Creating hyperlinks in a pdf from Framemaker

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Hello

Really simple question; when you create a pdf from FM, can you convert the cross-ref's to hyperlinks in the pdf?

Thanks.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Really simple question; when you create a pdf from FM, can you convert the cross-ref's to hyperlinks in the pdf?

They are hypertext automatically if you have in the print setup:

Generate Acrobat Data

Bookmarks is optional.

These below are generally not required:

Tags:

[_] Generate Tagged PDF

Links:

[_] Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs

At least that's my recollection. I haven't generated a flat (hyperless) PDF in a long time, so haven't lately experimented with what you need to turn off for that to happen.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

ALWAYS SELECT this option.

Links:

Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs

ALWAYS CLEAR this option.

Tags:

[_] Generate Tagged PDF

Report · Jun 23, 2011

ALWAYS SELECT this option.

Links:

Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs

Ok, why?

I don't, and all the internal Xrefs become hyperlinks in my PDFs, whether generated from a monlithic .fm document or a book. This includes manual as well as generated TOC and IX references.

If I wanted external URLs to be able to drill deep into a PDF, I suspect that Named Dests would be required. I'm less sure about peer file-to-file PDF deep hyperlink references. I don't need either and haven't explored them.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Van Kurtz wrote:
ALWAYS SELECT this option.
Links:
Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs
ALWAYS CLEAR this option.
Tags:
[_] Generate Tagged PDF

If I select this option;

Links:

Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs

It comes up with the following;

"This selected PDF Job Option does not exist in the current installation.

Either create this Job Option of select an available Job Option.

Continue?"

If I carry on, the pdf does not generate a hyperlinks.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Error,

ALWAYS SELECT this option.
Links:
Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs
Ok, why?

Not sure, but this has been the best practices for at least the last 4 or 5 years. Maybe it has nothing to do with hyperlinks. Maybe its necessity has been removed with FrameMaker 10. Maybe those more knowledgeable will chime in. I always select it.

Bowen,

"This selected PDF Job Option does not exist in the current installation.
Either create this Job Option of select an available Job Option.
Continue?"

I believe this is referring to the selected PDF job options on the Settings tab of the PDF Options. It is saying that the select job option is not on the computer. This typically happens to me when a file has been PDFed on one computer and then opened and PDFed on another computer. The first computer HAS the job option and the second one does not.

If I carry on, the pdf does not generate a hyperlinks.

I do not know why the job option should affect the existence of hyperlinks. Again, I always select this option and clear the Generate Tagged PDF option, and I always get hyperlinked cross-references in the PDF.

Van

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs

Ok, why?

Not sure, but this has been the best practices for at least the last 4 or 5 years. Maybe it has nothing to do with hyperlinks. Maybe its necessity has been removed with FrameMaker 10.

I'm using Fm7.1/Unix to test this (well, to print the .ps; the .pdf is generated via Distiller 9 on Windows). So 7.1 is generating enough PDF metadata for hypertext, even without the NDfAP.

I'll try an all-Fm7.0 Windows test at home this weekend.

I sort of recall old advice to not routinely enable NDfAP due to bloat (unless needed for direct-to-page external URLs).

Report · Jun 23, 2011

Well, well, well,

I just PDFed an entire book with Named Destinations OFF, and all the hyperlinks that I tested worked, including those from the TOC and the Index.

BUT old habits are hard to break, so I will continue with it ON.

I hope that someone out there knows the reason why it should be on.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

When you create a PDF either using the print stream with Generate Acrobat Data or using SaveAsPDF (essentially the same thing, just FM does it in the background for you and makes some assumptions), there are some post-processing dll's that always run on the postscript file to optimize before handing off to Distiller (yes, FM does mess with the ps files!).

With the "Create Named Destinations for All Paragraphs" option turned off, FM can miss/clobber some links (especially cross-book ones). Unless you're using a third-party link checker with Acrobat, you won't know which links are broken. Random checking can miss the broken ones.

The recommendation for keeping this setting turned on comes from Shlomo Perets. He has shown in a number of samples with a couple of throusand links, that some 100-200 are broken by FM when this setting is turned off. This was particularily true in versions 6 & 7, but since not much has changed in the PDF output area (except for the CMYK option, which may even make things worse in a PDF), it's advice to heed.

Report · Jun 23, 2011

The recommendation for keeping this setting turned on comes from Shlomo Perets. He has shown in a number of samples with a couple of throusand links, that some 100-200 are broken by FM when this setting is turned off.

Thanks for the background, Arnis.

As you probably know, at least up through FM9, the PDF Setup dialog still says, in part (emphasis added):

If you will add links to this document from other documents after the PDF

file is created, turn this setting on. This option may significantly

increase the size of the PDF file.

If you always regenerate PDF files after adding new links, turn this

setting off. This is the recommended setting.

I suppose this is an "enhancement" request, but unless this situation has changed for FM10, either the broken links bug needs to be fixed, or the dialog suggestions need to be changed.