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

[subaG86]

Problem

When copying the URL text from PDF and paste it into chrome browser or any browser, hard hyphen present in between the text is missing.

See below examples:

PDF Output:

www.hudson.org/research/2214-the-use-of-scenarios

Chrome browser

www.hudson.org/research/2214-the-use-ofscenarios

Cases Analysed:

Issue:

1. The hard hyphen is present in InDesign at end of line (broken into two lines) and it is present in exported PDF as well. But only thing is when we copy the URL text and paste it into browser, the hyphen present at end of line is missing.

No issue:

1. The hyphen is present in URL link and there is no issue in browser when clicking the active URL.

2. If we create the case in new InDesign document and create pdf, the issue is not happened.

3. In the same document, if we overridden or remove the running head frame present as master page item, then the issue clears.

4. If we use text variable in the master page item, then the issue is not happened.

Actual Root cause:

Due to running head frame present as master page item in the page, the hyphen missing in browser issue happens.

a) If we overridden the frame and create pdf, the hyphen comes out well.

b) If we use text variable in the master page item, then the issue is not happened.

c) It happens if the frame has text without any text variable, then the hyphen missing if we copy the text and paste it into chrome browser.

Anyone, please advise whether it is InDesign bug.

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

Before I went to indicting InDesign as the root of your evils, I would suggest trying this:

Edit copy — even arbitrarily, if only temporarily — to see if you can reproduce the problem with the entire hyperlink on one line.

My suspicion is that you may not be able to, and that you'll find the instance occurs only when InDesign produces your hyperlink broken across two lines. I suspect that when you copy/paste out of the link on your PDF in its current layout, your specified hard-hyphen is reinterpreted by your clipboard as a soft line break, which obviates your intended interpretation of a hard hyphern between "of" and "scenarios."

Creating a PDF does some really funky stuff to how text is contained within frames that can be radically different with how it was created within InDesign. You may have overlapping text "blocks" in your PDF that weren't that way when you were working with InDesign. Your operating system may be changing the rules when it copies the "text" from your PDF frame without Using your "Edit PDF" tool within Acrobat Standard/Pro to select the actual text entries, as opposed to highlighting/pasting copy with your cursor from Adobe Reader.

You're way downstream of what InDesign is doing in/to your document. I mean no disrespect as I say this, but I strongly suspect you may have identified two independent variables rather than two correlated ones.

Please try the suggested alternative above and let us know how things work out for you.

Good luck,

Randy

[Randy Hagan]

Interesting piece at the end of the link, by the way.

In a distant life, I spent some time in military planning. I appreciate your explanation of why it's important that "what if" is grounded in an educated guess.

[subaG86]

Hi,

We are not facing any issue of missing hyphen if the entire hyperlink on one line. Hyphen missing only if the hyphen present at the end of line, not only URL but in all cases. If we override the master page running head frame which contains text, not variables, then the issue get resolved. 

I need to know whether it is bug or any other issue.

Edit copy — even arbitrarily, if only temporarily — to see if you can reproduce the problem with the entire hyperlink on one line.

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

I don't know what to tell you.

If you're having a problem, it's a problem. But a bug? I don't think so. If you really want to sleuth this, try this:

1. Output the print job as a .ps postscript file
2. Open Acrobat DC distiller. Use it to turn the file into a PDF, instead of InDesign.
3. If you still have the same issue, it's a PDF problem. If it doesn't, its a PDF output problem from InDesign.

Please share your results and we can take it from there.

Good luck,

Randy

[subaG86]

Hi Randy,

I have tried the above mentioned process, creating PS to PDF and still the hyphen missing in URL text is happened in the browser when copying the text. So as you mentioned, I think it is PDF problem.

I have also tried opening the export PDF in "Preview" software and copied the URL text and paste into the browser but the hyphen is not missed in the browser. I suspect whether the problem is in Acrobat software?

Could you please advise if there is any solution to confirm our client?

[Randy Hagan]

I might check out a couple of other things before we call this an Acrobat issue as well:

Have you opened the PDF and reviewed the link in other browsers? It would help to isolate this as possible by checking this in, say, Microsoft Edge/Mozilla Firefox/Safari (if you have ready access to a Mac system)/Opera browsers to see if the problem persists when pasting/viewing the text into other browsers. While admittedly Chome is the most popular web browser in a large part of the world, you may discover that the issue is a quirk of Google Chrome alone.If up to this point you've been checking this on a Windows PC or a Mac system, you may also want to try to replicate the issue on the other platform's version of Chrome to further define/refine the issue.

It might also be useful, as a point of reference to copy and paste the link in a simple word processor, like WordPad in Windows and/or TextEdit on the Mac, to see if the issue appears there as well.

Then we'd be isolating the issue to the web browser and not Acrobat PDFs per se. Cold comfort, to be sure, but also another indicator that we should be checking specific problem areas outside of the PDF experience. I'll see what I can find as well, and I discover anything, I'll get back with you.

Please let me know what you discover as well. Hopefully, between us, we can isolate the issue and then find a way past your problem.

Randy

[David W. Goodrich · Accepted solution]

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

[David W. Goodrich]

Too impatient, sorry. Deleting duplicate

David

[David W. Goodrich]

[deleting duplicate]

David