Swarm of Hyperlink Bugs - Hyperlinks not appearing in hyperlink window

[Todd5FCE]

I have been pushing Hyperlinking to its limits with this project. At one point I had well over 1000 hyperlinks in a single 160+ page guide. More than once I have encountered strange issues where one hyperlink will work in InDesign but fail when converted to PDF, along with all Hyperlinks alphabetically listed after the broken hyperlink. In the past, I was able to hunt down the issue by systematically deleting chunks of hyperlinks and testing (Bug 1). 

I'm at a loss this time. So, I've decided to completely nuke and reorganize my hyperlinks. I deleted ALL hyperlinks using the hyperlink panel. Then I "deleted all unused destinations". After deleting all unused destinations, a dozen or more remained and had to be deleted manually in the "hyperlink destinations" window (Bug 2).

With that complete, I created all hyperlink destinations I intended to use. This time I standardized the naming a bit and trimmed the fat. With those in place, I started to go through the Table Of Contents section of the book and hyperlinking each to a chapter header. There I started to notice something strange. Some of the hyperlinks were not showing up in the hyperlink window after being created! Some still would not let me create new hyperlinks, but instead edit existing ones of which there should be none! (Bug 3) I would like to manage my hyperlinks to better detect and correct emerging issues. But even from the very start - Tabula Rasa - I am encountering confounding bugs. How can I go about getting this addressed? Is there something I am missing here?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

First: did you check the checkmark for export options in the PDF settings to include hyperlinks?

Second: why do you use that method for a TOC? Why do you not use the auto generate TOC option build into InDesign?

Third: do not confuse hyperlinks with hyperlinks destinstions.

[Todd5FCE]

First Reply: Yup. That should be clear by the explanation. "More than once I have encountered strange issues where one hyperlink will work in InDesign but fail when converted to PDF, along with all Hyperlinks alphabetically listed after the broken hyperlink." implies that some worked and others did not. Something in a link broke during the conversion to pdf. If I did not check 'include hyperlinks', no hyperlinks would work.

Second Reply: I was learning on the fly, and the TOC options were difficult to wrangle. They did not function the way I wanted them to. I found them less convenient than creating my own TOC with other InDesign tools. This should be irrelevant to solutioning hyperlink bugs.

Third Reply: I think it is abundantly clear that I know the difference, as I explain the process of cleaning both. "I've decided to completely nuke and reorganize my hyperlinks. I deleted ALL hyperlinks using the hyperlink panel. Then I "deleted all unused destinations...''.``

While I appreciate any replies, I would expect a little more congeniality and comprehension from someone with the title Adobe Community Professional under their name. This reply failed to troubleshoot any issues, failed at a basic understanding of my post, and seemed to assume a lack of basic understanding on my part. 

With all of that out of the way, do you have any meaningful questions or input?

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Wow!

Trying to help here...

Your reply is totaly uncalled for.

It seems you don't want me to chip in here, so I leave you to it. Good Luck in solving the problem.

[Todd5FCE]

Welp, I suppose we both think the other is being exceptionally rude.

cest la vie!

Merry Chistmas.

[Derek Cross]

This is a friendly advice forum run by volunters – you need to be a bit more polite if you're seeking help on here.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Todd5FCE,

not all hyperlinks that are technically there are visible in the Hyperlinks panel.

E.g. the ones created by the TOC function are missing. Others like the ones created from a data merge session will also missing. Hyperlinks are created internally for more things to function than you can see in your Hyperlinks panel.

The same with the destinations…

Note: Also with e.g. bookmarks hyperlink destinations are used internally.

To remove them all you could use a script.

Before executing the code below, make sure that you have a backup of your document!

Below script code is written in ExtendScript (JavaScript) :

// Remove all hyperlinks of the active document:
app.documents[0].hyperlinks.everyItem().remove();

//There are several classes of destinations one can remove.
// Remove them all or pick one:
app.documents[0].hyperlinkExternalPageDestinations.everyItem().remove();
app.documents[0].hyperlinkPageDestinations.everyItem().remove();
app.documents[0].hyperlinkTextDestinations.everyItem().remove();
app.documents[0].hyperlinkURLDestinations.everyItem().remove();

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Todd5FCE]

Thank you! 
I had no idea there was a way to execute javascript within the InDesign tool. I will have to investigate this further.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

@Laubender, what would the script be to remove:

• email addresses
• phone numbers

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

These hyperlink problems are still with us in version 2022.

In tagged accessible PDFs, parts of hyperlink A get highlighted and merged in the tag tree with other preceeding hyperlinks, sometimes to a hyperlink on the previous page.

And in some cases, not even to a hyperlink at all, but instead a hard return or other character(s) that appear before the hyperlink.

Maddening.

We've had better luck preventing this junk code by making sure that the Shared Hyperlink Destination is UNchecked. Unfortunately it's on by default.

UNcheck Shared Hyperlink Destination to prevent problems in PDF.

Also, try to avoid having 2 or more hyperlinks in one paragraph because this, too, seems to scramble the code in the tag tree. Make sure they are in separate <P> tags.

The above suggestions are speculative at this time. We haven't yet been able to nail down exactly what causes the hyyperlink problems.

Sure wish this problem gets fixed soon. For PDFs that are required to be accessible, the fix in Acrobat is exceptionally painful and time-consuming.

[Laubender]

Bevi said:

"… what would the script be to remove:

email addresses
phone numbers"

Hm. That would require more information.

A test document of course.

Also a good regular expression pattern to detect them.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[tturiano]

I am having the same problem with Indesign 18.3 on a Mac. I have a bunch of hyperlink destinations in some open documents, that I have created over recent work sessions, but they do not show in the Hyperlinks window. I need to edit and delete some of them. How do I do that without being able to access them? Thanks