10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files

I have wanted to Quick Look files directly from the browser for a while (especially .doc and .ppt files). A switch to Firefox recently exacerbated this problem, as there is no PDF plug-in. So I wrote a simple script that monitors the Downloads directory and opens any new files with qlmanage, and thought others might find it useful. Copy and paste the code below into a file (say ql_downloaded.sh) and make it executable (chmod a+x ql_downloaded.sh). Launch the script in a separate Terminal window, then start browsing.

#!/bin/zsh

downloaddir="/Users/amol/Desktop/Downloads"
difffile=$downloaddir/.ql_downloaded_diff_file
difffiletemp=$downloaddir/.ql_downloaded_diff_file.temp
/bin/rm -f $difffile
/bin/ls $downloaddir > $difffile

while :
do
  if [[ $downloaddir -nt $difffile ]]; then
    echo "-- directory has been updated"
    sleep 1 # must wait for a few seconds, otherwise ".part" files cause issues

    /bin/mv $difffile $difffiletemp
    /bin/ls $downloaddir > $difffile

    for i in `diff $difffile $difffiletemp | grep '^<' | sed 's/< //'` # find all new files
    do
      if [[ $i == *.(pdf|ppt|xls|doc) ]]; then
        echo "-- quicklook #$i#"
        qlmanage -p "$downloaddir/$i" 2>/dev/null
      else
        echo "-- not calling quicklook on downloaded file $i"
      fi
    done
   fi
   sleep 1
done

This bit -- if [[ $i == *.(pdf|ppt|xls|doc) ]]; then -- restricts which files are Quick Looked. In Firefox, the handling option for these types of files should be set to Save to Disk. The above code should work with most any browser; it works most of the time for me, but there are still some random issues once in a while (probably due to the temporary ".part" files created during downloads). Hope you find this useful!

[robg adds: This worked for me in testing with Firefox and Safari.]

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10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files
Authored by: vansie on Wed, Mar 26 2008 at 8:16AM PDT

You could probably also roll this into a Folder Action script and attach it to your Downloads folder so that it only fires when a file actually gets downloaded and save some cycles with it running indefinitely in the background.

10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files
Authored by: lowbatteries on Wed, Mar 26 2008 at 8:42AM PDT

I downloaded the program "Quick Look Droplet" at http://www.apple.com/applescript/quickviewer/index.html - then I set Firefox (in Preferences > Content > File Types > Manage) to automatically open certain files with that application. I use this mainly for vcard files, as I view them often online but don't necessarily want to import them to address book.

Firefox PDF plug-in.
Authored by: chjones on Wed, Mar 26 2008 at 11:06AM PDT

A switch to Firefox recently exacerbated this problem, as there is no PDF plug-in.

Er, I don't mean to be annoying, but there is in fact a PDF plugin that works with Firefox. PDF Browser Plugin works in Firefox, Safari, and some other OS X browsers and "is free for not-for-profit activities if used at home or at educational institutions. "

Hope that helps in some minor way, in addition to this hint.

10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files
Authored by: 2stepbay on Wed, Mar 26 2008 at 8:42PM PDT

>I don't mean to be annoying, but there is in fact a PDF plugin that works with Firefox. PDF Browser Plugin

PDF Browser Plugin is PPC only; never updated to Universal Binary/Intel.

10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files
Authored by: ssserpent on Thu, Apr 3 2008 at 2:23AM PDT

When dowloaded file contains spaces in the filename the script is not working. Could someone fix this?

10.5: Automatically Quick Look certain downloaded files
Authored by: ScarabMonkey on Thu, Oct 29 2009 at 3:44AM PDT

Here is an Intel compatible firefox PDF viewer... http://code.google.com/p/firefox-mac-pdf/

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