How to Open Multiple PDFs in the Arc Browser

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✔︎ Last updated on November 2nd, 2024

Have you ever been stuck trying to open multiple PDFs at once in Arc Browser, only to feel frustrated with the process? Here’s a quick trick to help you handle this and boost your productivity!

Arc Browser has a lot going for it, from profiles, spaces, and AI integration to vertical tabs and pinned tabs—almost everything about it is built for efficient browsing.

One of my favorite features is Arc’s excellent support for split-screen browsing (up to four screens at once!), which is perfect for reading PDFs. But here’s the catch: Arc’s default approach to handling PDFs can be less than ideal if you’re trying to open several at once.

By default, when you open a PDF in Arc, it appears in a small floating window called ‘Little Arc.’ This feature acts as a quick-view pane, giving you a sneak peek of links or PDFs without fully opening them in the main Arc Browser. But if the content grabs your interest, you can still open it in Arc’s main window for a full experience.

Limitations of Little Arc for PDFs

While the Little Arc definitely has its uses, there are a few crushing limitations.

One of the biggest limitations is that it doesn’t allow multiple PDFs to open simultaneously. If you try selecting multiple PDFs, right-clicking, and choosing Open with Arc, only one will open—and it’ll be in Little Arc.

selecting multiple pdfs and clicking on open with arc doesn't open all of them. It instead opens only one of the pdf that too in little arc.

Even more frustrating, Little Arc doesn’t behave like a full program or app, meaning you can’t cycle through it with Option (Alt) + Tab like you can with other open apps.

This is because it’s designed as a native system dialog in macOS, which limits what you can do with it.

Opening multiple PDFs in Arc browser

Luckily, there’s a quick setting tweak that lets you bypass Little Arc entirely and open all selected PDFs directly in the main Arc Browser—just like any other browser.

Here’s how:

  1. Open Arc settings: Press Cmd + T, type settings, and hit Enter.
  2. In the settings pane, go to the Links tab and turn off the third option, Links from other apps open in Little Arc (as shown in the screenshot below).
The trick to open multiple pdfs in arc browser is to disable (turn off) the setting 'Links from other apps open in Little Arc'

And that’s it! Now, whenever you open multiple PDFs in Arc, they’ll appear in the main browser window instead of Little Arc.

Thanks for reading!