Android Browser & .pdf Etc.

[Old_Geezer]

On a Windows PC, if using an Internet browser to perform a websearch, and spotting a promising 'hit', one can click on it and it acts as one would expect. Obviously if it is a website address, it displays the website, but if it happens to be a data file, document, picture, whatever, it very sensibly opens it for display instead, in whatever way is most convenient. Perhaps opening up an associated viewer, or displaying the file itself, in a new tab.

Go to Android and that's not the case; it seems deliberately designed to annoy instead. Websites, ok. But click on a data file link and you are soon screaming internally, "Arrrhhhhhhh !!!!! NO !" Apparently the designers must think it hilarious to download it to your storage where you don't want it, and from where you must, if desired, open it for yourself. And, of course, remember to go through the hassle of deleting the unrequested download afterwards.

It there any simple thing one can do to the Android system once, to force it to act in a sensible manner as (unbelievable as it sounds) MS Windows does ?

Cheers.

[TheChair]

OPening a pdf in Chrome is performed on desk top by means of the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin. Chrome on Android does not support plugins. However, there's nothing to stop you installing Firefox and using that instead. Assuming that you have a PDF view of some kind installed on you device, the first time that you access a PDF in Firefox it will off er you the option of choosing the viewer or downloading it. You can either choose to use the viewer once only or always. Obviously, whichever methods you use, the file is downloaded anyway (just as it is in Chrome for Windows), the only differences being that (A) it will open automatically, and (B) it will be downloaded to a temp folder and removed late, unless you save it from within the viewer.
You can get Firefox here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox

[Old_Geezer]

I have a number of browsers on the device already, Firefox being one; although not my favoured one. I'll check and see what it does. Thanks.

[Old_Geezer]

You are correct, I'd not spotted it before. Offers to open in something called Drive PDF Viewer, although I'm unsure what the 'drive' bit is about. Thanks.

Still would be good to get other browsers to do something similar though.