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joramz78214818
joramz78214818
Participant
July 3, 2019
Answered

PDF from PowerPoint2016: Links to .lnk files do not work

  • July 3, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 1967 views

Hi Community

Using Windows10, PowerPoint2016 and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 2019.012.20035

I have a PowerPoint file that has hyperlinks to local files. When I generate a PDF from it (save as PDF in PowerPoint) and click the links in the PDF, the files do open in the correct program as expected.

But when I create Shortcut (.lnk) files and link from PowerPoint to them, the links from within PowerPoint do work but they don't from within the generated PDF file in Acrobat Reader.

The goal is to minimize changes in the PowerPoint/PDF file when linked files change their location or name, but instead just update the Shortcut file.

Any help on this is much appreciated.

Regards, Joram

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer joramz78214818

    Just tested with opening the PDF file in Chrome and IE and both work. It would be bad to force the users in opening the PDF with a Webbrowser and not Acrobat Reader for filelinks to work properly...


    Ok so my workaround is instead of .lnk files I create a .html file which redirects to the original file like this:

    <html>

    <head>

    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL='<relative path to the file>" />

    </head>

    </html>

    with that I can:

    • make hyperlinks from the PowerPoint/PDF file to the .html files
    • edit the .html file to correctly link to the original file wherever they are
    • when clicking the hyperlink in the PDF using Acrobat Reader, it opens my default webbrowser which opens the original file in turn (depending on the filetype it either downloads the file or displays it in the webbrowser if it is also a pdf)

    I therefore need not to have control over placement of the original file and can manage references in a single folder by using .html files with redirects (instead of .lnk files)

    When I have multiple links to the same file inside my PDF I do not need to change every instance when a linked file name or location changes but can edit this change once in the .html file.

    This also works on non-Windows Operating Systems.

    1 reply

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 3, 2019

    Contact the support of Microsoft. You use a feature of Powerpoint.

    joramz78214818
    joramz78214818Author
    Participant
    July 3, 2019

    Thanks Bernd for your quick response.

    As the generated hyperlinks in the PDF file look the same for either files I assume its an issue from Acrobat Reader. I also could think of security reasons that Acrobat Reader does not open shortcut files but it would be great to get a confirmation that links to .lnk files in Acrobat Reader do work. Also, the shortcut files work when clicked in Windows Explorer.

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 3, 2019

    May be that Acrobat Reader doesn't support this links.

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