How do I view PDFs located in an ArcPro Catalog folder.

[MargaretCarew1]

How do I view PDFs located in an ArcPro Catalog folder.  In the past, I would add a pdf file type in the Customize/ArcCatalog Options selections.  But I have yet to find this option in ArcPro's Catalog Pane.  Is this an available feature.  Can I select pdfs to open while in ArcPro's Catalog folder?

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I dont think so, the only way I could get a pdf is to rename it with an extension that might indicate that it would contain data.  In this case I changed *.pdf to *.txt to get it to list in the catalog view/pane

[MargaretCarew1]

Thanks for responding, Dan.  I will test your response...I want to be able to open it up, like I do with ArcGIS Desktop.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Margaret, you will confirm that even changing the extension so it shows up, won't allow you to open it properly.  ArcGIS Pro just seems to ignore files with a particular extension since they probably don't contain data.

[MargaretCarew1]

Of course.  What a bummer and not at all convenient because I do view PDFs quite a bit when I have ArcPRO open and editing.  I have to keep Desktop ArcCatalog or file explorer open to have these PDFs readily available for viewing.  I just took the ArcPRO course last month at ESRI, so I am still in that learning curve, but I am now using it pretty much full time.  I do have to open up ArcMap to edit SDE geodatabase annotation.  I will have to wait until all staff are using ArcPRO in order to upgrade the annotation (at least that is what I could figure out from the HELP notes).  I have no idea when all staff will be using PRO.  Thanks, Dan.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

My preference is to always have File Explorer open.  Useful for making a quick folder, copying/moving data into a Pro project folder so it can be added to the *.aprx, rather than navigating to a different location and breaking the 'relative' path associations.  And for a quick, right-click on pdf, 'open with' to select the app you want to open the pdf with (avoid double-clicking to open a file... it is a bad habit... 'open with' is better for many file extensions)

[MargaretCarew1]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[BobSteiss]

If you go to Supported data types and items—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation and search for "pdf" it will bring you to a section where it talks about the file types that are not available\shown in the catalog pane or #catalog view which pdf is listed there.  Hopefully ESRI will change that as I liked having the option to see the non-spatial contents of a folder alongside the spatial contents instead of keeping a Windows Explorer window open.