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pamelaa19178832
pamelaa19178832
Participant
November 1, 2023
Question

Customers unable to open hyperlink in email attachment

  • November 1, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 347 views

In my position, I design brochures in InDesign and I include hyperlinks in those brochures. When I email brochures to customers as a PDF attachment, the customer is unable to open the hyperlink. The link is correct and works on my side but not my customers.  I've been doing this for a long time and have never had problems with customers opening the hyperlink until recently. Does anyone know what the solution is?

 

Here's an example of my problem:

In the brochure it might say "To register visit www.example.com/events/november/thanksgivingevent"

On the customer side the link gets cut off and instead reads "To register visit www.example.com/events" 

 

How can I get the link to not breakup like this?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    BobLevineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 1, 2023

    It sounds like you're not really adding the hyperlink as much as you're depending on the PDF reader to figure it out. To be sure it works, you'll need to physically add it using the hyperlinks panel.

    pamelaa19178832
    pamelaa19178832Author
    Participant
    November 1, 2023

    Thank you for your reply. I have already done this. It still does not work. I've been doing this a long time and am only now having this issue.

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    November 1, 2023

    Not to make it too basic, but a link in a document is two parts: a text string that may or may not be highlighted for clicking, and the actual URL or other link string sent when it is clicked. As Bob notes, most apps will automatically convert a link detected in text to that link string, but it's not always accurate and an odd character,  a space or a line break can interrupt the link string formation.

     

    Are you actually assigning a fully-formed and valid link string to the text string, using the Hyperlinks panel features?

     

    Does the link work for you when you generate the PDF?

     

    How are clients or customers receiving the PDF with the link? Have you tried sending (email, I assume) the PDF to yourself to see if it is being affected by the sending method? If it's meant to be clicked on in email, is the email client faulty in interpreting the link — and is that true for a variety of email apps and clients?

     

    ETA: It's rare for a PDF viewer to be so non-standard it won't open a link, but viewers (from Acrobat down to browser-function viewers, including many email clients) can vary. The link may be glitched in a way that is acceptable to some readers but not others.

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