-up a dialog anytime a PDF URL is supplied to Firefox. The dialog will explicitly ask you how you want to deal with the PDF. That way you won't have to worry about misconfigured Acrobat browser plug-ins.

That's it!
Once you've taken care of that, downloading PDFs from us will be easier and make more sense. Enjoy!