Convert word document to pdf without losing formatting or hyperlinks on mac

[kmbccrg]

It's been 15 months since this question was posted and although my PDFs converted from Word are also missing their hyperlinks, my frustration is that it was all working completely fine until about a week ago.

Why did it stop working when it worked perfectly before?

My process:

• Create Word document with many hyperlinks that work properly in Word (this is a weekly newsletter for organization)
• In Acrobat Pro, click Tools (next to Home in upper left-hand corner 
• Click the Create PDF icon. This takes me to the "Create a PDF from any format" screen.
• With "Single File" selected on the left, click "Select a File"
• Select the appropriate Word document
• Click the large blue Create button

This used to open the newsletter as a PDF with working hyperlinks. I only had to save it after this.

Now, without changing anything that I'm aware of, the hyperlinks still appear like working hyperlinks, but they do nothing.

From my research, I also made sure the proper settings are checked in Preferences > General > Create Links from URLs and in Preferences > Trust Manager > Internet Access from PDF Files outside the web browser.

Does anyone have more suggestions about THIS situation??

[branched]

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

@kmbccrg 

What is your OS and version of Acrobat Pro?

Can you show a screenshot of the dialog in File > Properties > Description?

Jane

[kmbccrg]

I don't know what "dialog" you're asking for; I don't see "Properties" when I click on File in Acrobat Pro.

[jane-e]

I don't know what "dialog" you're asking for; I don't see "Properties" when I click on File in Acrobat Pro.

By @kmbccrg

I forgot to say: first open the PDF of your newsletter that does not have working hyperlinks. Your screen shot shows that no files are open. Can you also show the Description panel from a newsletter that you did previously where the hyperlinks worked?

My guess is that you were using Windows before and are now using a Mac. I've used both for three decades and only keep Windows for Acrobat, Microsoft Office, and PDFMaker. PDFMaker is Windows only and hyperlinks from Mac Word to Mac Acrobat are not automatic as they are in Windows.

The Description panels will tell us what is going on.

Jane

[kmbccrg]

Thanks for the clarification about getting the description on each specific file. Here's what I found:

This is the file where the links WERE working:

And this is the file where the links were NOT working:

I have never used Windows with this file, and I know for a fact that I created both of these PDFs with Acrobat Pro's "Create PDF" tool — but yet the non-working one says it's a Word file. ???

But here's a new mystery: I figured out a work-around yesterday by creating the PDF in Word, but now it works again using the "Create PDF" tool in Acrobat Pro! ????

Workaround: I had tried unsuccessfully to create the PDF from Word months ago, but the following step kept the links working in the new PDF when I used Word.

When I selected "Best for printing," the links didn't work. But when I selected "Best for electronic distribution...", it worked great!

But that doesn't explain why it's now working with the Acrobat Pro "Create PDF" method. 🤪

Bottom line though, it's working now—with BOTH methods (Acrobat and Word), so I'll accept that. Thank you for all your help and attention to this!

[jane-e]

@kmbccrg 

I'm so glad it's working now and thanks for coming back. Now that it's working, does the Application now say "PDFMaker"?

The PDFMaker was created by Adobe and Microsoft together and first came out with Word 6.0 in 1993. Adobe didn't give the PDF format to an ISO until 2007, at which time other vendors (such as Microsoft) could make their own PDFs.

Jane

[kmbccrg]

Yes, it says PDFMaker. I made this one from Word.

[jane-e]

@kmbccrg 

Super! When it says "Acrobat PDFMaker", you know it's an Adobe PDF and not a Microsoft PDF.

Jane