Strange problem with some PDF's in Viewer Pane

Help & Support
1

A strange situation occurs in the viewer pane in Opus 9 with some PDF documents. It does not occur with PDF documents that I personally create of various items on my screen, using the free software "PDFill PDF Writer". But apparently only on PDF documents that I have brought up on a web site, and then saved to my computer.

When I browse a folder on my computer, and put the focus on one of these documents, an error message comes up on my monitor display.

The error message is
Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded

Then the viewer pane displays
Navigation to web page was cancelled
What you can try
Retype the address

There is no problem opening any PDF documents (just by double clicking on them) in Adobe Reader 9.0.0. But I cannot understand why the Opus viewer generates this error message. Somehow it appears to be linking that filename to a web site, which of course is not proper. The original web site from which the PDF file was saved was not a restricted site.

What is happening here?

Ron Hirsch

2

Do you get the same message if you drop one of those files on Internet Explorer?

It's probably to do with the PDF files having the "mark of the web" which flags them as downloaded, and your IE security setting not allowing them to be displayed.

3

Hi Leo,

Yes I do get the same message if I try to drop one of those files onto IE 7.

I suspected that it was related to the Web somehow. But I do not know what the "mark of the web" actually is, and why that causes the problem.

When I am the site where the PDF file is available, I can click on the hot link to the PDF , and have it properly load in a web page - no errors produced here.

And as I noted, double clicking on the file brings it up in Adobe Reader 9 with no problem.

I could not locate any setting in IE7 that might impact. this.

I did not have this problem in Opus 9 in the recent past.

I have not yet run the uninstall, and reinstall to work on the problem with the video files in the viewer pane that we had discussed this past wek.

It would seem that it is time to do that now.

Thanks for your help.

Ron

4

Hi Leo,

OK, I uninstalled, and then reinstalled from scratch. Of course the program opened in a totally default configuration, with no customizations. Before I uninstalled, I saved the configuration file.

After the new install opened, I saved that configuration file, should I need it (all defaults). Strangely, the default path for the configuration settings (which is in My Documents folder was now missing all the other saves I've made over the last 6 months. Only the last one just made before the uninstall was there.

But if I should ever need any of those older ones (unlikely), my very detailed backup script in FolderSync has an action to save the Documents and Settings folder, so I could retrieve the old config files if I ever wanted them. I archive to a total of about 6 different internal and external drive locations.

With the new install, the problem with the MOV (and other) files in the viewer pane was still there. So I decided to just restore the old full settings file to the new install, and give up on trying to resolve the video player problems, and the PDF problems. I'm throwing in the towel - the problems aren't serious enough to fight them any more.

By the way, one of the PDF files that gives me the error message, and won't display in the viewer pane is a PDF file made by a friend who took a WordPerfect document, and published it to PDF - no Internet involved. The files that I've published to PDF do display in the viewer pane, but not the one I got from him.

Of course, double clicking on it immediately opens it in Adobe Reader 9.

Ron Hirsch

P.S. Each time I log in to this site, I check the box to save my info, and auto log me in. That has yet to work. I realize that when I clean out my cookies each week, that I will lose that option for auto log-in. But it never yet has kept that info, even between cleanings.

5

[quote="Ron Hirsch"]The error message is
Your current security settings do not allow this file to be downloaded
[/quote]
Google this error, put the phrase in quotes for a fuller report, and you will get more than enough hits to overload your browser.

Here is one at Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899630

This is, then, most likely not much to do with DOpus. You just happen to have stumbled upon it there.

I download PDF files by the squillion. My search software, X1, tells me that I have 92,261. I have never seen this particular message. I see all manner of other issues, many related to the version of the PDF file, others down to security settings for PDF files.

All that says to me is that it is not file dependent. As Leo suggests, look for settings at your end. (I, too, didn't realise that the web left its mark on PDF files that I retrieve.)

If you think it would help, send me a file that causes this behaviour, or a web link to one you have retrieved, and I will then report back on what it does at my end.

6

Sounds like something on your system is either removing the cookie, or preventing it from being correctly written. I, and many others, use this auto-logon feature all the time and it works fine.

7

Sounds like something on your system is either removing the cookie, or preventing it from being correctly written. I, and many others, use this auto-logon feature all the time and it works fine.[/quote]

I know it sounds odd, but could these two things be related?

Leo suggested a link with IE. Likewise cookies.

Just a thought.

8

The "mark of the web" is added to files when they're downloaded by some web browsers. (Internet Explorer and later versions of Firefox both do it.) Some unzip tools will also add the mark of the web to files extracted from archives which have the mark.

You can remove the mark from a file by right-clicking it and choosing Properties, then clicking Unblock:

409×545 52.7 KB

If you don't see the Unblock option for a file then it doesn't have the mark.

Files which have the mark may be treated more cautiously by web browsers and parts of the OS. For example, if you double-click an EXE file that has the mark then you'll usually be asked if you're sure about running it. Similarly, IE may block access to files with the mark if they're stored on the local machine and you try to view them.

(The second thing is because when viewing content on the local machine, any actions which that content triggers may have access to the other files on the local machine. If you save something from the web and then double-click it it becomes more dangerous than simply viewing it on the web.)

Either they were saved somewhere else or something must have removed them. Except for remembering where you last saved a backup I don't think Opus keeps track of individual config-backup files at all. Uninstalling or reinstalling Opus should not touch anything in My Documents.

9

Hi Leo,

Thanks for the info re "unblocking" a PDF file. That's a new item that I was not aware of. I unblocked one of the PDF files that was apparently blocked, and that worked just fine.

I guess I still don't understand why the file opens normally in Adobe Reader, but when "blocked", does not open in the Opus Viewer Pane.

But in any event, that situation is resolved now.

Re the video viewing situation, I can easily live with that. And the strange loss of the log on cookie is also not a problem. Strangely, it worked properly just now when I accessed the site. I guess the "gremlin" read my comment, and decided to stop his activities. :slight_smile:

I guess you are not located in Australia - since the time noted on your reply would seem to indicate you are in the US Eastern time zone.

I have to say that not only is Opus the finest "file manager" ever written, but the forum and your activities get a 10 also.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ron Hirsch

10

By default Opus uses Internet Explorer as an intermediary when viewing PDF files. Opus asks IE to view them and in turn IE asks Adobe Reader (or FoxIt, etc., if you have a different PDF viewer installed).

IE is used because it usually improves compatibility. Some things assume they will be hosted by IE and go wrong if they're not.

You can make Opus use Adobe Reader directly by going to Settings -> Preferences - Plugins - Viewers and configuring the ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web plugin. Then select the Internet Explorer line in the list and remove the .pdf extension from it.

The .pdf extension is also in the Generic ActiveX line at the bottom and that causes Opus to try to host Adobe Reader (or whichever ActiveX control is registered to handle PDF documents) directly.

That will almost certainly remove the need to "unblock" PDF files downloaded from the web. However, you may find the odd quirk as hosting Adobe Reader directly has not been tested as much as using IE as an intermediary.

Once a VLC plugin is written that should provide an easy way to solve almost all video-playback problems if you don't want the hassle of sorting out codecs.

I've got a new Vista x64 laptop and I'm deliberately keeping it codec-free as an incentive to myself to write a VLC plugin for Opus. :slight_smile:

I'm in London/England, although my sleep pattern sometimes drifts to one similar to Australia. :slight_smile:

[quote]I have to say that not only is Opus the finest "file manager" ever written, but the forum and your activities get a 10 also.

HAPPY NEW YEAR[/quote]
Thanks (for that which I can take credit for). :slight_smile: Happy new year!