Google-chrome – In Chrome, how to directly download a PDF from a Google search

downloadgoogle-chromegoogle-searchpdf

When PDF files are returned by a Google search, sometimes I'd like to just download them, rather than viewing them in the browser.

Google results with a PDF

How on earth do I do this in Chrome?

I can't right-click the link and Save As, because that link isn't really to the PDF.

Note: This is not a duplicate of Download arbitrary file with Google Chrome because the solution given was to simply right-click and Save As, which does not work in this situation.

Best Answer

The only way I know to do this for a PDF file would be to disable Chrome's automatic mode of opening PDF's.

I'm using the latest Chrome on OS X:

Chrome Menu -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Content Settings -> Disable Individual Plugins -> Disable Chrome's PDF Reader

Or the short way: chrome://plugins

Now when you click the file it should automatically download it.

You can further read about disabling PDF in Browser over here: Stop PDFs from displaying inside Google Chrome

Hope that helps!

Related Solutions

Chrome – Download arbitrary file with Google Chrome

Right click the link and click "Save Link As..."

EDIT: To follow up on the need to download arbitrarily from clipboard, I would just create a generic HTML file and use the above solution. Save as mylink.html to file system somewhere. Open in Chrome.

<html>
<a href="http://www.mycompany.com/secretvideo.mp4">Link</a>
</html>

Macos – Prevent Chrome from automatically opening downloaded PDF and Image files

You can set the auto-open preferences for PDF files by clicking on the download status button in the downloads bar. When you have a downloaded PDF sitting there, click on the arrow and unselect "Always Open Files of This Type" in the pop-up menu.

You can also reset all the user preferences for auto-open by following the directions below from Chrome's help site at http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95759

If you want certain types of files to always open after they're done downloading, click the arrow next to the file button in the downloads bar and select Always open files of this type. To prevent potentially malicious files from automatically downloading to your computer, this option isn't available for executable filetypes, such as those with .exe, .dll, or .bat extensions (for Windows), and .dmg extensions (for Mac).

You can clear auto-opening settings through the Settings dialog. Here's how:

Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar. Select Settings. Click the Under the Hood tab. In the "Downloads" section, click Clear auto-opening settings. This clears your settings for all file types. Click Close when you're done, if you're using Windows or Linux.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Chrome – Download arbitrary file with Google Chrome

Macos – Prevent Chrome from automatically opening downloaded PDF and Image files

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