Inspiring

Answered

FrameMaker 17.0.1 "Save as PDF" doesn't create hyperlinks

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 4, 2023
5 replies
1159 views

Hyperlinks work in Frame, but "Save as PDF" doesn't generate links. Have spent hours online with Adobe Support to no avail. HELP!

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Correct answer MaryJaneSoule

I noticed that your goto markers include the filename, whereas the newlink markers do not.

I've not used goto for cross-doc links before; I use spot cross-references for that.

(For anyone not familiar, a spot cross-reference is a cross-reference to a marker. This is different than using a Hypertext marker with a gotolink command.)

I'm not able to dig into potential solutions today, but please keep us posted and I'll reply as I'm able.

Many thanks to everyone who tried to help me with my broken hyperlinks. I have reverted to version 16 and got some Adobe help with PDF printer driver. So everything is working as it should.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

I'm under the weather this week so maybe not thinking clearly, but I don't understand how simply opening Fm v16 files in v17 would break the cross-document links. If the file names didn't change, and the file locations didn't change relative to the book file, what could cause this to happen? And does returning to v16 fix it?

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Hi MaryJane, what is the content that should be linked? Is it a TOC entry, a cross-reference, a hyperlink marker, or something else?

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

M

MaryJaneSouleAuthor

Inspiring

All TOC entries work properly. I have NO cross-references. All the broken links are hypertext type "Go to named destination"

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Since I helped you with these files a few months ago, can you point me to a specific location that's broken?

I'll confirm that the links work in the previous version as well as in Fm 2022.

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

K.Daube

Community Expert

Hi Mary Jane,

I have just tested with FM 17.0.2.431 Save As PDF of my file fm17-details1.fm:

The first attempt created a pdf containing only the icons from the welcome screen and FM quit unexpectedly. This may be a quirk of my system.
The second attempt created a correct PDF with all sorts of hyperlinks (in miniTOC, to URLS, in cross references)

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi MaryJane:

Hyperlinks are part of a table of contents, index, cross reference is and you can also add them manually. Are any of them working or are they all broken?

I second Rick's suggestion to update version 17/2022 to the latest release and try again.

I also like his idea (shown in his linked video) of checking for the link boxes in Adobe Acrobat. After updating and re-publishing the file, if they still aren't working, could you check the link boxes in Acrobat? Use View > Tools > Edit PDF and then click on Link > Add/Edit Web or Document Link to see the link boxes.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

M

MaryJaneSouleAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Barb. All manually-created hyperlinks that point to links in other documents in the book are broken (created using "Go to named destination"). All TOC and Index links work.

I am reluctant to upgrade to 17.0.2 because nothing in the fixed issues list says anything about my problem. Nor were any of the Support people in India able to verify that the problem is fixed in 17.0.2.

I did check the supposed link boxes and they look similar to the ones in Rick's video, but when he moves the pointer over the ones in his document, he gets little black circles at the corners of the boxes. When I do that in my 7.0.1-generated PDF, I get hollow circles at the corners of my boxes. Furthermore, I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in those boxes.

So, please note that I did just discover that some of my manually-generated links are actually working in Acrobat: they are the ones that go to a named destination WITHIN the same document. All that that point to a different document in the same book are broken.

Sort of an aside (I think), I would love to know why, when I create a hypertext link using "Go to named destination" and then later examine the text symbol that identifies that link, Fm says the hypertext link is a "Go to first page." I wonder what that's about? Note: this has always been true, even in version 16, but I never questioned it because the links were all working properly despite the discrepancy in description. I thought maybe it was a quirk of Fm.

frameexpert

Community Expert

Do any of the links work? Or are there partial links? Take a look at this video and see if it describes the problem:

https://youtu.be/nMvx4PnDSqw

M

MaryJaneSouleAuthor

Inspiring

I understand the scenario in your video (hyperlink dependent on formatting), however it does not apply to me. In Frame 16, I had no problem with my hyperlinks. It's only since I unfortunately upgrated to version 17: NONE of my thousand or so hyperlinks get generated when I "Save as PDF"

frameexpert

Community Expert

Just making sure we have all bases covered; did you check this?

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