How to create a link in MadCap Flare so that PDFs in Portfolio can "find' one another.

[anne38548790rdua]

I am creating a Portfolio with 6 PDFs that are created in MadCap Flare. I want to be able to link across PDFs, that is the primary purpose of moving these PDFs into a Portfolio. I know that the links can be created in portfolio after PDFs are placed there, how can I embed the links in the source files so that they work once the outputs are placed in the Portfolio. Any ideas? 

[try67]

This is not possible to do in Acrobat. If you're generating the files using a PDF library then you could do it, by creating your own a RemoteGoTo-action with the proper File Specification.

[anne38548790rdua]

Thanks for this information. That is too bad. It would be great to be able to manually code a link in the source document to a bookmark in another PDF in the Portfolio. It would be a valuable enhancement.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you re doing well.

++ Adding to the discussion

Traditional PDF hyperlinks (created at the source level in Flare) are typically set up to point to external PDF files by filename, not to embedded PDFs within a portfolio. Since a PDF Portfolio is essentially a container of multiple PDFs (rather than one merged document), these links don’t behave the same way as they would in a single, continuous PDF.

That said, Adobe Acrobat Pro allows you to manually create links between PDFs after they’re added to the portfolio. But if you're looking to embed those links during authoring in MadCap Flare, the options are limited by how Acrobat interprets those links once the PDFs are placed inside the portfolio.

[anne38548790rdua]

Thank you, Amal. That is right, I am looking to manually create the links during authoring in MadCap Flare so that they are in place and will always be there upon publication to #OtherTopic in OtherPDF. I have manually created a few from Edit PDF in Portfolio for now, but there are many links and I don't want to have to recreate them every time I edit and republish PDFs from Flare. If there were a convention in place to create a link manually while authoring the document in Flare that could find a PDF by name and bookmark within that PDF within a Portfolio container, that would solve my problem. The PDFs would be much more cohesive while maintaining their separate identities!

[Amal.]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and explaining the situation.

You're right, manually adding links in MadCap Flare is a smart way to keep navigation consistent in your PDFs. While Flare doesn’t currently have a built-in way to automatically link to specific PDFs or bookmarks inside a Portfolio at runtime, using a clear method while authoring can definitely make things easier.

Here are a few tips that might help:

1. Use clear and consistent names for your PDFs and bookmarks. This helps make sure your links don’t break when you republish.
2. Use relative links in Flare whenever you can. As long as your folder structure and file names stay the same, this will keep your links working.
3. Keep a simple link index or list in your source files. This makes it easier to manage or update links, especially if you’re working with many documents.
4. Use Flare snippets or variables for links you use often. That way, if you need to change the link format, you only have to update it in one place.
   
   

Smooth navigation is important, especially when working with several PDFs in a Portfolio. If you'd like to share this idea with our engineering team, feel free to post it here: https://adobe.ly/3ErN0R5

[anne38548790rdua]

Thank you, Amal. I will!