How do you change the default document viewer to Okular?

31,555

Solution 1

According to here, Right click the file of the format you want, select properties:

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Go to the open with tab, select the program you want to be the default for that type of file, then press the button Set as Default:

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Solution 2

Well, none of the other answers worked on 14.04, Okular simply doesn't show up in the list. But this worked perfectly:

mimeopen -d myfile.pdf

It will give you a list of applications that can open the file, and will also update the default application for you.

$ mimeopen -d myfile.pdf
Please choose a default application for files of type application/pdf

1) Print Preview  (evince-previewer)
2) Xournal  (xournal)
3) MuPDF  (mupdf)
4) Adobe Reader 9  (AdobeReader)
5) GIMP Image Editor  (gimp)
6) Document Viewer  (evince)
7) Other...

use application

Selecting one of these will set it as the default for application/pdf file types. You can easily set any executable to be the default by using the Other... option:

use application #7
use command: okular
Opening "myfile.pdf" with usr (application/pdf)

Aside: If okular doesn't work, you might want to try entering the full path (usr/bin/okular). You can find out where Okular is located by running which okular.

Solution 3

In Ubuntu 14.04, the file you need to edit is :~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

The name of okular may varies. Someone may also find that there is no "Set as default" button.

So follow these steps:

Step 1: Right click on any pdf file => Open with => find Okular

The name of okular applications now should be specified in mimeapps.list. Now move to step 2.

Step 2: gedit ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list

Step 3: Find okular in [Added association] and copy to [Default application] section.
In my case, it is 'application/pdf=kde4-okularApplication_pdf.desktop;'

And you are done.

Solution 4

First open a terminal and use this command:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list

After opening it, Under the [Default Applications] section add a line like this

application/pdf=okular.desktop;

Now save the file and exit gedit.

Solution 5

In short, if I remember correctly :

Right click on a PDF,
Properties,
Open with,
Select an app,
Set as default.

View more solutions

31,555

LibraryGeekAdam

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

LibraryGeekAdam almost 2 years

I have just started using Okular and I love it. It has a lot of functionality that I need when I am in pdfs and it already opens up epubs automatically. How to I get it to open pdfs by default instead of "Document Viewer?"

I appreciate the help!
nanofarad over 11 years

I'd add a note to make a backup first.
harmputman almost 10 years

This only works when opening the file from the file manager, not when opening it from another program like Calibre.
harmputman almost 10 years

Perfect answer!
jmiserez almost 10 years

@systemovich I think you can also just put okular instead of the full path, that should solve the problem with mimeopen thinking the application is called usr.
jmiserez almost 10 years

I've updated my answer to use okular instead of /usr/bin/okular. This should fix some naming issues in menus where it would otherwise say usr instead of okular.
XavierStuvw almost 7 years

In my case the answer askubuntu.com/a/204826/446253 worked with 14.04
XavierStuvw almost 7 years

Worked with 14.04 LTS
Zach Boyd almost 7 years

Worked with 17.04.
Autodidact almost 6 years

Works even if myfile.pdf is not a real file!