How to check inactive bookmarks in PDF | Adobe Acrobat

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How to check inactive bookmarks in PDF | Adobe Acrobat

Inactive bookmarks are a common problem in PDF documents. They occur when a bookmark is no longer linked to its intended destination. This can be frustrating for readers trying to navigate the document, as they may click on a bookmark that does not take them where they expected to go.

There are a few ways to check for inactive bookmarks in PDF documents using Adobe Acrobat. One way is to open the Bookmarks panel and look for any bookmarks that are greyed out. Greyed-out bookmarks are inactive.

Solution 1:

You can use a script or third-party plug-in to check for inactive bookmarks. 

Sample Javascript: 

1. Get the list of all bookmarks using - var myBookmarksList = this.bookmarkRoot.children.
2. Loop through each bookmark that is, for (var i=0; i<myBookmarksList.length; i++)
3. Within each iteration, set the current view to a value that is not the destination of a bookmark (for example, page = x, zoom = 1234)
4. Execute the bookmark using myBookmarksList [i] = myBookmarksList [i].execute().
5. If the view is different, it indicates that the bookmark is valid. Else, delete the bookmark using myBookmarksList [i].remove().

Solution 2:

1. Open the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.
2. Click on the "Bookmarks" tab on the left-hand side of the screen. This will display a list of all the bookmarks in the document.
3. Right-click on a bookmark and select "Properties." This will open the "Bookmark Properties" window.
4. In the "Bookmark Properties" window, check the "Page" field to see if a page number is listed. If there is no page number listed, the bookmark is inactive.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the document bookmarks.
6. To fix an inactive bookmark, right-click on the bookmark and select "Delete". Then, recreate the bookmark by selecting the text you want to bookmark, right-clicking, and selecting "Add Bookmark." Give the bookmark a name and click "OK."
7. Save the changes to the document by selecting "File" > "Save."

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