How-to Download Files in Android's Browser

Adroid phones will just flat out ignore you when you try to click on items like a Word Document linked from a web page or as a file attachment in webmail.

This can be frustrating to your average computer user because your desktop browser will download any old file, no questions asked.

The reason behind this is because the Android phone's browser will only download files that already that have associated apps installed to handle that file type.

For instance, if you want to view a PDF document you will need to first have PDF Viewer pre-installed on the phone.

Likewise, you can't see MS Word documents unless you have something like IcViewer installed.

To find some viewers simply go to the Android Market and search for "viewer" and you'll find a bunch, some of them mult-format viewers.

The only thing I found annoying is that MS Word, Excel and PPT viewers aren't included in Android by default which are the primary file attachments most people get.

Come on Google, get your shit together, just because we can download apps doesn't mean the phone should require so much assembly. Just a few more pre-installed apps would reduce the frustration level for the less technical types out there.