Options for displaying PDFs

Ask the community
1

I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with publishing PDFs on our website since this past spring when Wix eliminated their “included in the price of my subscription” PDF Viewer utility.

Our site is a very basic/simple site for a sports league. We post rosters, scheduled and standings for 4 leagues in simple PDFs. The old utility was perfect:

  1. extremely easy to use, adding to page and then updating as new docs came out.
  2. leveraged the native Wix media manager
  3. the desktop and mobile versions showed the content exactly the same
  4. our visitors could print PDF for their needs

I feel like I’ve looked at all the “pay extra” options and none seem to perform the same way.

I had settled on adding an HTML element, and pasting in the URL for the document in the Wix media manager. It actually works really well on a desktop. There is a utility bar across the top that allows for printing. I can size the element box to show a full page of the PDF and people can either use a scrollbar on the right, or change pages via the utility bar. However, on a mobile device (iPhone and ipad) the utility bar is missing at the top. I can’t see any option for scrolling and the sizing of the view is way off. So i can’t have people see anything beyond the first page.

An example of what i have trouble with is - https://www.pikespeakregionseniorsoftball.org/40-summer-schedule

My question to the community - for those who previously relied on the Wix provided PDF viewer, what have you migrated to?

Right now, PDF Embed from POWR, seems most promising for the $$ options. I just wish it used the Wix doc library.

2

Most browsers now have a PDF reader built in, so you may not need a PDF viewer app for this.

For simple documents like schedules, rosters and standings, I’d upload the PDFs to the Wix Media Manager and add normal buttons or text links that open the PDF directly in a new tab/window. The browser’s native PDF viewer will usually handle scrolling, zooming, downloading and printing much better than an embedded iframe, especially on mobile.

It’s not quite the same as the old Wix PDF Viewer, but for practical use it’s often the most reliable option.

3

Hey Dan, thanks for replying. I’m not sure i follow you exactly but it sounds like you are suggesting posting a link and letting the browser open it. That’s not the visual experience i’m looking for. I do that for some older pdfs we share for historical purposes but for the “current” docs I’m trying to get them to show in within a frame on the page.

this is the look i’m after (best viewed on a desktop)

i think what you are suggesting is in use on this page:

where a link opens in a new tab.

If i’m not understanding you correctly, perhaps you could show me an example?

thanks

Gary