Bonjour, my friends! Recently I've talked about how to remove passwords from pdf files, and apparently there's a demand to cover more basic related tasks. One of them is opening a pdf file, and there might be several reasons you are unable to open it - your laptop has no PDF reader software, a pdf is damaged, too large to process, or locked with a password. All of this is easy to fix in a matter of minutes, so let's open some pdfs today, shall we?
There's also a video version of this guide, if you prefer it that way, check out our Easy Ways to Open PDF video on YouTube.
Open PDF in a browser
If you have neither a pdf reader app pre-installed in your operating system nor any application like Adobe installed by you, that's no obstacle. The option #1 is to simply open a document in any of modern web browsers, that all have such capability. Right-click the file and go to Open with, you'll see the options and you may click it right away and the file will open in your browser. For example, like I did in Google Chrome. It has all the basic tools for reading and viewing pdf files: zooming in and out, page count, side bar with contents, printing, rotation, and even a 2-page view which is great for books or magazines to feel more realistic.
I can also just drag the file onto the browser icon in the bottom taskbar, for instance Mozilla Firefox as another example. Same tools, but also fit to screen by width or height - I find it handy. In addition, you can also assign a browser of choice to be a default program for pdfs to be opened in. For that, if you are using Windows like me, go to the Control Panel - Default programs - select a browser, and then click Choose defaults for this program, and tick the PDF format, then Save, as usual. Now I see that my pdf files have the Chrome thumbnail, and if I double-click it, it will open right there and there are no more questions for further documents for me.
Of course, one may say "but what if I don't have any browser on my PC?", which is very unlikely anyway. How does that person get on the Internet? Where, or via what, are you watching this video? Exactly.
Get a PDF reader app
Suppose you'd like to open a pdf document, view it and also edit it. The option #2 is to install a pdf reader application. The #1 recommended is always and everywhere Adobe Acrobat Reader, since the PDF format was initially developed and introduced by the Adobe company back in the 90s. The basic version for pdf viewing is free, or you can get a full Pro version of course and have access to the fullest set of tools for work.
Surely this is not the only software, there are plenty of decent applications for Windows, Mac, Linux or other operating systems. For example, PDF XChange, Foxit, Smallpdf, Nitro, just google it and you'll find a wide selection. Here's Adobe Acrobat - open a pdf in it, and basically you can perform any potential task in it, from adjusting the view, printing, editing. All the editing options are listed here on the right, or in the Tools tab above: creating files, organizing pages, exporting, converting, commenting, signing, protecting and so on. And here's XChange Editor that I also have installed - similar tools and capabilities, though the menu is more immediate.
Once you have chosen a pdf reader app, you can assign it to be a default program to open pdf files, like we've already learned: go to Control Panel - Default programs - Set, select your app and select the file types for it.
By the way, if you need assistance in choosing such an app, you can go to our website ThinkMobiles, to the software directory and there scroll down to find the PDF Readers category. There we have a constantly updated list of trusted applications, currently over 30, with brief descriptions, links, prices, key features, pros and cons, as well as user reviews shared by other people, and you can also leave yours, of course.
Finally, when you inquire how to open a pdf, your issue might be also connected to password-protected documents. In that case, search for "pdf password remover" utility, like for example, iLovePDF unlocker online, where you just upload a document and click Unlock to access it. For more information on this, please find and watch our previous video.
Open PDF on a smartphone
You might be trying to open a pdf attachment from email on your mobile device - and that should not be a problem these days as well. Smartphones and tablets usually come with PDF readers pre-installed, iOS devices for sure, while there could be issues with older Android phones, I guess. But as you know, there's an app for everything, and there are a bunch of free and paid apps that will allow you to open and edit PDF files.
I have an Android phone, so let me check. Once you download a file, a notification appears and you can open it right away. Or find it in the Downloads folder - this is the default location to store all files saved from the web, and just tap the PDF and it opens in my case. I can read it and zoom in, text and all the contents are sharp. In case you encounter an issue, get a mobile app. Adobe Acrobat Reader is always the most popular one, but the choice is yours.
Let me see. Open the app, it prompts to sign in into account, but I can skip it for now and here's the Welcome screen. Open a file to get started, and as we see, other useful options are there as well, such as creating, editing, combining pdfs. Now here's my pdf Astronomy magazine. Also, once you have installed an app, meaning an addition to your device's default app, when you tap a pdf document, you will be prompted to choose the app to open it with - and you can specify to use it "just once" this time, or "always" and it will be a default app further on.
Summary
So, not much to add or explore here, this is one of the basic tasks today which is not going to cause problems in about 90% instances, yet we've gone through it just to cover all the bases. To sum up, if you're having an issue with PDF on computer, try installing (or updating) a PDF reader app, opening a file in a browser, downloading the file one more time, or resizing it to make it smaller. Also, stay tuned for more pdf-related topics coming soon, including things like how to edit pdf, how to merge pdf files, how to reduce the size of pdf, et cetera.