LSO: Download office files instead of embedded

Question

Hello colleagues,
I hope you can help me with my current issue in my current Learning Solution implementation.
Customer wants to use as part of a web based training different kind of Microsoft Office files, mainly powerpoint files, but for windows vista and windows 7 with office 2007 and higher versions Learning Solution always tries to download the files instead of show them embedded in the MS Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
I tried with some earlier versions of Windows, like Windows XP and this works just fine, but in Windows Vista and Windows 7, this is not working.
Have you seen a behavior like this one? If it so, how did you solve it?
Thank you for the help in advance!
Regards.

Answer 1

It's amazing to me that simply asking Safari to default to auto download a PDF is so arcane. It's incredible that Apple doesn't have a Safari preference for this very simple action!
The Terminal and Onyx methods recommended above are just ways of accessing a setting for Safari that Apple hasn't added to Safari Preferences. As I understand it, settings like this are built into Safari - they just aren't readily user-accessible. This is why programs like Onyx and Safari Enhancer exist, to open up "hidden" features and settings.
I imagine Apple's developers debate these things, trying to decide what would be simpler to leave out to avoid complexity and what confusion (but allow third-party or Terminal methods to access) and which would be better added to the regular Preferences settings.
Since this is a feature you'd like to see in Safari Preferences, I'd recommend submitting this as feedback to Apple.
In the meantime, though, I'd consider it a good thing that there are built-in ways to get the setting that you prefer. Personally, I don't find the default settings such a hindrance. They're intended to help the "average" user (the new Mac user, the non-technical user, etc.) who wants a PDF file to just open, without having to understand how to work with it. For the more savvy user, there are multiple methods of downloading and/or opening PDFs. I'm rather like you - I prefer to download PDFs (in which case I use the Control-click method if I notice the link is to a PDF) or sometimes I allow the PDF to open in Safari, then Control-click on the open PDF and choose the option to open in Acrobat Reader. I find the latter method even smoother than downloading and then opening, in fact. If I decide it's a file I want to keep, I save it to my hard drive; otherwise I just close it.