FileLinks.txt                                               08/27/13
                  How Browsers Handle File Links
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   Links on a web page generally link to another web page, but they can also link to a file.  What happens when you click on a 'file link' depends on both the file type and the browser.
   
Text Files (.txt):
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   Text files are displayed immediately in the browser window, just like a web page would be, and you can print it from the browser just like a web page.
   
   To download the file, right click anywhere on the page and choose "Save As..." from the menu.
      FireFox: the menu says "Save Page As..."
      IE 10:   there is no "Save As..." or equivalent on the menu.
      
PDF and Word Files (.pdf and .doc/.docx):
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   In general, the browser will start up the default program to view these files, and you can print/save/whatever using the features in that program.  However, the way this is done varies wildly from browser to browser.
   
FireFox: 
   A window opens allowing you to choose between Open (i.e. view) and Save for the file.  You can Save it directly, without viewing it or running the viewer program.

IE 10:
   You can choose to Open or Save the file.
   PDFs are opened in the browser.  Word is run to view .docs.

Google Chrome:
   A link appears at the bottom with a warning message.  Click on the link to run the default program.
   
Opera:
   A link appears at the top of the window (no warning).  Click on the link to run the default program.
   
Bottom Line:
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   Viewing/downloading Text files is a whole lot faster and easier than doing the same thing for PDFs or Word documents.  Since they're also faster and easier to create, that is how most of my presentation notes will appear.
   
Dan Covill