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View PDFs With Google Docs Viewer Bookmarklet [Update: Greasemonkey Script]

    14:51 on October 06th, 2009 , ,

Google Docs has a webbased PDF reader that far outshines Adobes Reader, did you know? Did you also know that you can now view any online PDF document using this reader? Well you can, and using this freshly brewed bookmarklet, you can turn any hyperlink that points to a PDF into a comfy Google Viewer readable PDF. Drag one of these bookmarklet links to your bookmarks bar:

Try it out; here’s a link to an online PDF, an online PPT file and an online TIFF file. Click the bookmarklet first, then click either a link.

[Update]: Since the Google Viewer also supports PowerPoint PPT and TIFF image files, I’ve added an alternative multi-bookmarklet (per request) that does all three filetypes.

[Update 2]: The bookmarklets should now work with uppercase file extensions. (Thanks Tyler).

[Update 3]: This greasemonkey script may work for you.

43 Comments

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Pings

  1. 快速使用 Docs Viewer 查看网站上的PDF文件 | 谷奥——探寻谷歌的奥秘
  2. Google Docs Viewer Bookmarklet Makes PDFs Less Freeze-y [Bookmarklet] · TechBlogger
  3. 快速使用 Docs Viewer 查看网站上的PDF文件 - Jeff-Chen.Com
  4. 重いPDFやPPTファイルもサクッと開けるGoogle Docs Viewer ブックマークレット - WEBマーケティング ブログ
  5. Google Docs Viewer Bookmarklet Makes PDFs Less Freeze-y | Lifehacker Australia
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  7. Iain Cheyne (icheyne) 's status on Saturday, 10-Oct-09 20:17:00 UTC - Identi.ca
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  9. Leggere PPT e PDF online tramite Google Docs Viewer | Googlisti.com
  10. RSS Week #70: letture per il weekend - Matteo Moro
  11. *blend - *blending technology and blending families » Google Docs Viewer Bookmarklet Makes PDFs Less Freeze-y [Bookmarklet]
  12. westXdesign.com - Computer and Internet Solutions » Google Docs Viewer Bookmarklet Makes PDFs Less Freeze-y [Bookmarklet]
  13. Abrir archivos PDF, PPT y TIF en internet con Google Docs Viewer | Materia Geek
  14. Computerk(r)ampf.de » Blog Archive » PDFs direkt im Browser anzeigen
  15. Bookmarks | Call me Yaisog.

Comments

  1. Shal says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 13:43   (Quote)

    Does this work on the iPhone?

    Reply to this thread
  2. J (subscribed) says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 14:34   (Quote)

    Any idea why the bookmarklet wouldn’t work with this site? http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jm9010127

    Reply to this thread
  3. J (subscribed) says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 14:44   (Quote)

    Thanks, I appreciate your effort. Nice idea btw. I open up a ton of pdfs every day and get really tired of the load time and browser freeze.
    Thanks again.

    Reply to this thread
  4. Jeff O Hara says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 14:51   (Quote)

    Any chance this could work for .doc, docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx too? That would be awesome.

    Reply to this thread
  5. Brandon says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 17:57   (Quote)

    If only there were a perfect PDF reader for Windows out there. I have a lot of saved PDF files. Foxit blows, Adobe’s Blows….

    This is a brilliant solution for online PDFs though.

    Reply to this thread
  6. Tyler (subscribed) says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 21:05   (Quote)

    Doesn’t seem to work with this site: http://volokh.com/2009/09/30/background-reading-for-supreme-courts-new-14th2d-amendment-case/

    It seems to be because all of the PDF links have the extension in all uppercase. I changed the extension in the bookmarklet to uppercase and then it works. I’m no expert in javascript, but it seems like you need to do a case-insensitive search for the “.pdf” string.

    Reply to this thread
    • Tyler (subscribed) says:
      October 07th, 2009 at 21:38   (Quote)

      I believe this will work no matter what the case of the links:

      javascript:var%20link,l=0;while(link=document.links[l++]){if(link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf(‘.pdf’)!=-1&&link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf(‘javascript’)==-1&&link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf(‘file:’)==-1){var%20newString=’http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=’+link.href;link.href=newString;}};void(null);

      The only difference is the “toLowerCase()” before each indexOf function.

    • Joen says:
      October 07th, 2009 at 21:43   (Quote)

      Excellent find, and thanks for the solution, I have added it to the post!

  7. Rick says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 22:47   (Quote)

    Can I ask…
    Can someone (with brain bigger than me)
    write a GreaseMonkey script to change the
    PDF links to automatically call Google PDF?

    Reply to this thread
    • Joen says:
      October 07th, 2009 at 23:08   (Quote)

      Okay I’ve never done greasemonkey scripts before, but it seems to just be JavaScript files with a custom header. So here’s an attempt at a greasemonkey script.

      If you test it, please let me know if it works for you.

      // ==UserScript==
// @name           View PDFs, PPTs and TIFFs in Google Viewer
// @namespace      Google
// @description    This script ensures that all hyperlinks pointing to PDFs, PowerPoint docs and TIFF images are opened using Google Viewer.
// ==/UserScript==
 
var link, l = 0; 
 
while (link = document.links[l++]) {
 
	if (link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.pdf') != -1 || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.ppt') != -1 || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.tiff') != -1 || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.tif') != -1 && link.href.indexOf('javascript') == -1 && link.href.indexOf('file:') == -1) {
 
		var newString = 'http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=' + link.href;
		link.href = newString;
 
	};
 
};

      (Paste the above code in a new textfile, and save the script somewhere and load the script as you would any other greasemonkey script).

    • Joen says:
      October 07th, 2009 at 23:16   (Quote)

      Actually I just tested my own script in Google Chrome and it works for me. You have to call the file something like pdflinks.user.js for it to work, though.

  8. Gary says:
    October 07th, 2009 at 23:32   (Quote)

    Very nice! Simple and quite useful. Snappy PDF & PPT viewing is great! Thanks!

    Reply to this thread
  9. Patrick says:
    October 08th, 2009 at 00:25   (Quote)

    I just uploaded to userscripts.com a simple Greasemonkey script, pdf2googleviewer which converts all links to pdf files (or PDF files :) to view them through the Google Viewer.

    Reply to this thread
  10. Iain Cheyne says:
    October 10th, 2009 at 21:18   (Quote)

    Google Chrome Alpha under Linux does not yet render PDFs normally, but I was able to use this bookmarklet. Major timesaver. Thanks!

    Reply to this thread
  11. chanux says:
    October 11th, 2009 at 04:52   (Quote)

    This is great!. This saves a lot for me :)

    Reply to this thread
  12. Joel (subscribed) says:
    October 22nd, 2009 at 18:43   (Quote)

    Hi,
    Great bookmarklet! I wanted to use it in Opera Mini on my mobile phone, but Google Reader isn’t very good on a small screen. Instead I modified the script to use http://view.samurajdata.se/ instead. I thought someone else is interested in this as well so I post the solution here:
    javascript:var%20link,l=0;while(link=document.links[l++]){if(link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf(‘.pdf’)!=-1&&link.href.indexOf(‘javascript’)==-1&&link.href.indexOf(‘file:’)==-1){var%20newString=’http://view.samurajdata.se/ps.php?url=’+link.href;link.href=newString;}};void(null);
    If you want more info about boomarklets in Opera Mini, you can look at http://wapreview.com/blog/?p=255. I posted the solution there as well together with a link to this site. Hope you don’t mind!

    Reply to this thread
  13. Serola says:
    November 16th, 2009 at 10:34   (Quote)

    Thanks Joen and Joel :) That works also for even more pdf conversion services like pdf to html at pdfdownload.org that is also quite nice alternative for Opera Mini users.

    javascript:var%20link,l=0;while(link=document.links[l++]){if(link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf(‘.pdf’)!=-1&&link.href.indexOf(‘javascript’)==-1&&link.href.indexOf(‘file:’)==-1){var%20newString=’http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?images=yes&url=’+link.href;link.href=newString;}};void(null);

    Reply to this thread
  14. ftvs says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 09:35   (Quote)

    Adding encodeURI to the link.href will help with messed up file names like tps%20report.pdf.

    I posted the Bookmarklet but there were problems, so adapt from the Greasemonkey script.

    Greasemonkey:

    
var link, l = 0; 

while (link = document.links[l++]) {
	if (link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.pdf') != -1
            || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.ppt') != -1
            || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.tiff') != -1
            || link.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('.tif') != -1
            && link.href.indexOf('javascript') == -1
            && link.href.indexOf('file:') == -1)
    {
		var newString = 'http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=' + encodeURI(link.href);
		link.href = newString;
	}
}
    Reply to this thread
  15. Van says:
    January 01st, 2010 at 15:52   (Quote)

    I love the wide range of tools that have become available to us through Google. Each month there is a new tool or software that Google is releasing in beta testing. Google Insight has been my favourite and I believe has taken the time out of keyword research. Thanks

    Reply to this thread
  16. alex p. says:
    March 01st, 2010 at 20:16   (Quote)

    Cool, thanks!

    Reply to this thread

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