Interactive/Clickable Table of Contents..NOT the Bookmarks Bar

[Rosstarino]

Hello Adobe Users,

I have a challenge...I have a 100+ page technical user manual that is created in microsoft word.  It has a TOC; that in word is clickable so in that it takes you to that section in the document.  No matter what I've tried when converting it to a PDF it will NOT retain that behavior.  Instead what I get is a side bar with bookmarks.  What I want, and swear I've seen before, is the ability of the reader to click the actually table of content section and have adobe reader advance them to that section.  Is this even possible anymore in Adobe Acrobat?  Or do I need some third party plugin or solution?  Thanks

[Bernd Alheit]

Read this:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/word-to-pdf-keep-active-links-and-table-of-conten... 

[Rosstarino]

Hello Bernd, thank you for pointing that post out.  I am already using the PDF Maker plugin in word; I also make sure to the option to retain links is checked.  It still does not allow me to export to PDF and have the TOC actually be clickable.  What I get is a built out Bookmarks List on the left. That is not what I'm looking for.  I think it is not user friendly to have to scroll through bookmarks to find the areas in the TOC that youre looking at to click the bookmark link to be taken to that section of the PDF.  The TOC itself should be clickable...that's what I'm trying to accomplish and can't seem to make that work.

[Rosstarino]

[Bernd Alheit]

May be a issue of your Adobe Acrobat installation.

You can try the conversion with Open Office. 

[HeatherA_54]

I am having the same problem as of yesterday!!!! Very annoying and time wasting. My work load is huge at the moment and I convert large word docs (with TOC) to PDF several times daily. I have paid subscriptions to MS 365 and to Adobe Creative Cloud. All versions are up to date.....this problem only started to occur yesterday. NOT HAPPY!!!

I have today posted to both Adobe support community and to MS support community trying to find someone who can help sort the problem.

[Teri5C91]

This is horrible! I just discovered this issue today during my company's busiest time of year. This was not a problem before. This change now has created issues with a publication solution we use because the linked TOC in Word that was retained when saved as PDF then uploaded to the platform (FlippingBook) the TOC was then navigational. This change has now killed the TOC feature in our digtial publications.

HELP!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

@Rosstarino @Teri5C91 @HeatherA_54 

This is a bug in the latest versions of Word 365 and Acrobat/PDF Maker.

See discussion at this forum post:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/links-from-ms-word-not-working/m-p/12444694#M3331...

And up-vote this bug at UserVoice,

https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/44270718-errors-...

Word-around: bypass Adobe's PDF utility and instead use Microsoft's built-in PDF exporter:

File / Save As / file type = PDF  (Make sure that's not Save As Adobe PDF, which has the bug).

Follow the instructions, don't forget to choose the options for tagged accessible PDF.

[HaVX]

I take a docx file, which was successfully converted to PDF with clickable TOC using Word 365 in the same machine, and Save it as PDF using only Microsoft Word 365 Home (updated), no Adobe PDF Maker. The resulted PDF's TOC is NOT clickable.

Thought Acrobat was installed in my laptop, I guess the issue is caused by Microsoft Word, not Adobe. Or may be caused by my new Windows 11 install?

[Rosstarino]

Bevi,

I tried doing a 'save as' PDF and it still does not retain the links in the TOC.  

[Tanvi Rastogi]

Hi Bevi

We checked this workaround at our end and it seems that this is not working with latest Office version 2109. Please revert to older Office version 2108 (prior to Microsoft Office - October 6th update) for creating working links.

Thanks

Tanvi

[Rosstarino]

work on it; had to ticket it to IT...waiting on them to roll me back; if they will.

[Petrick15A9]

Are you using Office 365? If so and you are able to rollback to version 2108 and version 14326.20404 it should work for you. I ran into this this morning when a user reported this issue to me and I tried all the PDFMaker settings and rolled back my 365 build until I found one that this still worked in.

[Rosstarino]

on the phone with our IT, trying to rollback to this version; I'll confirm if this worked after my word is updated.

[Shanaella23880374m548]

Found the solution yet?

You can highlight the text in your table of contents.

A dialogue box will appear - select "Create Link"

Then scroll in your document to the location where you need to insert the link and click there.

Now you can click on your table of contents and the link will take you directly to the associated content.

[Shanaella23880374m548]

Highlight the text AND right click!

[try67]

It will not be too difficult to create a script to add such links, if you can't get it to work when converting from Word. If you're interested in hiring a professional to do it for you feel free to contact me privately via [try6767 at gmail.com].

[JR Boulay]

It is much more pleasant for the end user to have a set of bookmarks always available next to the document rather than having to systematically return to a summary page.

[try67]

True, but one does not exclude the other. You can have both bookmarks (easier to use when viewed on a device) and a TOC (easier to use when the file is printed). The latter can even be generated based on the former, including clickable links.

[Rosstarino]

I already have the bookmarks, seems that's all I can do anymore when converting a word document to PDF using the Adobe PDF plugin in word.  I guess it's not possible anymore to make the actual Table of Contents interactable and clickable. Unfortunate that Adobe thinks users wouldn't be inclined to click the item in the ToC to be taken to that section of the document. 

 Still no solution to this.

[try67]

If your file has working bookmarks you can use this (paid-for) tool I've created to convert them into a TOC, with page numbers and clickable links: https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-create-a-table-of-contents-toc-in-a-pdf-file-from-bookmarks

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

@try67 @JR Boulay and @Tanvi Rastogi ,

Bookmarks and TOCs are mostly interchangeable in terms of functionality. However, those using assistive technologies, such as screen readers used by people who are blind or have low vision, can't access any of the panels on the RHS, such as the bookmarks panel.

That's why TOCs are required by accessibility standards and that they be functional/clickable. Accessibility of digital information is required by governments worldwide, so at this time, this bug prevents governments, academic institutions, and many corporations from meeting the law.

They are not happy when software fails them and, consequently, has them violiating laws they're required to meet.

Tavni, please escalate this bug's priority.

[Tanvi Rastogi · Accepted solution]

Thanks for reporting the issue of links not working. We can reproduce this issue with latest Office 365 version 2109 but not with Office 365 version 2108.

We are investigating it on priority and will try to resolve this at the earliest.

Meanwhile, as a workaround, please downgrade your Office version to 2108 for reverting to correct behavior.

Thanks

Tanvi

[Rosstarino]

Thank You for the update Tanvi; I eagerly await an update.  In the meantime, I'll see if our very strignent IT department will allow me alone out of all of our employees roll back to a former version of office 365.

[Rosstarino]

I am using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019....can't rollback my office 365 because I'm not using that.  So what do I do in that case?