Please move along if you are not a nerd: nothing to see here.

Still here? OK, so occasionally I try to see if embedded pdf viewers will open a pdf at a named destination. In the past the only setup that did this was using adobe reader. But yesterday I discovered that it now works with google chrome and its built in pdf reader! BUT… you have to use the format

http://stacks.math.columbia.edu/download/algebra.pdf#nameddest=0567

because the more compact version

http://stacks.math.columbia.edu/download/algebra.pdf#0567

doesn’t work. (You will need a reasonably up to date version of chrome.) Today I discovered that it also works with firefox on my ubuntu system. In fact both versions of the link work. It turns out that the Ubuntu firefox browser uses Mozilla’s built pdf viewer. If this is not already installed on your system you can install it as an add on — here is a link. However, on my 64 bit gentoo system, it still didn’t work until I installed the development version of pdf.js you can find here.

Unfortunately, the cross file links (e.g. a reference to a lemma in the algebra chapter from another chapter) do not (yet) work for chrome/libpdf.so and firefox/pdf.js. This used to work with the adobe reader (for example on windows) and works with the rekonq/okular combination on kde.

Test it on your system. I’d love some feedback.

1. Open at named destination, short version: http://stacks.math.columbia.edu/download/brauer.pdf#074M
2. Open at named destination, long version: http://stacks.math.columbia.edu/download/brauer.pdf#nameddest=074M
3. Both of these should open the chapter on Brauer groups at Lemma Tag 074M, which today is Lemma 5.3 on page 5. To try the cross file link functionality, in the proof of that lemma, click on the link to Algebra, Lemma 33.17.

Does this work for you? Leave a comment. Thanks!