Losing links when saving Word 2011 Mac to Acrobat Pro X 10.1.3

[chrisr38361145]

I've searched online for an answer, but can't find anything.  I jus started noticing that when I save a Word doc (2011 for Mac) to a PDF, the links in my document no longer work in the PDF.

Any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it?

[CtDave · Accepted solution]

In Windows Acrobat's PDFMaker migrates Office hyperlinks to PDF Link annotations.

This involves a Windows OS - Office application - Acrobat interaction that is not available for the Mac.

Be well...

[Phillip_M_Jones]

CtDave wrote:

In Windows Acrobat's PDFMaker migrates Office hyperlinks to PDF Link annotations.

This involves a Windows OS - Office application - Acrobat interaction that is not available for the Mac.

Be well...

Finally after 15 years of this issue we Mac users have been begging to get this fixed, someone from from adobe has admitted its their fault. I put in a Bug report to get this fixed once a year.  And it goes in one ear and out the other.

There is a work around That involves the use of Apple's Pages.

1. create your links in word.
2. Save document.
3. Close Word.
4. Open Pages and import the document.
5. Verify the links are still live if not (usually they are) , if they are not add them.
6. Save as a Pages Document first.
7. Then reopen the pages Document.
8. Choose Export document as either .doc or .docx (can do either).
9. Close Pages.
10. reopen the Document in Word.
11. Immediately Save As... PDF.
12. Or go to Print menu choose PDF the choose Adobe PDF and go through the windows to create PDF.
13. The PDF will have live hyperlinks

We really shouldn't be mistreated like this. Adobe has had 15 years to fix this problem (been an issue since Acrobat 3) And they have just blown off Mac Users for 15 years.

There is no excuse In years Past Apple was but blip on the Map everyone considered (may still do) Toys so Mac issues were laughed off.

Now at least on WllStree Apple is worth more than Adobe and Microsoft combined. MS has come around and putting more R&D . Adobe should too, Since if not for Apple Adobe would still be known as Type House.

All Products such as Acrobat, Reader, and Photoshop were first rolled out for Mac. Mac Users were not as timid about trying new Products.

[chrisr38361145]

Wow- so I'm really not losing my mind?!?!  I thought it was something I wasn't doing.

I found an easier solution Phillip-

1. Create your document in Word
2. Save as PDF
3. Open PDF in Acrobat Pro X
4. Tools > Link
5. Create links manually by drawing an invisable rectangle over each inactive link

I still can't believe you can't do this w/ Word to Acrobat.  Oh well.

Thanks!

[Phillip_M_Jones]

Yes its easier to do the way you suggest "If" and it's big "If" you remember all the items you need to create the lines and what they are supposed to link to. But we as Mac Users should have to do either.  They should simply work. After 15 years there are no excuses.

[chrisr38361145]

Definitely.  How could something this simple be ignored? 

I wonder if this is an Adobe or Microsoft Office issue?  I ask because I recently switched from a PC to Mac and was very disappointed in the Mac version of Outlook.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

It all Adobe. The word file created with links  can be transported to a PC and a PDF Created and the links are their.

There are difference in feature between Mac and PC for Office. Until Offce2o11 there was Entourage Because Oulook was considered Business /networking application and not until 2011 did the have enough businesses/Networking to warrant adding OutLook. The last time outlook was on a Mac was about 12 years ago.  So Outlook is a Version one in Mac.

[CtDave]

Phillip,

Sorry to disappoint but,

"someone from adobe has admitted its their fault." does not apply.

I'm not "someone from adobe."

The Forum's Admin(s) put an "employee" tag on those who are from Adobe.

An observation for Mac users.

A third party software house (Adobe in this case) cannot "hook" to a primary software house OS/Applications (Apple or Microsoft) unless both software houses agree to share the inner workings of the code.

The lack of some feature(s) merely reflects that whatever agreement is present has limits.

The only effective way end-users (me - you) have for trying to obtain a "feature" is to submit feature requests.

(Note that the lack of a "feature" is not a "bug". A software "bug" means something very specific to software developers so a feature request sent as a bug report ends up in the circular file.)

To obtain a feature that involves OS / third-party collaboration feature requests really need to be sent to all involved (in this case both Apple and Adobe).

Even then it is not a sure thing.

It is what it is,eh?

Be well...

[Phillip_M_Jones]

It is a Bug. In that Mac Acrobat is not able to something that the PC version does normally.

Its odd that I can use Pages as a go between and get the Links to become and stay hot.

Simply export to Pages save with the links intact, then export back to word, and they stick.

I've put in feature request, after feature request, after feature request. Along with the bug request.  for years.

If Companies would quit mistrusting each other so That software works as it should. MS already has an eqivelent to PDF on The Windows side. And they are waiting for apple or enough Mac Users say they are fed up and they could easily add it Mac platform.

Frankly I wish they would. If they did maybe adobe would get off their backend and do something.

It want happen the engineers are too arrogant talk to each other.

[Stemcellar]

NOT YET RESOLVED???

[milesberry]

Seems to work if you

1) save as docx from Word

2) open in Pages

3) save as pdf from Pages.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

Yes that is a work around that work.

Here is the kicker though usually if imported to to pages the links are active then if you turn around and create PDF either Pages. Or export frompages back k to Word then create the PDF that works as well.

[christien01]

8 years later and you, good sir, are still a saviour!  I rarely if ever print links out of (my admittedly outdated copy of) Word 2011, but I've been struggling with this all day and just came across this, and it worked like a charm. Thank you! 

[JonLaidlow]

This is quite a serious issue - I recently moved from Windows to Mac and converting word docs with embedded links to PDF is quite an important task for us. Pages can lose your MS Word formatting so it's not ideal. Anyone got any other useful workarounds? Does Acrobat 11 fix this?

[Bill12]

Is there a MS addin to the MAC version of WORD to do the conversion as found on a PC? That is not an Adobe solution, but a possible workaround using a MS plugin if available.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

After 15 Years Adobe seems to have solved the URL Link Problem But you have to AcrobatXI.

Create your links in Original Document.

Save Document as a .docx File.

Next go to Printer. and click on PDF and wait for menu to pop up.

Next select Print adobe PDF, or Print as Adobe PDF (depend upon OS version)

Next wait for first chices to show up This is equivelent to Job Options in Distiller (High Quality, PDF/A/PDF/X (etc.)

and choose to open with Acrobat or reader after Processing or nothing at all.  Click Okay or continue.  Now name the file if needed.  the choose desired location.

Now test out you document should. Should have hot links.

They still haven't fixed the problem if there is a section break next page and the orientaion has been switched then separate PDF's are created. However the probelem separate PDF's are created at any Page or section break (except the situation mentioned above) has been cured.

[Guest]

The solutions above all require additional software. I discovered tonight that resumes and cover letters I've been sending out in pdf format since I bought my Mac don't have live links!!! Arghhh!!! My solution? I uploaded the original file (doc or docx) to Google Drive. Right click on the file and open with Google Docs. Under file menu, select download as pdf. It works like a charm.

[Guest]

Sue the teacher,

I call this the convert in order to convert spoiler.

Unfortunately, a user will frequently lose the document formatting upon conversion to one of the other file formats (Google Docs, LibreOffice, etc.).

Unless you want to redevelop your outlining or restructure all your table columns, the "convert in order to convert" is not a solution. 

One of the reasons I purchased CS6 a couple of months ago was to FIX this problem, only to find it is no fix at all.  Frankly, I don't know how Adobe keeps a straight face putting "Pro" on the version of Acrobat in CS6 for OSX. 

As for the Word to PDF issue, Apple, Adobe and Microsoft seem to enjoy the ultimate sweet spot--all three are at the party and can point the finger at each other.

I'm now looking for third party solutions. 

Emphasized note to Adobe: I'm hardly going to shell out more money for your Acrobat XI. This should have been FIXED in the CS6 product I just purchased.

[suzann3t]

Me too. I've wondered why nobody ever responds to my beautiful, professional resume.

[mmickelson]

Another 3rd party solution I've found (using free software) is to use Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org). Either open your Word doc in Open Office or create it from scratch there. Personally, I am more comfortable using Word to create the document. Although you do have to watch for formatting changes, I haven't had much problem there.

[tdankmyer]

I'm amazed this hasn't been fixed yet. All the options of using third party tools unfortunately screw with formatting enough that it's annoying and certainly not ready to be sent to clients.

FreePdfConvert is another option, however, you only can convert one file every 30 minutes I believe. We are using this until this problem is fixed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Acrobat XI is what broke this. Before XI, we were able to do this.

PDF Converter - Convert to PDF Online Free

[LoriWitzel]

Another hack that worked for me - upload the Word document into Google Docs and convert it during upload into a Doc. The links should be preserved, and I've only seen small bits of format changes that are easy to fix. Then download it as a PDF, and the links should be preserved. Again, there may be some very minor formatting clean-up, but this was MUCH faster than the awful way Adobe wants us to re-add links.

[Guest]

So much conversation.  I can't resist responding briefly to each entry.

In order of appearance:

- Chrisrr2012 -No, it doesn't work that way and NEVER has worked that way on the Mac.  Even back in the old days before Mac OS X existed (think Acrobat versions 1 - 5 ) in System 7, 8 and 9.

- CtDave has it the information correct in this case.  Welcome to Windows and MS Office.  😕

- Phillip Jones is also correct about the wanting of this feature although I have never tried the Apple Pages workaround he mentions.  I may need to try that one.

-  Not going to touch the blame game.

- Phillip Jones also mentions the Acrobat/Reader URL feature which is nice, but it's just keying on the rendered text "http://" or "https://"  if it's not there then the link is not automatic.

-  Sue the teacher has an interesting Google Docs workaround.

- mmickleson seems to have a workable solution that requires another app.  It works too with a reasonable caveat.  In this case, it's one vendor that took the initiative to do it as an export feature.  Kudos to them.

- tdankmeyer is incorrect.  As stated previously by both Phillip and myself, it's NEVER been there.

- loriwitzel seems to have another workaround that results in PDF.  I'll have to try it.

What it boils down to is a feature that has never been in the Mac version of the Acrobat product and has been requested.  I wish I had another workaround that hasn't been mentioned that isn't either too much bother, too expensive or cool that hasn't been mentioned here by the other Forum users.

[sjjss]

It has to have been working at some point.  I have archived 400 page+ documents that all have hyperlinked table of contents in them. 

Now, I just can figure out how I got them there....

Sabian Zildjian wrote:

So much conversation.  I can't resist responding briefly to each entry.

In order of appearance:

- Chrisrr2012 -No, it doesn't work that way and NEVER has worked that way on the Mac.  Even back in the old days before Mac OS X existed (think Acrobat versions 1 - 5 ) in System 7, 8 and 9.

- CtDave has it the information correct in this case.  Welcome to Windows and MS Office.  😕

- Phillip Jones is also correct about the wanting of this feature although I have never tried the Apple Pages workaround he mentions.  I may need to try that one.

-  Not going to touch the blame game.

- Phillip Jones also mentions the Acrobat/Reader URL feature which is nice, but it's just keying on the rendered text "http://" or "https://"  if it's not there then the link is not automatic.

-  Sue the teacher has an interesting Google Docs workaround.

- mmickleson seems to have a workable solution that requires another app.  It works too with a reasonable caveat.  In this case, it's one vendor that took the initiative to do it as an export feature.  Kudos to them.

- tdankmeyer is incorrect.  As stated previously by both Phillip and myself, it's NEVER been there.

- loriwitzel seems to have another workaround that results in PDF.  I'll have to try it.

What it boils down to is a feature that has never been in the Mac version of the Acrobat product and has been requested.  I wish I had another workaround that hasn't been mentioned that isn't either too much bother, too expensive or cool that hasn't been mentioned here by the other Forum users.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

If in office the URL was created through Word's Auto-Correct the links will be active when converted PDF. When going to Print Menu > PDF > Adobe PDF

Do not use  the save as feature in Word (uses apple's PDF engine) Creating through Print Menu uses Adobe's PDF engine.

1. Another way to create a PDF that with Hot links is create the word Document and save as Docx.
2. Next locate file and drag and drop on icon of Acrobat in Dock.
3. Wait long enough to drink a cup of coffee or tea.
4. When Acrobat opens and  the PDF shows save PDF immediately.

URL created with Word's URL Wizard has never worked.

To use the URL wizard you highlight a Word

Then go to Format menu (in Word) and choose URL

A window appears and the word you highlight shows in one field, you type in another field either URL or Mailto information and click okay.

That never works and never has worked.

The defect is totally with Adobe and Acrobat as the same Word file (created on Mac) all links are active when using Windows version of of Acrobat.

And as previously said. You can import into Pages and export back as Word File and the create the PDF and all links will be active.