Need to edit the text of a link, not the URL behind it

[Ward5DEF]

I have a document with links like Lake Fishing for Trout, which links to a web page with the heading "Lake fishing for trout". I want to select the link text and add a comment to it to instruct a team member to lowercase it like the web page.

I can select the text, but I'm not given a way to add a comment to it. Right-clicking the text shows an option to delete the link, which then lets me edit the text, but I'd like to leave the link in place.

Is there a way to edit link text without deleting the link?

[Document Geek]

Not really. It would be easier to just add a sticky note next to it explaining what you want.

Normally, I'd be all for properly using the comment tools as you're trying to do, but sometimes things like links and interactive elements can get in the way of being able to interact with the text.

[Ward5DEF]

Thanks, Document Geek. Sometimes finding out you can't do something is as useful as a solution. I forgot altogether about the sticky note method; that's what I'll use.

[try67]

It should be possible. Did you try the Edit Text tool, under Tools - Content Editing? It should allow you to edit the underlying text without changing the Link object that's above it.

[Ward5DEF]

I'm using Acrobat DC (22.001.20117), and when I click the Tools menu, I get a page of labeled icons under the categories Create & Edit, Forms & Signatures, Share & Review, Protect & Standardize, and Customize. One of the icon labels is "Edit PDF", but none is "Tools, Content Editing". Opening Edit PDF shows the document with a panel to its right, where the only option not grayed out is Settings, under Scanned Documents, which mine is not.

   Am I looking in the wrong place?

[try67]

Well, the location and exact name of the tool depends on your version of Acrobat. Can you send a screenshot of what you're seeing?

[Ward5DEF]

Here's the page of icons, which appears when Tools is clicked in the menu bar at the top (Tools appears to be a menu title, but no menu items appear under it; just the page of icons).

[try67]

Open the Edit PDF panel and send a screenshot of what you see then.

[Ward5DEF]

Hmmm. That's interesting: I tried that on another file that had a link, and I was able to edit its text (the link object?) by simply selecting the characters and typing. The screenshot  (Add Showing Edit.jpg) of the advertisement shows the result of changing "www" to "wws".

However, I should have added at the outset that the file where I want to edit the text appears on an online commercial web page with fairly sophisticated programming. It allowed the site to be saved as a PDF, which is what I'm editing, so there may be uncommon irregularities in that file. 

      In any case, in the problem file, the screenshot (Edit Link.jpg) shows the result of right-clicking the text to edit it. Notice that of the options listed, Edit Link appears, but that opens a Link Properties dialog (Appearance Tab.jpg) where options allow a rectangle of various formats to be drawn around the link text, or in the Actions tab (Actions Tab.jpg) where the Select Action dropdown determines what will occur when the link text is clicked. The Add button under that opens the Menu Item dialog, which lets you choose such things as File > Open, File > Print, andView > Zoom > Zoom To..., and  the Actions box allows editing the link URL. 

     Interestingly, I couldn't get the same extensive link editing options in the "normal" PDF, not that I wanted to.

[try67]

You didn't attach "Edit Link.jpg"...

[Ward5DEF]

Sorry, try67; here it is. Sorry for the appearance; I had to photograph the page with my phone.

[try67]

This does not look like a PDF file in Acrobat...

[Amal.]

Hi there

++  Adding to the discussion

Please go through the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/links-attachments-pdfs.html and see if that works for you.

Regards

Amal

[Ward5DEF]

Thanks for the link, Amal; lots of information there. Unfortunately, the only type of editing that can be done to the link text is changing its color, line thickness, and line color. Editing or comments don't seem to work as they do on regular text.

[try67]

You're editing the link, not the text. They are completely separate from each other.

[Ward5DEF]

Yes, I'm beginning to realize that. I was just wondering whether I could edit the text without affecting the link.

[Ward5DEF]

Thanks, Amal, but those instructions are mainly to change the URL behind the link, change the action of the link (have it open a file, open the Search tool, etc.), or change the appearance of the link text (put a box around it or change its color if it's clicked). The instructions don't say how to change the wording of the link text or its spelling. For example, if the link text says "Click here to opn Google" and you want to change "opn" to "open", those instructions don't say how to do that.

      However, I think my problem may not occur in a "normal" PDF document. I'm able to edit link text in another PDF; just not in the one I'm working with now.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Would you mind sharing the PDF file in question with us so that we can check it at our end?

Alternatively, you may try to remove the link and then create a new link with the corrections.

Regards

Amal

[Ward5DEF]

I'd really like to share the problem file, but it's proprietary to my employer and would violate my non-disclosure agreement.

    I could try to delete the link and link text and then reinstate them with the correct text, but that would be more trouble than simply adding a sticky note for my supervisor. He would then make the correction in the source XML file.