URL Lenght Limit

Report · Mar 20, 2017

Hi, I create pdf's from excel real often and when I do I add in URL's with Adobe acrobat pro DC. 9/10 time this goes perfect. But every once in a while the URL's are cut off after about 259 characters. This is extremly annoying. Is there any fix for this? Why is this even happening?

All pdfs are generated from the same excel template.

One thing I do know is that Excel itself is uncapable of generating pdfs with urls longer than 255. This is why I started using adobe acrobat to add the url's in place.

Report · Mar 20, 2017

This kind of thing usually happens because of the type of variable used to store the date you're entering.

255 (or 256) is a normal number where this can happen because it's a power of 2 (2^8). 259 might be because the "http" part is not included in the URL, or something like that.

I tried doing the same thing using a script and the URL was also cut-off, but after 1052 characters...

So the solution is either to use a script (if 1052 characters are enough for you), or to use a Tiny URL-type service.

Of course, you can also report this issue as a bug to Adobe, here: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

I don't see any reason why this should be limited at all... If someone wants to specify a million-characters long URL, let them. Whether or not the browser can handle it is a different question, of course.

Report · Mar 20, 2017

Often I only need 300+/- characters. Nothing special really. Even though all documents are very similair. every once in a while it just doesnt want to create these links. You were right about the http part. This is not counted. So the url is actually cut of at 251 characters.

I have a feeling that the export from excel contains certain data that limits the URL size.. But that is just a blind guess.

Report · Mar 20, 2017

I created the link directly in Acrobat and it cut me off at 259, so I don't think this is an issue with Excel.

Report · Mar 20, 2017

I just found that the documents that don't work are pdf version 1.6 while the ones that work are 1.4 Still no clue why this is different. Or how to change this.

Edit:
It also seems that these documents have "fast web view" set to "yes"

Edit:

YES! This was it! The fast web view is limiting the URL's Just have to figure out how to save it properly now!