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Question

Disable Links in PDF?

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
May 1, 2009
5 replies
54963 views

Is there way to disable links in a pdf?

I know all about the link tool and the actual, underlined links. Those are easy to disable by deleting the information or redirecting them elsewhere.

However, there are links that appear as text in the document, but when you pass your cursor ove them, they are actually links.

I am working with emails that have been converted to pdf docs and I am seeing this quite a bit.

Is there a way to disable those particular types of links? I have been using the link tool to put a box around the link and redirect it. I am concerned, though, that this measure can be removed and the information can be accessed.

Is there a more permanent, secure method?

This topic has been closed for replies.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

As try67 wrote there are two things to remove:

1. you must remove all "links" objects, as explained above.

2. You must remove the text in the layout, and that's the hardest part because Acrobat Pro's Find-and-Replace function, which might replace only part of the address, doesn't support GREP. And because the "Redact" function that supports GREP will remove the full email address, so without leaving the domain name visible.

The easiest solution would be to install and use a custom GREP pattern/query in the "Redact" tool.

Otherwise you will therefore need to use a custom JavaScript script.

You can send me a private message (or to try67) for a quote.

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

These links are automatically generated based on the text on the page. You can turn this off FOR YOURSELF. You cannot stop other people, using all sorts of software to view the PDF, from having automatically generated links from text.

A

ABurns2022

Participant

Okay, so you're saying if I send the document to be viewed by someone else, they can perhaps enable the hyperlinks on their end? Using their Adobe and going into preferences?

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

"they can perhaps enable the hyperlinks on their end? Using their Adobe and going into preferences? ". No perhaps. And their option will already be on. You are only turning off what happens on YOUR system. And they probably aren't even viewing in Adobe software. If they use Chrome or Edge or Preview, they couldn't even turn it off.
It's hard to see how this can be a security issue. The link address (http...) is clearly visible on the page, so the user could simply copy/paste it or retype it to use it.

A

AnnaD13-h4pQ3Z

Participant

Hello fotojunkie67

Were you able to resolve this? We're running into the same problems.

We were able to come up with a work around by placing a link box over the 'url' text and having the url go nowhere.

The pdf allows a cursor or pointer to hover over and click on the text but it doesn't go anywhere.

We're thinking there is a better solution.

AD

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

In the preferences you can disable the entry 'Create links from URLs'.

M

Michele5FEA17841968

Participant

In Acrobat DC, it is under Preferences>General>Basic Tools, 2nd option.

🙂
thank you all for this thread, it helped me a lot ! (11 years later!!)

Cheers!

L

Laura_M_

Adobe Employee

Under Advanced > Document Processing there is a "Remove all links" option which will remove all links in the document or on a specified page range. But that's going to remove all links. If there are links you'll want to maintain you'd have to recreate them or (if it would work) select only a page range.

~graffiti

Legend

Keep in mind that if the links are spelled out (start with http:// or the like) they may be recognized as links on the users end unless they have disabled that function (it's on by defaut) in Reader or Acrobat.

L

Laura_M_

Adobe Employee

Good point, files generated by applications such as Word will have links created automatically from URLs if (in Preferences > General tab) "Create Links from URLs" is ON, and which is ON by default. This doesn't seem to happen with files created in InDesign or Illustrator.