Renaming hyperlinks shared destinations: broken links in exported PDF

[studioavanti]

Hello, 

I encounter a serious issue with InDesign 2020 (15.0.3) when renaming hyperlinks shared destinations (linking pages in the same document): 

• Those links seem still working in InDesign when clicking a page icon in the Hyperlinks panel (it leads to the proper destination page)
• They don't work anymore after the PDF export in Acrobat (the links are clickable but they lead nowhere)

I had to re-create all the shared destination links in the document, which is a huge waste of time at least and makes the feature very unreliable.

Anyone noticed this issue?
Thanks for your help.

[Update] I've also noticed that an important part of the links are broken in the exported PDF after i add a new page to the document… as if the shared destinations page count was disturbed… that's crazy!

[Laubender]

Hi studioavanti,

is this a new issue with InDesign 2020 ? Will it work with InDesign CC 2019 ?

Could you provide two sample documents with just one issue showing.

Document A before renaming the destination, document B after renaming the destination.

Just move the two samples to Dropbox or a similar service and share the download link.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[studioavanti]

Hi Uwe, 

I don't know if the issue is new as i rarely use InDesign Hyperlinks, but from my brief experience and what i read here and there, it seems INDD hyperlinks have reliability issues that are not new… anyway, i have this issue with InDesign latest version, as mentioned above. 

Here's the Dropbox link to my tests: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lugt070lkyzvnwr/AABIqY90wl4A0ujhD66K6nFaa?dl=0

Test A

• A 3 pages InDesign file (and the related exported PDF).
• 3 shared destinations leading to each page, named Page 1, Page 2, Page 3.
• 3 links on each page, set using the shared destinations.
• All works fine in this file once exported as interactive PDF.

Test B

• Same file as Test A except i renamed these shared destinations:
• Page 1 > Page 1-Renamed
• Page 2 > Page 2-Renamed
• The links using these shared destinations don't work anymore once exported as interactive PDF.

I'll also try to reproduce later the issue involving additional pages.

Thanks for your attention.

Emmanuel 

[studioavanti]

And here's the "added page" issue reproduced on a third test file, also shared in the same Dropbox folder as above.

Test C

• Same file as Test A except i added a new page by duplicating the page 1 just after it (the new page becomes page 2).
• I added a 4th navigation button on each page
• Created a new Page 4 shared destination
• Used it for the new button's link.
• And the linkage is now a mess in both the INDD file and the exported PDF: most of the links lead to the wrong page.

Emmanuel

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Emmanuel,

thank you for the files that are showing the issues very well.

I can confirm the bug with renaming the shared destinations.

It seems to be a bug with InDesign export to PDF:

PDF Print export and also with PDF Interactive export.

There are two fixes possible:

[1] In InDesign: Just re-rename the shared destinations:

The result in the exported PDF as seen from Acrobat Pro DC:

The issue is the wrong syntax for page destinations that is exported to the PDF:

Wrong: Page 1-Renamed:1

Right: Page 1:1

[2] One could also edit the destinations in Acrobat Pro DC as I did here:

Edited and also tested. All is working as expected in this edited PDF:

Now for the other issue you have with inserting pages after you did the hyperlinks with page destinations:

What you are experience here is no bug. Why? Because with hyperlink page destinations you do not address page positions in the document, but actually real pages. If you e.g. move a destination page around in the document the hyperlink will still point to the moved page somewhere in the document. This is a feature, not a bug!

What you could do:

Do a feature request for a new hyperlink page destination that addresses the position of a page in the document and not a specific page: https://indesign.uservoice.com/

However, your issue with renaming page destinations is a real bug.

You should report it over there:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/

When done, please come back here and post the links to the feature request and the bug report so that we can vote for both.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[studioavanti · Accepted solution]

Hi Uwe, 

Thanks for your tests and details, i learned how to check links in Acrobat. 😉

Issue 1

i posted a bug report in the right location: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/40624081-renaming-hyper...

Issue 2

Maybe not a bug, but confusing enough when pages are added. 

Again, the INDD interactive links implementation looks unreliable or not efficient enough to me, it requires lots of precautions from the user and possibly useless extra work.
A bit like a house of cards, which is certainly not comfortable when you set links in a several hundred pages document in my opinion.

Emmanuel

[Laubender]

Hi Emmanuel,

thanks for the link to the bug report. *

I voted for fixing the bug.

* Hm. Just wanted to post the above text and your reply is missing from the thread?!

Ok. So here is the link to Emmanuel's bug report:

Renaming hyperlinks shared destinations: broken links in exported PDF

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180-adobe-indesign-bugs/suggestions/40624081-renaming-hyper...

Best,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Reeseoroni]

I am having these same issues. It is NOT an example of an extra space at the end. I have a 60 page doc that has various hyperlinks throughout and sometimes they work and are clickable - and sometimes they are not working and are not clickable. It's random. Though I noticed on one particular page NONE of the links are working on the entire page. So odd. I've tried saving dozens of times to fix this...so frustrating. So far there is no help for this issue.

[Laubender]

Reeseoroni said: "I am having these same issues."

Hi Reeseoroni,

to see into the issue we need a sample InDesign document from you.

Also an exported PDF and some information how you exported the PDF.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )