How to keep links live when creating PDF from other apps?

[CyndeeM]

I deal with an organization who has a print publication that will now also be available on a web page. This publication mainly consists of PDF ads created by outsiders (not me), most of whom are amateurs. Most ads are probably created in Word or Publisher (or other amateur type programs). And the PDFs are not normally created from Acrobat, but either saved directly from those applications or using a freebie program like Cute PDF.

It seems that when put online, some of the URLs in these ads are live and clickable and some are not. I presume that those that are not live exist in copy that has become flattened along the way.

What is the best advice to give to these amateurs as to how to create their PDFs (when not using Acrobat) and still keep the links live? Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

There is no simple solution to this problem. Most of the “freebie” PDF creators simply use a print driver to create PDF and that mechanism provides no means by which links can be passed through from the original content to the PDF. (The same is true, by the way, if you create PDF by printing to Acrobat's Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance under Windows.) The Acrobat PDFMaker facility for Microsoft Office (but not Publisher) preserves links as does Microsoft's own save as PDF (albeit with many other “issues”).

A bigger problem, though, is that when you place PDF files with links into other publications, such links may very well be lost as part of that placement process. For example, links in a PDF file produced by Acrobat PDFMaker from Word are discarded when such a PDF file is placed into InDesign!

Ironically, Adobe Reader / Acrobat by default looks for what appears to be links, both http:// and mailto: and treats them as links unless you disable this feature (Create links from URLs) in the Reader / Acrobat preferences. This only works for live text and not for tex that is converted to outlines or rasterized. We obviously cannot vouch for what may happen with non-Adobe PDF viewers.

Bottom line is that regrettably, there is no simple way of keeping links live in the workflow you describe.

          - Dov

[CyndeeM]

Thank you Dov. Pretty much as I had expected. Just one clarification please: if one creates a PDF from InDesign and uses a proper PDF export, then the URLs will remain live, correct>

[Dov Isaacs]

Yes, they do. I tested that out prior to my previous response! 

          - Dov