Participant

Question

Allow Zip Files as Attachments in PDFs

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
November 9, 2009
7 replies
179033 views

As many of you are aware, newer versions of Acrobat have removed the ability to open or save zip files attached to a PDF (without a complex registry hack).

Notice that I've attached a zip file to this post. Adobe: If you've deemed zip files safe enough to be hosted and delivered in your own forums, maybe they're safe enough to be reinstated in PDFs?

I believe no product should force security on its users without providing them any practical way to override. Web browsers, email clients, and operating systems warn you of potentially dangerous files and then let the client make the choice. What if it's a zip file from a trusted source full of harmless text documents? Too bad - because Acrobat says so. Acrobat makes no attempt to examine the zip file to see if perhaps its contents are dangerous - it just sweepingly decides zips are far too dangerous to let the user have any voice in the matter. I fundamentally disagree.

I think Adobe got this one wrong - and I cast a vote that they loosen the noose on zip files on a future release. I'd like to hear other users' thoughts on this issue. Adobe is good at listening to their users - so tell them what you think.

Cheers,

Dan

harmless_zip_file.zip

General troubleshooting

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Fichier means File

Taille means Size

Taille compressée means Compressed size

Ko means Kb

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Hi.

Any file placed as an attachment in a PDF is zipped anyway, so embedding a ZIP file is useless.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Hi,

CEASE FIRE !

==> there is no need to previously ZIP an attached file since a PDF-attachment is still zipped !

Seach for "ZIP files in PDF Portfolios" on this page: http://blogs.adobe.com/pdfdevjunkie/category/acrobat/pdf-portfolios/page/2

It's about Portfolios but it's exactly the same thing for "single" PDF files.

You should also Google-translate this french page: http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=637

The attachments navigation panel gives these infos in Reader and in Acrobat: "Size" and "Compressed size" are displayed.

Here is a (french) screengrab:

(Fichier means File, Taille means Size, Taille compressée means Compressed size, and Ko means Kb)

;-)

Message was edited by: JR_Boulay

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

F

fsgysin

Participant

@JR_Boulay:

The point of attaching an archive file like .zip is not the compression, we all know that PDF does this for us.

The reason is to be able to keep your attachment count low and preserve any folder structure present in the zip-compressed files. I tried for example to attach the source of my thesis to the final PDF file: thats around a dozen LaTeX files, dozens of images, bibliography, tables, diagrams, etc -- all distributed and organized over a clear folder hierarchy...

You cant be suggesting to manually attach each and every one of these files, therby also losing the correct folder structure?

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Hi,

If you need to preserve folder structure you should take a look to PDF Portfolios:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/pro/using/WS8AC2CE72-864F-4d65-815A-4AFCAB0B46FA.html

Adobe's Layouts (Themes) built-in Acrobat X and XI are ugly but you can find some nicest here: http://blog.practicalpdf.com/portfolios/

(With a particular mention for the Grid with Preview theme.)

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

O

omurphy27

Participant

I'm sorry, but this is extremely frustrating, especially since my current bank insists on sending me PDFs with a Zip file embedded, except I can't extract it, because Adobe Acrobat doesn't even allow the option for doing so.

I'm not tech savvy enough to edit the register without messing something up, and I've been unable to install older versions of Acrobat on my PC. Does anyone have a link to an older version of Acrobat that I can download that will let me open up zip attachments in PDFs?

D

Dave Merchant

Legend

I'm afraid the fault is with your bank - they are using a combination of formats which is not supported by Adobe Reader and has not been for some time. Given Adobe Reader dominates the PDF consumption market on desktops, they need to change their workflow to reflect what is and is not allowed. There's no reason why a PDF attachment needs to be ZIP compressed; if it's a size issue then they should add the attachment to the PDF and *then compress the PDF*, or deliver it as a standalone file.

O

omurphy27

Participant

Fair enough, I just wish there was an easier work around.

Z

zippedup

Participant

This information is for Acrobat Professional users in Windows XP. I don't know if it

is valid for PCs using only Acrobat Reader.

Adobe is wrong but that doesn't mean we have to live with their problem.

Since when does anyone open attachments from unknown or unsolicited sources?

Some zip files can be or contain executables (.exe) but that is no excuse for not

knowing where your emails or files come from and not having up to date virus software.

Adobe did not disallow zip file attachments, they just buried the enable so deep

that the average user would never find it and using an editor (regedit) that most users

have never heard of. As far as I am concernced, without any word from the Adobe

Tower, this is pure marketing.

I have inserted a jpeg photo that shows, for Windows XP, where to find the hidden enable

and how to edit to allow opening OR saving (recommended) zip files. This is the

file I have been passing to my Engineers and suppliers. The information comes from

a help call I put in to Adobe.

Editting the registry is not difficult, you just need to be sure that nothing unusual

happens while editting the text or saving after done. Have an IT person or other

superuser do the edit if you are unsure. After editting and saving, select BuiltInPermList,

then pulldown File and click Export. This produces a one-click edit that will fix the

problem on any Windows XP computer.

Adobe is also blocking rar, tar and tgz compressions.

This edit needs to repeated anytime Acrobat is reinstalled.

A

Amandilh

Participant

What is funny is that setting the value 1 for the considered extension has exactly the behaviour one is likely to expect:

User is warned that the file may be unsafe and is given three choices: open, or permanently set the behavior to Allowed or Prohibited.

Dialog: "The file attachment filename may contain programs, macros, or virus that could potentially harm your computer. Open the file only if you are sure it is safe. Would you like to: -- Open the file-- Always allow opening files of this type-- Never allow opening files of this type"*

* The user will always be prompted each time a file of the same type is opened, regardless of which option they choose in the dialog. In addition, the setting in the registry will not change.

Why do not use this by default ???

Source: http://andrewalbrecht.com/content.php?pageID=106