Introduction
In this article, we will learn how we can open PDFs from the SharePoint document library directly in Adobe Reader, update the PDF, and then update it back to the SharePoint document library in SharePoint 2013 on-premises for Internet Explorer browser.
Pre-requisites
- You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.
- You must have access to SharePoint 2013 central admin.
Steps
Follow the below steps to open PDF files in Adobe Reader client and update back in SharePoint after editing.
Step 1. Go to SharePoint 2013 central administration.
Step 2. Now select Application Management from the left navigation.
Step 3. Click on Manage Web applications.
Step 4. On clicking Manage web applications, it will redirect to the page where we can see all web applications available in our environment.
Step 5. Now select your web application and click on General Settings from the WEB APPLICATIONS menu as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 6. On clicking General Settings, it will open a popup. From this popup go to the Browser File Handling selection and select the radio button for Strict as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 7. Now go to the bottom of the popup and click on the OK button.
Step 8. Now open the registry editor (type regedit in the run window).
Step 9. Go to the Hkey_Current_User\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0\Originals. Now right-click here and select New -> DWORD as shown In the below screenshot.
Step 10. Here give the name bBrowserIntegration and set its value as 0
Step 11. Now go to your site collection and open site settings. Here select the Site Collection feature from the Site Collection Administration section.
Step 12. Now activate the Open Documents in Client Applications by Default feature if it is deactivated.
Step 13. Now open the document library from which you want to open your PDF in the Adobe Reader client. Go to the Library Settings from the LIBRARY menu.
Step 14. Now from General Settings, select Advanced Settings.
Step 15. Now go to the selection of Opening Documents in the Browser and select the radio button of Open in the client application.
Step 16. Now click on the OK button from the bottom of the page.
Step 15. Now open the Windows Powershell ISE and execute the below PowerShell commands.
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Sharepoint.Powershell
$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication("web application URL")
$WebApp.AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes.Add("application/pdf")
$webApp.Update()
Step 17. All configuration for opening a PDF file in Adobe Reader client is done. So now execute iisreset command in command prompt with Run as administrator.
Step 18. Now go to the document library and click on the PDF file.
Step 19. It will open the PDF file in the Adobe Reader client.
Step 20. Now update the PDF file and select the Save As the file.
Step 21. Save As will open a popup to select the destination where you want to save this PDF file. From this popup, select the Add Account option from the left panel.
Step 22. On clicking Add Account, it will allow selecting destinations such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and SharePoint Site.
Step 23. From these options, select the SharePoint Site.
Step 24. On selecting SharePoint Site, it will open a popup. In this popup enter the user account name and URL.
Step 25. On clicking continue, it will allow you to select the document library where you want to save the updated PDF file.
Step 26. Select the Document Library where you want to save a PDF file and click on the Save button.
Note
- Disable the Add of Adobe Reader in Internet Explorer if it is installed.
- This will work for the Internet Explorer browser only.
Summary
This is how we can open PDF files in the Adobe Reader client and update them back to the SharePoint document library in SharePoint 2013.
I hope this article will be helpful.
Timothy FarrellPosted Nov 23, 2021, 2:58 PM
Hello Sanjay, Thank you for writing this wonderful tutorial. I wish everyone wrote like this. I wanted to know if have comments and thoughts on this issue insofar as SP2019 is concerned. We just deployed it and are getting a ton of complaints for how on-prem SP2019 does not invoke opening PDF files in the client application. We use the Stamping and Signature features of Adobe and then save the document back into SharePoint. Both of these functions are a nightmare in SP2019. The only way we have been able to get close is to have PDF files download locally for the user whereas they have to edit the file from their downloads directory and then re-upload back into SharePoint. I would appreciate your thoughts on how you might have remediated these issues. Regards, Tim