How to force Google Chrome to download PDFs instead of opening them

Google Chrome will open PDF files by default in a new tab. A behavior that is sometimes not very effective. Here’s how to download PDFs by default.

When you click on a PDF link Google Chrome, The browser will open the file in the new tab by default. This is great if you want to read the contents quickly, but if you want to edit the document, merge multiple files or delete a page, you need to have the PDF on your device and open it in another application. . While editing a PDF or two from time to time is not very painful, it can be very annoying if it happens often.

You can force Google Chrome to download PDF files by default instead of opening them in a new tab. This option is simply hidden in the browser settings.

How to download default PDFs in Google Chrome

1. In Google Chrome, click the three dotted icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Click Settings.
3. In the left panel, select Security & Privacy.
4. In the right panel, click Site Settings.
5. In the Content section, click Additional Content Settings.
6. It brings many additional options. You can select PDF documents.
7. The default option is to open PDFs in Chrome. Check the download PDFs to change the default behavior and download them by default.

The next time you click the PDF link, Chrome will automatically download to your computer. You can also check where the downloaded files are stored and you can easily find them. Go to Chrome Settings, select Advanced Settings in the left-hand menu and select Downloads. At the Location line, you will see the default location for file downloads.

You can open your PDFs and edit them to your liking using your favorite PDF editing application.