Google Docs Viewer review: Embed a PDF or PowerPoint file in your website without Flash

First published on May 23, 2010

In Google search results, you might have noticed that PDF results can be viewed in “Quick View”, showing you an in-browser representation of the file without having to open an external program or browser plugin. You can use this same viewer to display files inline in your website.

Google Docs Viewer is free and easy to use. It officially supports .pdf, .ppt, and .tiff / .tif files. I’ve also had success using it with some (but not all) Microsoft Word (.doc) files.

From a technical standpoint, Google Docs Viewer seems to convert pages to images for viewing, and then has quite a bit of supporting JavaScript for viewing controls. The one requirement is that you have a public URL for that file.

To quickly view any file in your browser, simply open a URL such as this:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://url_to_your_file

To embed it within a webpage, use code such as:

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://url_to_your_file&embedded=true" width="425" height="560"></iframe>


The “embedded” URL parameter removes some of the full view controls for more compact viewing. You can adjust the width and height as needed and the viewer adjusts quite well.

Here’s an example embedded PDF:

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This entry is filed under Computer Stuff and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.