Mozilla has released another update to their popular Firefox web browser after only recently updating it to version 4. This time it's version 5 and from our testing here, we've found it continues to be a great browser and a worthwhile update. We've tested it with Blaq and found no problems so far besides the same problem we had with version 4 - previewing PDF's in the browser on Macs. Unfortunately, Firefox still doesn't do this without an add-on, and even the add-on solution isn't that simple.
We've read reports that Mozilla is developing a PDF viewer for Firefox, but we don't know if and when this will be available. Instead of waiting, we've done some research and found 2 solutions.
The first is the easiest - an add-on from
Schuber|it. Their
PDF Browser Plugin works well but would require the purchase of a site license if it was to be used with Blaq. It's free for not-for-profit activities if used at home or educational institutions, but we don't believe this would cover Blaq so our users would need to buy the license. A site license is only $69 (USD) so it could be worthwhile depending on the size of your organisation.
The second solution is free but more complicated. It involves using the
Firefox PDF Plug-in for Mac that we recommended with Firefox 4 but this time modifying it, and also running Firefox in 32 bit mode. There is a detailed guide on the Macworld site discussing how to modify the plug-in at
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110622163401497. We've tried this solution and found it works well, though it could be a little tricky for the computer novice.
Feel free to give us feedback in the comments to let us know which solution you're using and how well it works for you.