I’m having trouble showing PDF files in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 using an online document viewer. The viewer works great in other browsers but not in IE. When I try to display a PDF in an iframe on my webpage it shows missing image icons instead of the actual content.
Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I’ve looked everywhere but can’t find a solution. The PDF loads fine if I open it directly in IE so I think it might be related to caching.
I’m open to alternatives that can display both PDF and PowerPoint files if there’s no way to make this work in IE. Any suggestions would be really helpful!
have u tried using google docs viewer? it works pretty well for pdfs and ppts in most browsers. just embed the viewer url with ur doc link. might solve ur ie problems too. if not, maybe look into adobe’s pdf embed api. it’s free and handles browser differences better.
I’ve dealt with this exact headache before. What finally worked for me was using Mozilla’s PDF.js library. It’s a bit of work to set up initially, but it’s rock solid across browsers, including those finicky older IE versions.
One thing to watch out for - make sure your server is configured to serve PDF files with the correct MIME type. I spent hours banging my head against the wall before realizing that was the culprit.
For PowerPoints, I ended up going a different route. I wrote a quick server-side script to convert them to a series of images on upload. It’s not perfect, but it sidesteps a lot of browser compatibility nonsense. Just food for thought if you’re open to alternatives.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you need any clarification on implementation details.
I encountered a similar issue with PDF display in IE a while back. The problem often stems from IE’s strict security settings. Have you tried adding your site to the Trusted Sites zone in IE’s Internet Options? This can sometimes resolve display problems.
Another workaround is to use a PDF.js viewer instead of relying on browser plugins. It’s JavaScript-based and works across browsers, including older versions of IE. You’d need to integrate it into your page, but it provides consistent rendering.
For PowerPoint files, consider converting them to a web-friendly format like HTML5 before display. There are server-side tools that can automate this process. This approach bypasses browser compatibility issues altogether.
Lastly, ensure your Content-Type headers are set correctly for PDF files. Sometimes IE is picky about MIME types.