Library News

British Standards Online: changes to accessing PDF documents

The BSI is introducing digital security features on PDF downloads from the British Standards Online (BSOL) platform. 

From 1st September 2021, DMU students and staff will be required to have the FileOpen plug-in installed on their device to download and print all BSI documents. 

To download the FileOpen plug-in, please visit https://plugin.fileopen.com/. You will need an internet connection to open the documents for the first time. Once your documents have been authenticated, you will be able to access the documents offline. 

FileOpen is supported by the following PDF readers:

• Adobe Acrobat
• Adobe Reader
• Foxit Reader
• Nuance PDF Reader
• Nitro PDF Reader
• Tracker PDF-Xchange
• Bluebeam PDF Revu

Please note: PDFs will not open in-browser. Some web browsers will open PDFs in-browser as default behaviour. This will cause an error, as the document is not being opened in Adobe. 

If you're using Google Chrome and encounter problems opening your documents, please follow the steps below:

1. From the Chrome home page, go into "Settings" (this appears as three dots on the top right of your page)
2. Scroll down to the privacy and security section and click on "Site settings"
3. Scroll down and click on "PDF settings"
4. Ensure 'Download PDF file instead of automatically opening them in Chrome' is switched on. 

If you're using Microsoft Edge and encounter problems opening your documents, please follow the steps below:

1. From the Microsoft Edge home page, go into "Settings" (this appears as three dots at the top right of your page)
2. Click on "Cookies and site permissions"
3. Scroll down and click on "PDF documents"
4. Ensure 'Always open PDF files externally' is switched on. 

If the documents continues to open in-browser after following the above steps you may need to update the settings of the PDF file. 

From Windows:

1. Locate the saved location of the PDF file
2. Right click and click "Open with"
3. Check "Opens with" if a browser is showing (e.g. Google Chrome). click 'Change" and amend to 'Adobe'. 

From MacOS:

1. Locate the saved location of the PDF file
2. Right click and click "Open with"
3. Click 'Adobe Acrobat Reader' or similar. 

Operating system requirements

• Windows 7 or later
• Mac OS X 10.9 or above
• Linux Kernel 1.4 or later
• iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, iOS 4.0 or later
• Adobe 2.2 +

Further information and support can be found on the British Standards Online site under the FAQs tab. Please select the Digital Rights Management link.