Participant

Question

Create external Hyperlinks to open another pdf in Acrobat

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 28, 2023
2 replies
2301 views

Hi,

I'm having some difficulties creating hyperlinks in my document. I already watched several youtube-clips and read quite some forum posts, but wasn't able to find a sound solution to my issue.

So here it is:

I have an ID-document with about 100 references to pdf-files. After publishing it (pdf) I would like to be able to directly click on the link to open the referenced file in Acrobat.

At best, I can even specify the page where to jump to.

I'm able to define hyperlinks in ID to the referenced files, but they keep opening in the default web browser.

When checking the link in Acrobat, it reads as action "open web link" (in my case in german "Webverknüpfung öffnen").

In Acrobat I could specify another action "Open file" which would open the file as requested in Acrobat, but I can't find that in ID to do that trick.

Changing all links in Acrobat is not an option as I would have to do it, after every export of the document.

I'm failing in specifying the jump page in the referenced pdf file. I tried ".pdf#page=3" like I would do with hyperlinks on the web, but that doesn't work. The only solution that worked for me, was to add an action in Acrobat ("jump to page view") that let me scroll to the requested page and define it as destination. Again not too much of an option in my case.

Any help appreciated very much!

Best and thank you,

Patrick

How to

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P

patrick99Author

Participant

Good Morning,

thnak you for your thoughts!

Maybe I made myself a little bit missunderstood - it's not a question of whether I do like reading PDFs in webbrowsers or undefined settings in the browser (actually it is set to open PDFs in Acrobat per default). In my case everything has to happen within Acrobat.

I took 3 screenshots to show the issue. By now I'm under the impression that ID has an export problem:

ID Hyperlink: Setting up the hyperlink in ID. As you can see (cirlced), I create a file link ("Verknüpfen mit: Datei"). Other Options are: URL, E-Mail, Page, ...
The OS should then decide with which app to open that particular file.
ID Hyperlink result: That's the result in the PDF-export, where it reads open web link.
Guessing that the OS user preferences are ignored, as it already specifies a route to a web browser.
Acrobat Hyperlink: For comparison, you can define a file link-action in acrobat for hyperlinks.
In this case you are even prompted for further details (new window, ...) when choosing a pdf-file.

So, my impression is, that ID does not write the export correctly.

Can anyone replicate that issue and have an answer on how to get the proper action?

Thank you,

Patrick

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

I believe I've done PDF to PDF linking, within a reader, not a browser, but the details aren't coming to me. I'm sure someone here has an up-to-date grasp on the methods.

I would expect that if any tool writes correct link information, it would be InDesign... as long as they are correctly defined.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

I'm able to define hyperlinks in ID to the referenced files, but they keep opening in the default web browser.
By @patrick99

This is caused by the user's computer system and what program has been designated to open PDF files. It's not controllable by anything we can program into the PDF file itself.

All of the browsers are "hijacking" the user's setting and opening PDFs in the default browser rather than in Acrobat or another brand of PDF reader. It is becoming a severe problem throughout the industry.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

BobLevine

Community Expert

I'm not sure I'd go that far, Bevi. Many people are just fine with opening PDFs in a browser and to be honest, there's really nothing wrong with that for 99% of the population.

For PDFs that must be opened in Acrobat or Reader, it is incumbent upon the distributor of the PDF to specify that.

There's really nothing else that can be done.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Many people are just fine with opening PDFs in a browser and to be honest, there's really nothing wrong with that for 99% of the population.
By @BobLevine

About 20% of the population has difficulty reading a PDF in a browser because they have a disabililty (vision, low vision, cognitive, etc.) and must use their assistive technology to read content on computer screens.

Assistive technologies can read webpages in a browser, but not a PDf that is opened in a browser.

So lets adjust the number to 80% of the population can successfully read a PDF when it opens in a browser. And that's an educated estimate I expect is actually lower because many people don't identify as having a full disability. My brother is a great example. He has always had difficulty reading, and even more so now that so much is read on screens. He has 20/20 vision and severe dyslexia, and he's not counted in the estimate of those with disabilities. His screen reading software can't read a PDF when it opens in a browser. Another side of my family has the gene for macular degeneration and eventually becomes fully blind between their 30s and 70s. When a PDF opens in a browser, they don't even know what happened. It's pure silence with no announcement by any of their technologies that a PDF opened in MS Edge and is not accessible to their screen reader. All they get is silence and are left lost in cyberspace. Imagine this: close your eyes, click on a link to read your bank statement, and...nothing.

If a computer user has set their computer to always open PDFs in Adobe Reader, for example, then that should be the end of the story. But instead, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, FireFox, and the other browsers override the user's settings and hijack the PDF into their software browser.

So this issue of browsers hijacking the user's default preference settings is likely to become a lawsuit because this is a form of civil rights discrimination defined by various US laws (Sec. 508, ADA, IDEA, and several Titles in our equal access to education laws).

All the browser manufacturers have to do is just respect the user's peference settings. Problem is solved.

I hope I've conveyed how critical this problem is for a many millions of our citizens, worldwide, not just here in the US. It's not a minor inconvenience for them.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

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