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A
Anonymous
May 12, 2016
Answered

Can no longer edit links

  • May 12, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 873 views

I have many documents sent to me in Word format which contain hundreds of links to external webpages. The documents must be converted to PDF format AND once in PDF, I have to change each link to force it to open in a new window.

I used to be able to simply edit the PDF and change the link to a javascript that would force the link to open in a new window.  However, just within the last week when I try to edit my PDF, nothing shows up as a link which can be edited anymore. There is a link there because viewing the PDF in Acrobat or Reader show the link is there and works.

I am converting from Word using the built-in Acrobat PDF Maker, haven't changed any preferences in Word and am using Acrobat Pro 10.1.16.

What has changed? Why can I no longer edit the link and modify to my javascript?

Any insight would be appreciated.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Karl Heinz Kremer

Sorry, also meant to say that I am using Word's built-in Acrobat tab - Create PDF to convert my documents into PDF format. My preferences are set under Settings to Add Links.


After I posted my question about what converter, I realized that you had that in your original question. Sorry about that. I just did a quick test with my Acrobat X, and it works correctly. What version of Word and operating system are you using?

I would try to repair my Acrobat installation. For Windows versions of Acrobat, you can do that by selecting the "Repair" function in Acrobat's Help menu. Does that change the behavior of links?

1 reply

Karl Heinz Kremer
Community Expert
Karl Heinz KremerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 12, 2016

What looks like a link is not necessarily a link... If you have text in your document that Acrobat or Reader recognizes as a link (e.g. http://www.adobe.com), and you've configured Acrobat or Reader to "Create Links from URLs" in Preferences>General, then such a URL will have link behavior, but will not be a true link (e.g. you cannot modify it's behavior).

Is it possible that the document you are working with does not have link annotations (meaning "real" links), but only has URLs that Acrobat or Reader recognized?

There is a function to automatically convert URLs to "real" links via Tools>Document Processing>Create Links form URLs

Once that is done, you can edit the link behavior again.

A
Anonymous
May 12, 2016

Thank you for your response.  I have verified that the Word documents show various text turned into true hyperlinks. I hover over them in Word and see the URL and I can right-click and edit hyperlink which pulls up a screen displaying the URL the text is going to. 

I checked and my Acrobat is configured to "Create Links from URLs" but not sure this is affecting anything since they appear to be true links in the authoring application.

I also looked for Tools - Document Processing - Create Links from URLs....but under my Acrobat Pro -  Tools, there is no "Document Processing".  I checked under all the headings under Tools and none say "Create Links from URLs".

Wondering whether Word's built-in Create PDF function could somehow be corrupted since the links are being converted, just aren't editable.

Karl Heinz Kremer
Community Expert
Karl Heinz KremerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 12, 2016

If you don't see "Document Processing", try View>Show/Hide>Tools>Document Processing - does that bring up the missing panel?

If you are converting from Word to PDF using Word's own converter, then all bets are off, try using Adobe's PDFMaker (the Acrobat item on Word's toolbar or ribbon), which can be configured to convert Word links to PDF links.

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