Missing hyphen when copying URL address from a PDF due to master page item present in the page

As Randy suggested, getting text out of PDFs is not straight-forward, and harvesting special items such as URLs can be hit-or-miss. The solution is to register the URLs as such in the PDF structure with the correct URL. When that has been done, scrolling over a URL causes the hand cursor to change to a pointing hand: double-clicking will call up your default browser to take you there; right-clicking brings up a pop-up menu that includes the choice to copy the URL to the clipboard, whence it can be reliably copy-and-pasted into a browser.

All well and good, except various PDF readers try to be helpful and make clickable links from text that resembles URLs, although they have not been registered as such in the PDF structure. This was the default setting when I installed Reader DC a few months ago. These "interpreted" links can work if they fall within a single line, but any that cross a line-break fail. For Acrobat and Reader, this interpretation is controlled by a Preference that I make sure to uncheck: "Create links from URLs" (under Preferences > General). However, I cannot assume that readers of the PDFs I produce will have done similarly; instead, I can prevent Reader from creating bad links by registering the real ones in the PDF structure.

In InDesign, the Hyperlinks panel houses the tools necessary for creating links that will end up properly registered in exported PDFs. Following the options there, I often put an MSWord-like dashed blue box around the link on the page, and InDesign will pass this highlighting into exported PDFs whenever I check that box under General > Include. That choice can be saved in a *.joboptions file, so making versions of a PDF for print and electronic distribution can be a matter of switching joboptions.

Acrobat and Reader offer no equivalent of InDesign's Hyperlinks panel to help manage URLs. Highlighting makes links easier to spot in a PDF, but un-marked examples are less obvious. Searching the text for "http" or "www" in Reader is certainly more efficient than watching for the cursor to change while moving it over the text but cannot find the passages such as "Click here". Showing all the registered links requires Acrobat Pro's Preflight tool (under Print Production) and selecting the option for "Browse Internal PDF Structure". The structure can be very complex so it is usually wise to click the button to "Browse internal structure by page". On a chosen page look for the section "Annots:", as shown in the screen capture from Acrobat Pro X; deep in the depths the URIs are revealed.

Whether it is worth browsing the PDF structure to find URIs depends on the situation. For me, it is easier to set the links up in InDesign, and test the "Destinations" there.

Good luck,

David