Microsoft Edge PDF Viewer Technology Change

Over the weekend, Microsoft released an update to its Edge browser for most of its users. In doing so, Microsoft took what had been experimental PDF-viewing technology and made it a permanent part of the browser. Previously, that feature could be disabled. It is now a mandatory part of Edge.

The new PDF-viewing technology causes problems with some fillable PDFs, including those used in EstateAssist. As a result, if you use Edge and restart/update your browser, you may not be able to view EstateAssist PDFs correctly.

Fortunately, we saw this issue coming and have been working on a solution that not only addresses the change, but also gives our users several new features they have requested.

Today

For now, our goal is to keep you working. If you have not updated Edge, you should not have a problem. If you have updated Edge, or if Edge updates automatically, you should switch to another browser to keep things working correctly. We suggest Google Chrome, which is free and widely used. You can download and install Chrome here: https://www.google.com/chrome/ Please note that if you have the Adobe extension installed in Chrome, you will need to make one setting change. You can see how to do that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgMVbyrUGSQ

A New and Better Solution

We have been aware of this issue, but believed we had a few more months before Microsoft intended to make the new PDF-viewing technology mandatory. We have been studying Microsoft’s new technology while also thinking about ways to implement powerful features our users have wanted for a long time.

As a result, we are very close to rolling out a new feature that is currently in behind-the-scenes beta testing as part of our upcoming Trust Administration module. That new feature is a PDF-viewing environment that exists within EstateAssist. Simply put, PDFs will no longer open as standalone documents in the browser. Instead, you will view them within the app.

That may not sound like a big change, but the feature we have been building will allow us to provide:

• Better control of the PDF experience, helping us avoid issues caused by different browsers using different PDF technology.

• Batch opening, printing, and downloading. (Allowing you to select and manage multiple PDFs at once.)

• The ability to save edited PDFs within the app. You will no longer have to download a PDF to your computer after editing fields. Instead, you will be able to save those changes directly in EstateAssist.

• This technology will also serve as the foundation for future e-signing automation.

In the coming days (this week and next) we will release the first version of the Trust Administration module AND implement this new PDF-viewing technology in the Pleadings and Notice screens across the platform. Admittedly, this is happening a little faster than we intended. Neither of these new releases will be in its final polished form, and we will likely hit a few bumps along the way. We will be borrowing the early Facebook mantra to “move fast and break things.” However, we believe this new technology will ultimately make EstateAssist a much more stable and better product and provide a number of new time-saving tools that many of you have requested.

Thank you for your patience while we make these changes. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have.