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Some websites (e.g., for academic journals) show PDF files in frames. Sometimes I would like to download the PDF file, but doing so is annoyingly difficult: right-clicking on the PDF brings up a contextual menu that does not have an option to download the PDF — it only includes an option to open the file in another application (Adobe Acrobat, in my case):

enter image description here

It would be convenient to have an option in this menu to save the file to disk. As it is, I have to open the PDF in Acrobat (using the option in that menu) and then save the file from within Acrobat. This works, but takes time, requires switching applications, and quickly gets old when viewing a lot of PDFs. Now, the curious thing is that for other embedded object types such as images, the Safari contextual menu does have a save-to-disk option. What is puzzling me, therefore, is why there is no "Save PDF as ..." option or its equivalent in the contextual menu for PDF files.

So, is there a way to get a similar save-to-disk option for PDFs? Is it normally there, and have I done something at some point to disable it? Or is it truly never an option for PDFs?

Obligatory system info: OSX 10.9.5, Safari 7.1, MBPR.

Additional clarification: Acrobat offers a plug-in for Safari that has different menus and options. I prefer Safari's native PDF support to the Acrobat plug-in, and disabled the plug-in long ago for that reason. So, to be clear: this question is specifically about the menus offered by Safari's PDF facility, not the Acrobat plug-in.

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  • Is your Safari Adobe Plug in broken or not there? Run this in Finder go to Folder to find out /Library/Internet Plug-ins/
    – Ruskes
    Dec 1, 2014 at 16:37
  • The Adobe plugin works fine. That's how I open the PDF files in Acrobat currently.
    – mhucka
    Dec 1, 2014 at 16:41
  • I do not thinks so. If you were to open in Adobe Reader the is clearly a option to Save as ...in the Adobe Reader menu bar, we are not talking about Adobe Acrobat Professional!. Could you give us a web site to cross check !
    – Ruskes
    Dec 1, 2014 at 16:59
  • As I stated clearly in my question, I am able to open the file in Acrobat and save it from there. But that is not what I'm asking for. Ah ... but wait, maybe you are talking about having enabled the Adobe plugin to display PDFs embedded in the Adobe viewer for Safari? I disabled that one deliberately because I find it inferior to Safari's built-in PDF viewer. This question is about the Safari viewer, not Acrobat's plugin for Safari. I'll try to make that more clear.
    – mhucka
    Dec 1, 2014 at 17:01
  • BTW, thank you for your comments and suggestions, and sorry for having misunderstood what you meant.
    – mhucka
    Dec 1, 2014 at 17:09

1 Answer 1

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You have a couple of options.

If you move the mouse to the bottom-center of the screen it will appear a menu where you have an option to save to disk. See image below.

enter image description here

Additionally, you use Print option, and there is an option in the bottom-left of that menu called PDF that you can use to save the document.

enter image description here

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  • This is helpful. Both of these work – thank you! However, this does not answer the question of why there is no option in the regular contextual menu (or how to get an option back in there), so I hesitate marking this answer as the accepted one only for that reason. But I am grateful for your answer because this makes it possible for me to create a key binding to speed up saving PDF files. If no other solution presents itself after a time, I will mark this one.
    – mhucka
    Dec 1, 2014 at 17:00
  • I know that it doesn't specifically answer you question. But, as there is no option in the contextual menu, I told you a couple of easy ways to solve your problem. If helps you, is ok.
    – jherran
    Dec 1, 2014 at 17:03
  • No more answers specifically about the menu have come up, so I'm going to mark this as accepted, because it does solve the problem of saving PDF files. Thanks again.
    – mhucka
    Dec 6, 2014 at 2:00

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