hyperlinks in a pdf document

[cesard55679371]

Hi everybody,

I did some research in the forum and I could not find an answer to my problem. Here it is :

I have an Excel sheet with hyperlinks (related to files in my company server). I saved the Excel sheet as PDF. So I am able to click on the hyperlinks from the PDF file. But it just opens my internet browser and nothing happens. When coworkers try on their computers, they receive an error message.

Does anybody know how to fix that ? Like I said I DID NOT print as pdf, I saved the xls as pdf.

Thanks,

Cesar

PS : Windows / Adobe Acrobat X

[ms_baker · Accepted solution]

Hi Cesar -

Did you check the URL shown in the links in Acrobat? That's where you're likely to find the problem.

To check, open your spreadsheet PDF and follow these steps:

1. Click the Edit PDF tools icon in the right hand pane.
2. When the tools load, click the Link drop-down on the toolbar, and choose Add/Edit Web or Document Link to identify the links on the page.
3. Double-click a link to open its properties and check the URL.

donna.

[cesard55679371]

Hi Donna,

Thanks a lot ! I am sorry I did not know that tool.

In the actions tab of the hyperlinks properties, it was set up as "open as a web link" instead of "open a file". I will have to change this for every hyperlink but it works now !

Thanks again, have a good weekend.

Cesar

[ms_baker]

Hi Cesar -

Great! You will have to change the links, but at least you'll have a consistently working document at the end!

You have a good weekend as well.

donna.

[Guest]

Hi Donna,

This was interesting. I'm having the same problem trying to get hyperlinks to server located files working from a pdf generated by Visio.

I'm using Acrobat X Standard but it does not allow access to the link properties in the way you suggest - double clicking the link gives no response at all.

We've made sure that we're using the "Local File" option when generating the links in Visio.

Any ideas what going wrong here?

Cheers

[ms_baker]

Hi Wadek -

You're using Acrobat X Standard, which has a different layout. You'll find the Links tool under the Content tools in the right hand pane. You mentioned you aren't able to activate anything by double-clicking a link. Are you using the Link tool to select the link?

donna.

[Guest]

Donna,

Thanks for your reply. I have been trying to use the Link tool in X Standard but apart from indicating where links are it offers nothing else - left or right clicking the link with the Link tool selected does nothing at all - it doesn't even show that there is any link address there.

Apart from this I really need users to be able to access all this using plain old Acrobat Reader which, of course, has no link tool.

The whole thing works just fine in PDF-Xchange without any adjustments which tends to suggest there's a fundamental incompatibility with Acrobat here.

Regards

[try67]

After you create the link a window with various actions should appear. If it doesn't then you should be able to select the link using the Select Object or even the Add Link tool itself, right-click it and select Properties and then create you action. It looks like this:

If it doesn't appear then you should still be able to select the link using the Select Object or even the Add Link tool itself, right-click it and select Properties and then create you action.

And of course, clicking the links can be done in the free Reader. You only need Acrobat to create or edit them.

[Guest]

Try67. Many Thanks - your solution works.

I was initial mystified by your response until I realised that you were telling me to construct the links within Acrobat instead of Visio (and by extension any not adobe product I guess).

Fair enough that works and you get a number of additional useful controls too.

BUT this is far from ideal as we now have to build the graphics in Vision (or whatever) then post process in Acrobat to prep all the links just to get Acrobat Reader to work properly because Adobe have seemingly chosen not to respect embedded links prepared by 3rd party packages.

[try67]

If you use the PDFMaker plugin to convert the Visio file to PDF then the links *might* be preserved. Otherwise they will certainly won't be, as links in other format don't necessarily match those that are possible in PDF files.

[cesard55679371]

Hi Donna,

I'm sorry to reopen the topic. Your answer is still good !

But my problem is I often update the original Excel document (a big list of all my company standard docs). And I don't want to edit the hyperlinks in the PDF everytime I add a document to the list.

Do you know if there is a way to prevent the hyperlink to be open "as a web file" instead of "as a file".

Thanks !

Cesar

[ms_baker]

Hi Cesar -

To be honest, I don't have an answer to your question. I wonder if you could configure something coded from Excel, or even adjust your system settings somewhere. It would take a lot of research to figure it out. The key seems to be how to make Excel produce the sort of links you need.

I wish I had a quick solution for you.

donna.

[cesard55679371]

Hi Donna,

Thanks for your answer ! Yes I thought that too : the problem must come from the hyperlinks properties in Excel. I tried to find something in "Tools" after doing "File" - "Save As", but there's nothing.
I will ask on the Excel forum maybe.

Thanks again Donna !

Cesar