Previewing links for pdfs on mouseover for adobe reader

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
October 19, 2021
3 replies
2896 views

I have a pdf with a lot of links (imagine a paper with numbered lines and different lines are sometimes referenced with a link in the same pdf document). When I click a link, it takes me to that part of the pdf - great. However, I want to know if there is a way to have a preview of where that link would take me just with a mouseover of the link or something similar, rather than going all the way to where the link takes me by clicking. Does such a thing exist for adober reader?

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JR Boulay

Community Expert

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

try67

Community Expert

There's no built-in command that does that, no. It is possible to set it up using a script, but you'll need to generate those "preview" images in advance and embed them on the page as hidden fields which are made visible when the user hovers above the "trigger" fields. They can't be generated "on-the-fly" by the script.

I've actually created a (paid-for) tool that will help you set it up. You can find it here:

https://www.try67.com/tool/acrobat-create-popup-images

G

Gareth0D45

Participant

Hi, if I use the default reader in linux (Pop OS) whic is Okular, it shows popup previews when you hover over links, but it does not need them pregenerated, it makes them on the fly and with no real perceptible delay. It works on links to other files as well into the same document.

The need to pre-generate the link views, is that because you do it as a plug -in or some kind of add-in, or does Acrobat inherently not have the architecture to allow this functionality to occur?

What if they were to build it into the base feature set, which seems they have little interest in?

I have an engineering tool that I have developed that creates links for jumping between cross references in a specific way suited to certain kinds of engineering deliverables, but it really relies on this preview feature and right now I am looking at giving to interested users as a linux vm so they can use the Okular reader, not ideal, but it seems Adobe won't come to the party and in some way limit others doing it for them.