Participating Frequently

Answered

# ist replaced by %23 in URLs ==> Error 404

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
February 5, 2014
16 replies
42221 views

URLs (Links) do not work in my PDFs (from Word Documents), because # ist replaced by %23, which results to an Error 404 in Browsers. Is there a workaround for this bug in Adobe Acrobat XI Standard?

Correct answer clairecessford

Hi, I've come across a simple workaround which is ideal for me — double high five. I Simply bitlyed (https://bitly.com) the link and that ugly error message vanished. Boom.

Show previous replies

S

Schrepel

Participant

I disagree that this issue has been "answered" by suggesting we create bit.ly links for every instance in a PDF where we're linking to URLs that include anchor tags.

It's clearly an Acrobat/Office bug (we're on Office 2013 and latest Acrobat version). When I create a link in a Word doc like "http://yadda.com/document#anchorname", it should use that exact link when it converts to PDF, not translate the hashtag to %23 which works in some environments and not in others. I see that this thread is over 18 months old, but the problem shouldn't be marked as "Answered" by suggesting a manual work-around with the bit.ly suggestion. (Fine suggestion if there's just one link, not acceptable if there are dozens.)

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

Actually what it is, is you are name the file withal space and and a space encodes %23 which no wen browser accepts. What you have to do is rename the files you want to upload to either not use spaces. Or use underscores like on a PC instead of spaces.

S

Schrepel

Participant

Spaces aren't the issue in this case, it's Word/Acrobat converting (web-encoding) the # sign as %23, which in many web server configurations results in a 404 error. We follow the W3C guidelines for naming files/URLs, but it's Acrobat (or Office, hard to tell) that's causing the issue by not just leaving # anchor tags as-is when converting to PDF.

We use IIS7 and I've created a rewrite rule to handle the problem (see my stackoverflow comment) which works fine, but would still be nice if Acrobat would leave URLs exactly as authors create them. My opinion: Acrobat is trying to help the user by encoding links to ensure they're web-safe, but they should pull back a bit and allow W3C-accepted characters in URLs to come through as-is.

R

RobGreer

Participating Frequently

I had this same issue (except with dashes in the URL) and this post saved me. As clairecessford mentioned, this is a workaround and not a fix. Please fix this Adobe and it's easier to Print as PDF instead of going through the Save As process.Given the date on the original post, this issue has been around for awhile now. And I'm running on the latest CC version so I know it's still a problem.

clairecessfordCorrect answer

Participant

Hi, I've come across a simple workaround which is ideal for me — double high five. I Simply bitlyed (https://bitly.com) the link and that ugly error message vanished. Boom.

A

ArmandFrvr

Participant

Yeah, that's a good idea Claire. I used Google's URL shortener since we already use that in a couple of places. Not an optimal solution, but it will work for now. I would still like to hear Adobe's plans to fix this. It doesn't look very professional having the shortened links in there, plus it obscures the location when the user hovers over the link. That's both irritating, and a potential security risk from an end user standpoint, since they don't know where the link will take them.

clairecessford

Participant

True, it's more a workaround rather than a fix.

A

ArmandFrvr

Participant

Will someone at Adobe please let us know when we can expect this to be fixed? This is unacceptable behavior for a product designed to integrate with Word.

JimG123

Participant

I am having exactly the same problem with # being replaced with %23 and links not working (MS Word 2013, Acrobat XI Pro 11.0.11, Win 8.1). Why has this problem not been fixed?

JimG123

Participant

Well version 11.0.12 is now out and still no fix. Sigh.

MC_Ca_DOT

Participant

Use Word to convert to PDF to save the bookmarks

Step 1 - Launch Microsoft Word and open the document you want to convert to a PDF.

Step 2 - Click the "File" tab.

Step 3 - Click "Save As" to show your document on the screen and open the Save As dialog.

Step 4 - Select "PDF" from the Save as Type drop-down list.

Step 5 - Click "Options" to open the Options dialog box.

Step 6 - Check the "Create Bookmarks Using:" option under the "Include non-printing information" header.

Step 7 - Choose whether you want Word to create bookmarks from the document's headings or Word bookmarks. Headings will let you jump directly to a particular section in the document. Select this option if you did not create bookmarks in the document. Word bookmarks will use any bookmarks you defined in the document.

When the document is converted, it will not retain the blue underined hyperlink style/look, but when you hover over, you will see the # is retained and the link is active when you click. Hope this helps.

I agree, Acrobat should have a "import/save/modify" option under bookmarks/targets.

Phillip M Jones

Inspiring

Is you have any spaces in the Urls change them,either remove them at the origination point if it your site.

Example: RubberBabyBuggyBumpers

Or insert underscores

Example: Rubber_Baby_Buggy_Bumpers

Some Web Browsers, and some servers try to insert the code for space and it doesn't always work out.

If it not your site try another browser.

S

sdfkjhbf23Author

Participating Frequently

Hi. Thanks for your answer, but there are no spaces in the url. The "#"-sign in the URL is replaced by "%32".

Example: The correct link is

http://www.example.com/home.html#chapter5

When I print this word file to a PDF, then Adobe changes the link to

http://www.example.com/home.html%23chapter5, which is not an existing URL and therefore causes an Error404.

The PDF has to be distributed to hundreds of people, so it has to work with any browser.

It is neither a server nor a browser who makes this mistake. I created the PDF local on my computer with a local installed Adobe software and open this local PDF with the Adobe Reader which is installed on my Computer. The wrong link is already shown by mouseover in Adobe, even before clicking on it in order to open a browser. Internet or browsers were not involved. It's all on my local harddrive.

M

mediamistress

Participant

Hi sdfkjhbf23.

I too am experiencing this issue and like you, I am also on Windows 8.1 using Word 2010 and Acrobat XI Pro. I've tried to create the PDF from within Word using the Create PDF and I've also tried creating the PDF from within Acrobat. Both methods failed, each time converting the pound symbol "#" to %23. I also don't have any spaces in the url. It's driving me crazy, and like you I have a long document with a cazillion hyperlinks to anchors existing on various web pages. The hyperlink with the # works perfectly well independent of the PDF when you copy and paste it into any browser or even just click on it from within the Word document, indicating that it's not a browser or a server issue.

If anyone at all knows a fix to this issue, please HELP! Otherwise, I'm looking at having to edit each hyperlink individually in Acrobat, which could take days!

Signed, a distraught, depressed and disillusioned Acrobat user!

Thank Heavens! I've just discovered it's Adobe's stupid Create PDF plugin that's causing the problem. If you just do a Save as PDF, the links are preserved. Hallelujah!!!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded