Hello @Geoffrey Hydon
I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.
Splitting the PDF into parts will break internal hyperlinks that reference page numbers or destinations across the full document. Instead, keep the document intact and use Acrobat’s built-in conversion tools.
Use Acrobat’s Export to Word Feature. Open the full PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Go to Menu > Export To > Microsoft Word > Word Document. Acrobat will preserve internal links as long as they are properly tagged in the original PDF.
Optimize Before Exporting. If the file is too large to process smoothly, use Menu > Save As Optimized PDF to reduce the size without splitting. Remove unnecessary images or compress them. Ensure all hyperlinks are tagged correctly using Tools > Accessibility > Autotag Document. See this article for more information: Optimizing PDFs.
Note: If hyperlinks are not preserved, check that they are actual link annotations and not just underlined text. Use Edit PDF > Link > Add/Edit Web or Document Link to verify.
Also, Do not split the PDF before conversion → page references in links will break, and Acrobat cannot automatically “re-stitch” them in Word.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Anand Sri | Acrobat Community Team
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