How do I remove all hyperlinks from a document?

Report · Dec 31, 2015

By using the Tools>Document Processing>Removing All Links portion, it does not remove all of the hyperlinks. So far the solution is printing documents that are up to 1k pages or sorting through to print the hyperlinked pages to scan them and add them back to the document. There has to be a simplified way to remove all of the links. For example, if you had to print an Air Force Instruction, it's laced with hyperlinks. The process of removing all links only removes a portion and still leaves a ton of links left in the document that have to be searched and removed - or print the document to rescan it. Please help!

Report · Jan 01, 2016

There is a Preference option to convert URI in text format to links. So unless you remove the link text the link cannot be removed. You need to turn off the automatic link text to hyperlink or convert the text link to some other text.

Report · Jan 04, 2016

Where is the preference option and will it work for a document that has been given to me instead of me being the original creator? I have Adobe XI so I'm not sure if that will really make a difference as to what may or may not work.

With regard to the connection between hyperlinks and printing, I'm trying to avoid printing the documents only to rescan them in the computer to get rid of the hyperlinks. This seems to be the only solution. I am not the creator of the document. I don't have the time to sit and edit 200 hyperlinks and peruse a document of 1000 pages to make sure all of the hyperlinks have been removed. Printing to scan wastes a ton of paper so I want to avoid it if I can.

Report · Jan 04, 2016

On Acrobat's menu bar "Edit => Preferences => General => uncheck Create Links form URL".

Note this is user preference so you only remove the dynamic link for PDFs opened on the modified system not all users. Printing the PDF will not remove the URL. Also if the PDF used buttons with JavaScript, there will be no link annotation to be removed so these will remain unless one removes the hidden JavaScripts.

Report · Jan 04, 2016

I tried that and it still left me with 122 out of 142 hyperlinks. If you print the document then scan it, it actually does remove the hyperlinks - I've done it so many times before but there has to be an easier way to remove it. Is there a feature for Adobe to remove the hidden JavaScripts? I've been searching all morning and it seems that even with the Google results, people are experiencing the same issue with removing hyperlinks. Thanks!

Report · Jan 04, 2016

The goal is for the receiver to review the document without being able to click on any of the links directly from the document - the courts won't accept hyperlinked documents

Report · Jan 04, 2016

Have you looked at using the PDF/A or other achiral standard for PDFs.

Be aware the another user or PDF reading program might not respect this setting. It will be up to the courts and other attorneys to properly configure their copies of Acrobat and Reader.

As noted even printing a PDF to paper and scanning the printout back to a PDF might not remove URL text like http://www.adobe.com.

Report · Jan 04, 2016

I'm actually looking into your first suggestion. The only problem is since it is a work computer I can't really make too many modifications. So if it hasn't been downloaded, I won't be able to download it for use. Is there a way to contact Adobe via email to have them work on this issue so "Remove All Links" actually works without having to do additional work arounds?

Report · Jan 04, 2016

So you are submitting a scanned image which has no text and cannot be searched. This also might be a problem for the courts or other attorneys and their staff when performing reviews of documents or discovery.

There is a tool for users with Acrobat Professional there is an action that can aid in preparing legal documents.

You might want to look at the AcroLaw Blogs about PDF/A. Rick Borstein provides an ongoing series of articles for lawyers and legal professionals.

I remember the story of one Federal judge that was upset about all the different documents format that she had to deal with, especially PDDFs, so she promptly sat down at her computer and typed a memo ink WordPerfect stating that all documents and communications would hence forth be sent to her in the MS Word format even though the courts were clearly moving to the PDF format.

Report · Jan 02, 2016

I don't really see the connection between hyperlinks and printing - what are you specifically trying to solve? Is it that you want to remove http: links that you can see on the printed page?