When creating external URL links only the marker becomes active, not the highlighted text

[lindal57266276]

When creating external URL links, only the marker shows as active, not the entire selected text.

For example, if I write "For more information see, the Adobe Web site"

Despite the fact that I selected "Adobe Web site," applied the hyperlink character format, and then select Insert>Hypertext and copy the URL after the "message URL" text in the Hypertext box, when I run the PDF, the entire Adobe Web site text isn't clickable. Only what's really the marker that's inserted in front of the A in Adobe is. How can I ensure the entire text of that link is clickable for end users?

Thanks!

[Stefan Gentz]

Sounds like you did everything right.

Which FrameMaker veresion are you using, is the document classic or structured/XML and how do you create the PDF?

[lindal57266276]

FrameMaker 2019.

We use Adobe Acrobat Distiller to generate. I use the File>Save as PDF option.

One thing I've noticed is that the first time I add the marker, the marker remains black. If I go back a second time and select the entire text again AND the marker, if I redo the hypertext steps, the marker turns blue and the generated PDF URL link will usually work. But it requires that second attempt to create...and that seems wonky.

I've been using FrameMaker since 1998, and haven't run into this before.....

[Barb Binder]

So Linda, a marker in front of the text could be inside the character tag or outside of the tag. Based on:

if I redo the hypertext steps, the marker turns blue and the generated PDF URL link will usually work.

that sounds like it is initially outside of the character tag and when you re-tag, you are including it within the tag.

~Barb

[lindal57266276]

Thanks Barb,

So it really sounds like I need to create the Hypertext URL part first, which creates the marker. THEN I should perform the character formatting including that marker?

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi Linda:

You can add the marker before or after you assign the character tag—but when you add it, click inside the character format, or drag the marker into the character format.

So for example:

Highlighting the string prior to adding any marker does direct Fm to add the marker to the beginning of the string. Either click before adding, or drag to move the marker to the new location.

~Barb

[lindal57266276]

Thanks so much! Issue solved 

[Barb Binder]

Great! Glad we could help, Linda.

~Barb

[Barb Binder]

Hi Linda:

Where exactly is the marker in that paragraph? To make a text string a hot spot, put the marker inside of text formatted with a character tag. (I teach my students to add in front of the second word, for example.)

If you aren't sure, please share a screen shot of the Fm window (showing the status bar) with your cursor in the the underlined text and text symbols showing.

~Barb

[lindal57266276]

Hi Barb. Every time I select the text, the marker gets placed at the front of that text string no matter what I do. I suppose I can manually cut and paste it, but that seems strange.

[Stefan Gentz]

You do not need to mark up the words first. Just place the insertion mark in front the first character of the string that you want to make a hyperlink. Insert the marker. Then select market + text and assign a dedicated character format to both.

[Stefan Gentz]

Barb, “to make a text string a hot spot, put the marker inside of text formatted with a character tag.” → That is one possibility. However, my recommendation would be to put the marker in front of the “hyperlink string”. In my personal opinion this is more straight forward and “clean” and more “future proof”.

Let’s try to think of it from an HTML perspective:

<span class="hyperlink">visit <a href="www.adobe.com">Adobe</a> for info</span>

You would not expect the whole of “visit Adobe for more info” to work as a hyperlink, right?

Compare:

<span class="hyperlink"><a href="www.adobe.com">visit Adobe for more info</a></span>

This is better. FrameMaker is very “tolerant” where you place the marker as long as it is within the same character format range. But more easy to process, e.g. for publishing to HTML5, or if you want to migrate to XML one day, is a construction with a marker at the beginning.

Klaus Müller from itl has written a nice FrameScript many years ago that moves markers to the beginning of the string. Just can't find the link now …

[Barb Binder]

Stefan:

Are you saying that you don't think the marker should be inside of the character format? It's early here and maybe I need more caffeine.

~Barb

[Stefan Gentz]

Hi Barb,

no, not saying this. You are perfectly right, when you say, the hypertext marker should be *inside* the string formatted with the character format for the hyperlink. FrameMaker makes everything marked with the character format as the "active area" for the hyperlink and "ignores" where exactly the marker is placed inside that area.

However, in your example (screenshot), the second option is the way to go. Just think of it from a) an information architecture perspective and b) from a performance perspective.

In your screenshot (first paragraph) the situation is like this:

[chr style start]word [marker]word[chr style end].

Now, in this case, FM first runs to the marker, then stops, then does a negative lookup (backward until the end (beginning) of the chr style), then run forward again to the marker, then do a positive lookup (rightward to the end of the chr style run), then mark the whole run as the active area and make it a hyperlink.

Easier (and faster) is this:

[formatting start][marker][positive lookup][chr end]

It's like Fm notices the start of the chr style, notices the marker, then just have to run rightwards until the end of the chr style, then make it a hyperlink.

Also, when you think of a conversion to XML (and that is not only for migrating to XML but also for translation processes), it's easier to parse for other systems if the marker is at the beginning. The worst would be something like this:

Visit [chr style start]MyCompa[marker]nyName[chr style end] for more info.

Translators get crazy about this, because the marker is breaking the string, and they end up with something like this in a CAT tool:

Source Language	Target Language
Visit <tag><tag/>My Compa</tag>	Für weitere Informationen besuchen Sie <tag>Mein Firm</tag>
http://www.foo.com	http://www.foo.com
<tag>ny Name</tag>	<tag>en Name</tag>
for more info.	.

In your second scenario, they end up with this:

Source Language	Target Language
Click <tag><tag/>My Company Name</tag> for more info.	Klicke <tag><tag/>Mein Firmen Name</tag> für mehr Informationen.
http://www.foo.com	http://www.foo.com

So, in the first example, the chr styles and the marker are breaking the string into four segments which are hard to translate (especially if the target language requires a different word order) and the translation memory gets filled with useless units (e.g. "for more info" = ".").

In a "transformation scenario" (e.g. to XLIFF or to some XML like DITA), this can cause trouble and make things more complicated and therefore more expensive.

Again, your approach in example 1 is perfectly fine from a FrameMaker perspective. However, if you take other factors into account I would always go for scenario 2.

Scenario 3 in your example (marker at the beginning, but outside the chr style) is of course (as you probably imply to say as well) the worst of all three 🙂

Cheers,

*Stefan.