Can't rotate PDFs in Office365 Outlook

[CollinHell]

I'm finally almost free of Chrome, but there is one big feature I am still using it for - PDF previewing in-browser, specifically in Outlook.Office365.com. They rotate with a right click in a new window, but not on websites that use in-page previews.

I've gotten pretty used to the web interface for Outlook since the pandemic, and I often get scanned PDFs with text in all directions, so I just read it in my browser and rotate as needed. With Vivaldi, there is no option to rotate and instead I have to download it and open in a new tab. Opera and Firefox have the same lack of functionality, and the same icons. Chrome, Brave, and both Edges have this feature and the same icons. Is this some internal extension I could possibly replace or fix?

Here are some screenshots for edification:

[Pesala]

@CollinHell The icon appears when you hover the mouse cursor near to the top of the PDF plugin.

You might have to click it three times.

[CollinHell]

Hi @Pesala, I think you may have misunderstood my question. Rotating a PDF works fine when downloading and reading a PDF in its own window like your screenshot shows. My problem is with the inline PDF viewer. It's used a lot on Office365, but there are many more websites I have seen with the exact same button styles. It looks like it must be some sort of previewing extension, which makes the right click and inline controls on the PDF look the same as in your screenshot. Here's a GIF video to make it a little clearer what I mean. Notice how when I open the PDF in a new window, I get the ability to rotate, as well as see the alternate button style from the Rotating section of my screenshot above.

Edit: I see @Gwen-Dragon already explained it haha, the gif should still be helpful for searchers finding this page in the future. I'm looking for more websites that have an inline PDF viewer, I could swear I've seen it before outside of Office365.

Edit2: Okay it appears it may be related directly to Office365. I tried embedding PDFs in HTML myself a few different ways and I can't reproduce it so far (it has only been 15 minutes of testing at the moment), but I can see that the w3docs demo is working fine. It's not the official Adobe View SDK, either.

I've fallen too far in love with Vivaldi already and don't think I could switch to any other browser, so maybe I'll just have to take this up with Microsoft and figure out a different workflow for my working from home.

[Pesala]

@CollinHell I thought you just wanted a behaviour that you got used to in Office 365, and wanted it in the plugin, but had not found it yet.

What other good reason is there for preferring Office 365 over the default PDF plugin?

[CollinHell]

@Pesala It appears it is a problem with Office365 and these few browsers as I can't reproduce with any of the classic ways to embed PDFs. Microsoft must be doing something proprietary again.

The reason I use the inline viewer on Office365 for my workflow is because I have to review a TON of PDF files that I'll never use again.

Normally I read the email content, rotating and looking, then switch to another email and keep working. Excluding rotate clicks, it's one click to open, and once again to read the PDF inline.

With Vivaldi, Opera, and Firefox, I have to click the small download button, wait for the download to finish, doubleclick that, wait for the new tab to open and then rotate, then close the new tab, right click the file in the Downloads panel and Show in File Manager so that I can delete it from my Downloads folder, then close the Windows Explorer window, close the Downloads tab in Vivaldi, and then go to the next email. Excluding rotate clicks, that's 11 clicks.

It's still a small inconvenience I'll just figure out something else for, but 2->11 clicks isn't exactly a tiny UX change.

[Pesala]

@CollinHell There are lots of work-flow tricks that could reduce clicks.

• Enable download notifications and click that to open the PDF in your default PDF app
• You can also double-click files in the downloads panel to open them in the default app
• Tile two tabs: one with your webmail, and the other with the PDF in a tab using the built-in plugin.

[LonM]

I have access to M365, so I can test. It is definitely a problem on microsoft's end.

Instead of embedding the native PDF viewer in a frame like most other websites do, they've decided to include their own PDF viewer. Why? I have no idea.

I would suggest sending a complaint to microsoft. There used to be a way to do this directly from your inbox, but I can't find the link anymore. Maybe if enough people do it, they'll listen.

[LonM]

@Gwen-Dragon said in Can't rotate PDFs in Office365 Outlook:

May be Microsoft created a Internet-Explorer-Edge-only feature.

No... that's the really strange bit. In the screenshots of the first post you can see it's the native pdf viewer in a frame. It's obviously picking at random which to use.

For example, I can't get the correct PDF viewer to show at all in edge either.

But yes, good news is it's not vivaldi's fault.

[CollinHell]

Well thanks very much for all your help anyway! Who knows what Microsoft is ever thinking over there haha, maybe they put the same people that worked on those recent failed Windows 10 updates on this issue. :face_with_stuck-out_tongue:

I think for now I'll just use Brave for Office365 alone, submit a complaint and a feature request at M$, and continue converting everyone I know to Vivaldi.