Embedding PDF with Hyperlinks into Outlook

[Guest]

Apologize if this has been asked a million times.

I have a PDF I've created through Word with hyperlinks and I would like to embed it into Outlook and send out as a communication piece, however when I insert the PDF into the body of the email the PDF just shows up as one file and the links are not clickable. Is there anyway to accomplish this? I know the hyperlinks work correctly because if you open the file on it's own the links work .

Thank for your help

[Test Screen Name]

This idea cannot work at all. Some email apps will show a view of a PDF, it is true. Some will use Acrobat. Some will have live links. Some will be dead pages. Some will be a dead first page. Most will be an icon showing there is an attachment. If you want to design visual emails, you need to use a specialist app designed for that, which works in HTML, and bear in mind that many people turn off HTML, and many more turn off pictures.

Of course you can send a link to a PDF on your web site and this is recommended.

[susanr29782679]

This is my workaround for this issue - I make the pdf an image. I snip the image with the snipping tool and place it in the email. (Not as an attachment) I then insert a shape - a rectangle around the text or image I want to hyperlink. I insert a hyperlink to the shape. Then I make the shape with no fill and no outline - so it is invisible. It works! You can then also attach the pdf to your email with your working links. 

[btala]

You genius, thank you!

[Guest]

BEST ANSWER!  This worked swimmingly.  Searched for a long tiome for this simple solution!

[admin@wca.asia]

This is great! I tried it but when sending it to an email address, the shapes tend to move out of the snippet. How do you ensure that the shape links are fixed to the PDF? Desperately trying to send a PDF newsletter bodied in the email but failing miserably!

[JROBERTSON@SUNCOR.COM]

Hello   Thanks - I tried your work around and it worked but when I sent the email, the links disappeared in the PDF when the user clicked to open the email.  Strange but the links were there when the user looked at the email in the 'preview' format in outlook (and did not click to open).  Any suggestions on this odd occurrence?  

[Trapeeze]

Don't suppose anyone has a mac solution to this? Can't believe we can send a man to the moon but hyperlinks in a pdf over email are not possible...

[Fraser5E75]

This is a great workout thank you! I am not sure if you would have something similar that works for an email signature.  I made a signature using Canva and had my social media icons hyperlinked but can't move that document over so I am just looking for a way to still use it.

Thank you!

[Carol5F94]

Thank you!  Worked perfectly.  I just added my PDF in Outlook by inserting an object and then inserted the shapes.  

[ANGELA0D4D]

Hi, what do you mean by "snip the image with the snipping tool"?  Thank you!

[madge5FB3]

Brilliant, susanr!!!

[Kyleigh26661107d47g]

Hey, I have an update that worked for me and here's how I did it with the program I used. First, I opened a blank document in Word, then set my margins to 0, and inserted a picture from file, a full page PDF. Then in Word, I made shape, picked a square and changed the outline and fill to none and put it over where I needed the link. Then I selected all, and copied. Then pasted it into my outlook message without movement. The key was using Word as the step between Indesign and Outlook for me.

[Sarah24235092j7r5]

Hey, don't know if you will see this but THANK YOU! I spent hours trying to find workarounds, and 3 minutes before I finish work for the week I get this one to work. You're amazing and you deserve a great weekend!!!!! Thanks 🙂

[S. S]

Hi @Sarah24235092j7r5,

Hope you are doing well.

If you are still experiencing this issue, you might want to revisit the PDFMaker preferences and make sure if the checkbox "Add Links" is toggled.

This will ensure that the links are embedded to the PDF file that you create.

Hope this helps.

-Souvik

[Joey22945727dv07]

Hello from 2023! Thank you; this helped. If it's just one link (like an rsvp), you can just insert the link right into the pdf that you embedded in your email instead of adding a shape.

[Ruchi36250833v5kb]

But the PDF is actually an image in Outlook, so the link does not work. That's the entire issue. If PDF contents can be directly placed in Outlook email body, that would be best! But doesn't seem to happen. I came across a video from 2016 which showed it was possible. And another post saying 'Outlook does not allow it any more', so seems it was possible some time in the past. 

[ZBartZ]

Appreciate this workaround for Outlook desktop, but the hyperlinks don't work in Outlook mobile. If anyone has a solution that works for both desktop and mobile, that would be great. It's surprising with all this technology, MS Outlook doesn't offer more capabilities for email design.

[DanielleB830]

Hello 

thanks for the solution!  The process described (take .pdf, export as an image in email, insert links in rectangle shapes, remove fill color & border, send email)... this worked.  However, when the email

comes thru the links are moved to different locations of the email.  But, if I click to open the email, the links are in the correct location.  Is there something I should have done, differently?  I used JPEG... should I have used a diff image format, or does that matter?  Also... I put the links in a text box, then placed that text box onto the rectangle shape. I was not able to put the lin directly into the rectangle. 
Can you please assist?

[toddd82649203]

The "shifting" boxes is indeed a problem. It makes this solution unusable for me in my professional application. My thought original was to simply create a table in Outlook but only create one cell for the table. THEN...insert the image in the cell and size accordingly. THEN create a nested table inside of the single cell table and start creating rows/columns as needed and positon them in such a way to be directly over any "hot spots" on the picture that you would like to make links over. Then of course, make the borders on both the single celled table and the table nested above invisible and all links/shapes withing the nested table cells invisible and THAT (the table boundaries) would keep the rectangles/shapes from shifting.