How do I remove a blank link annotation?

[JStro]

Under the Annotations under my Content panel, there is a link that does not highlight any content when selected. It has an associated link objr under the tags panel. I'd like to remove this from my document. It's possible to delete the link objr under the tags panel, but the associated link annotation remains. This leads to a flag under the accessibility checker. How can I delete this link annotation?

[ls_rbls]

can you share a screenshot of what you see ?

Seems like you're referring to a weblink of a documen link, in which case you may need to employ the "Edit PDF" tool.

When you open this tool, a toolbar will appear; select the "Link" item , then select from the context menu "Remove Weblinks..."

[JStro]

In this first image, the link--which is unfortunately not a weblink but an internal-facing link that directs to another page--creates a highlight as intended and the associated link annotation. I've redacted the text, but the regular text is in black and the linked text in violet:

In this second image, the second link annotation does not show a highlight. Without the highlighted box, I'm unable to choose to edit or delete the link and link annotation:

In this third image, the third link annotation is associated with a highlight over the second linked text.

Each of the link annotations are also associated with a link objr in the tags panel. What I'd like to do is delete the second link annotation that isn't associated with linked text in the document and that doesn't create a highlight.

If it helps, the original document was created in Word, which was converted to PDF.

[JStro]

Here's a second image of the second annotation highlighted, but not showing a highlight box around any linked content. The violet redaction boxes are the only links on that page in the document. There should only be five link annotations, but instead there are seven. I want to remove the two link annotations that do not create highlights.

[Test Screen Name]

Did you try using the Link tool under Edit PDF? That is the way to edit or remove links.

[JStro]

Yes, but the Link tool under Edit PDF only seems to work when the link annotation is associated with content that gets highlighted. The link annotations I'm having issues with do not lead to content being highlighted when they are in focus. It's also not possible to remove all web links because these are not web links but internal.

[ls_rbls]

In that case, can you confirm if these annotations that you're referring to may not be annotations but static content instead. 

If that would be the case, you may also use the "Edit PDF" tool and see if you can click on those. If you're able to click on them a text box will appear around that static text in the form of black dotted lines, and when you hover the mouse pointer over it it will turn to blue in color; right-clicking on it will provide you with a context menu and the option to delete that text box.

If that is not the case, I am thinking that maybe you'll need to employ the "Comments" tool. This is the tool that will remove or add annotations in the PDF.

Last, if none of the observations above are correct, then I can only think of this issue related to the PDF being created from a scanned image.

[JStro]

I really appreciate your effort in trying to help. I'm referring to them as blank link annotations because under the Content panel, it's under "Page # > Annotations," where it's a "Link." If it were static content, I think it would be under a Container. In the same way that this blank content does not present with a highlight, it doesn't present with a dotted black line with the Edit PDF tool.

With the Comments tool open and upon focusing on the blank link annotation, there is no highlight around content in order to make edits to it or delete it.

The PDF is also not created from a scanned image but a converted Word document. My best guess is that there is invisible markup that follows the link that creates a blank link annotation and link objr upon conversion.

[ls_rbls]

See if this helps: 

• Printing without Comment Highlights in Word 
• Creating Accessible Documents from Microsoft Word 

Before you create a PDF from MS Word, try and turn off the "Document structure tags for accessibility" options, then convert to PDF.

The main detail here is if you're using "Save As" a pdf document, print to pdf, or converting to PDF directly using the Adobe Acrobat add-in; the results of the produced  PDF may vary using those methods.

Can you confirm which of these methods were you using?

Also, I am curious now, would you be able to share an example of that PDF with no sensitive data on it?

[JStro]

Ah, yes. I understand. I didn't print to PDF or Save As. I converted to PDF using the Adobe Acrobat add-in. I've created a sample PDF out of the document to try to illustrate the issue.

What does turning off the "Document structure tags for accessibility" option do? My goal is to make this document accessible and to run cleanly through the built-in accessiblity checker. It is general practice in document remediation for accessibility for there to only be a single link objr per link tag under the tags panel. If I delete the link objrs that are blank, the accessibility checker indicates there's an issue because there are unmarked link annotations that are no longer associated with the deleted link objrs in the tags panel.

[ls_rbls]

I suggested turning off the structure tags for accessibility in MS Word, as a troubleshooting step.

Your example PDF attached did pass all checks accessibility checks except those empty links as you've described.

Because it is so hard to guess (or tell) what is taking place between MS Word and Acrobat during the conversion process, my approach would be to uncheck that option in MS Word before exporting to PDF; it will let you produce a clean PDF when using the add-in and then you can employ the "Action Wizard" in Acrobat to make your PDF accessible. See here:

•  https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-verify-pdf-accessibility.html

This approach may give you more control of the elements that you need to make accessible rather than letting the software to do that automatically.

[brennanyoung]

I'm having the same problem, which occured after I (mistakenly) ran "Autotag Form Fields". Since then a bunch of 'offending' annotations have appeared, (apparently from various path artifacts) and it is now impossible to delete them, despite any of the advice given here. They are not form fields.
When I right click on an annotation in the Annotations in the Content panel, and choose Properties, the dialog box opens, but all fields are disabled.
When I choose "Show in Tags Panel" I get an error "The selection was not found in the Tags panel".
I believe this is a bug.

I do not have the source document, I am just preflighting the tags and read-order for accessibility.

[brennanyoung]

Here's the PDF. 

[Michelle243482146jck]

I'm not sure if you've found a fix for your issue (which I've had often). But in case someone else wants to try what worked for me, I thought I'd offer a workaround. It's tedious, but it works.

Delete erroneous form fields 

1. In Acrobat, select the Prepare Form Tool
2. Under Fields, select an erroneous form field
3. Right-click, select "Delete"
4. Repeat for every erroneous form field
5. Save

If Detect Form Fields created many erroneous form fields, it might be faster to start over, choosing not to run "Detect Form Fields," but manually creating the required form fields in Acrobat using the Prepare Form Tool. When I'm using InDesign, I will create the required form fields in the InDesign document to avoid using Acrobat for this step.

[Michelle243482146jck]

I thought I'd offer a workaround for the "deleting link annotations" issue. It's tedious, but it works. You may want to save versions throughout this process in case you need to go back to fix something; these tasks cannot be undone.

PART 1: Force Acrobat to locate all untagged annotations (unusually these were created through Acrobat's Autotag process or Word's "best for electronic distribution and accessibility" PDF Save As process)

1. In Acrobat, select the Content tab.
2. Select the Options drop-down menu and choose "Find."
3. The Find Element dialog box opens. Select "Unmarked Annotations" from the Find drop-down menu. Choose the "Search Document" radio button. Click "Find." 
4. Acrobat highlights the unmarked annotation with the Find Element dialog box still open. From the dialog box, select "Tag Element." 
5. The New Tag dialog box opens. Select "Link" from the Type drop-down menu, and select OK.
6. Acrobat will automatically jump to the next unmarked annotation; repeat steps 4 and 5 until all annotations are tagged.
7. Save.

PART 2: Delete Links in the document

1. Go to the Tags tab. Be sure "Highlight Content" is selected in the Options drop-down menu.
2. All newly created, yet unwanted, <Link> tags should appear at the bottom of your Tags tab. 
3. Select an unwanted <Link> tag. Acrobat will highlight its location in the document. 
4. In the document, right-click on the highlighted link, and select "Delete Link."
5. Repeat for all unwanted <Link> tags.
6. Save.

STEP 3: Delete Empty Tags from the entire document and save.

[JStro]

Thank you for your solution. I'm not sure if my method is any less tedious. I extracted the page to reconstruct it without the blank annotations by transferring all the content to a blank page before inserting (not replacing) the reconstructed page back in to its appropriate position in the document. If there were internal links/references, this method requires correcting all the broken links throughout the document.

I've found that transferring over the content is possible by creating a new PDF with a blank page and then inserting the extracted page with the content to be transferred to follow. Then, in the Content panel, cut all the content from the second page and paste it to the first.

[Michelle243482146jck]

That's a clever solution as well! My issues tend to pop up in longer documents (over 20 pages), and the link issue might appear on every page. I'm remediating a ton of scanned archival documents that require OCR; the links issue has been popping up often when the original scan has a hyperlink in the should-be-artifact footer. *face palm*