Is it possible to use .desktop files to open local pdf files on specific pages with a browser?
Use url?
I need to look it up, but I seem to remember Type Link
is deprecated in a .desktop file. Anyway, it won't work here as you found out. Encoding
is deprecated for sure, but that isn't the issue. Furthermore, xdg-open
won't work; it will open your default application for pdf files.
Then what to use?
Create a .desktop file, calling your preferred browser with the pdf file + page as argument. In your example:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Open pdf on page 45
Exec=firefox 'file:///home/myhomefolder/mypdf.pdf#page=45'
Icon=application-pdf
Then make it executable and double-click. If you are using another browser, you need to change the Exec=
-line to reflect that.
Some document viewers allow you to start them with an argument pointing to the desired page.
From evince --help
:
-i, --page-index=NUMBER The page number of the document to display.
Therefore, your .desktop file could look like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=mypdf.pdf page 45
Type=Link
Exec=evince --page-index=45 /home/myhomefolder/mypdf.pdf
Icon=application-pdf