Microsoft doesn’t want its new Edge to be just a browser, it wants to go further. Although all part of the same base, Chromium, Microsoft is developing a large number of functions and features that Google does not have within its browser. In addition to improvements in performance, security, privacy, and even vertical tabs, Microsoft wants Edge to be the default PDF viewer for all Windows 10 users. And to achieve this, you simply have to create the best. And it is succeeding.
Today almost all web browsers have a PDF viewer. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and, of course, Edge. However, these scopes are usually very simple. Too. For this reason, in the end, most users decide to install another free PDF viewer on their computer, either Adobe Reader, or an OpenSource alternative such as Sumatra.
Microsoft wants to make things much simpler. And for this reason, it has made Edge’s PDF viewer the most complete, the best that you can install on your PC.
Edge PDF viewer features
Initially, the capabilities offered by Edge’s PDF viewer were basic. They didn’t go beyond navigating between pages, zooming in, zooming out, saving, printing or sharing. However, Microsoft has worked to bring a large number of additional functions to its PDF viewer that make it much more useful. One of the best is, without a doubt, the possibility of reading the index of each document and showing its corresponding table of contents . But it is not the only one.
Edge also allows us to highlight content within PDFs , or add text notes, notes that will be saved together with the document itself. It is also compatible with protected PDF documents , and even allows us to use digital signatures. Everything a professional PDF viewer should have.
But for Edge 88, Microsoft is going even further.
Two-page view: what’s new in this viewer
Now, users of the Dev and Canary branches can already test the new function of this PDF viewer included within the Microsoft web browser. What this new function will allow us to do is enable a two-page view . In this way, we can have two pages of the document open at the same time.
For now, this function is in the experimental phase, so it will have to be activated manually. To do this, we will write the following in the browser’s address bar and mark the corresponding flag as “Enabled”.
edge://flags/#edge-pdf-two-page-view
We restart the browser and that’s it. From now on, when we open a PDF document on our computer, we can already see the two-page view enabled. And we can switch between normal view and this new view according to what we need at all times from the “Page View” button on the toolbar.
Although it is a very simple function, we will also be able to choose if we want the PDF cover to be loaded separately and then the pages (in the purest magazine style) or if we want everything to appear double-page from the beginning.
For now, this feature is in the testing phase. We will have to wait until the launch of the new Edge 88 to enjoy this and many other new features of Microsoft’s browser.