Distressed with PDF linking out of Word 2008

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Hey John I know Adobe tells lies. Most every major Software Company
does. There interest is solely with the CEO and The BOD pockets.
Customer desires is no interest. As Long as a product is shoved down the
customer's throat and The customer has no choice. They have to take
whether they want to or not.

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Hi Phillip:

Let me see if I can say this 'gently'

ADOBE IS TELLING LIES!!

I answered this in a separate post.

Word creates hyperlinks. The hyperlinks go in the document. Open a .docx
file in a browser and you will see the hyperlinks working.

The hyperlinks are in the file.

If you want to retrieve hyperlinks from a Word document, you can do so using
AppleScript or VBA. (Yes, there's a work-around that would let you dig
hyperlinks out of a Word 2008 document using Word 2004's VBA...)

So all the "hooks" they need are there.

But Adobe has chosen not to bring any bait, so it's not going to catch any
fish!

Yes, I agree, it's a lot cheaper for Adobe to try to blame Microsoft than it
is to spend a day or two coding to make this work. And yes, I agree, this
helps Adobe make Microsoft's products look bad, so they believe this will
sell more PDF software.

But in my mind, it's not very ethical behavior

I agree

One thing that I wonder about is why you keep doing Adobe's mischief for
them on this one? The only place you will find the claim that Microsoft
somehow removed the hooks from its Word documents, is in the misinformation
that Adobe spreads.

I'm not sure why you keep repeating it in here? I mean, I would encourage
you to do that if I thought that Adobe was at least going to reward you by
presenting you with a free copy of their products But somehow, I
suspect you'll find an empty seat on a peak-hour bus a lot sooner than that
will happen

No monetary interest, or Prestige in Bringing it up.
Its just When the Mac platform has been mistreated by the Major software
companies all these years you don't know who to believe.

I would suggest that the equivalent, to MVP on the Adobe side, be clued
in by by equivalent parties be clued in to what's going on and get a
fire lit under adobe's backside to fix this problem and if it Partly
Apple's fault They need to be clued in as well. I would hate to think
Jobs would such a small niggling problem that causes so much grief
should remain a problem to fix.

 

[John McGhie]

That's because the Mac TOC generator cannot GENERATE any Hyperlinks. And
yes, that IS Microsoft's fault.

When you get the document to the PC, just regenerate the TOC (click in it
and hit F9....). When prompted, say "Whole table". That will add the
hyperlinks, which will then appear in the PDF if you use Acrobat's "MakePDF"
utility.

But please keep the two issues separate in your mind: Adobe's fault is that
its Mac software cannot translate ANY hyperlinks that exist in a Word
document.

That's why you can manually insert hyperlinks in your TOC on the Mac and
they will work just fine if you save the file as HTML. Just not in PDF.

Microsoft's fault is simply that the TOC generator can't create hyperlinks.
Personally, I rather like it that way ‹ when editing on the PC, one stray
click and you end up half-way down the document!! But I'm just a grumpy old
fart...

Given the shouting we have all done, I would be very surprised if Microsoft
doesn't bring the Word PC TOC generator across to the Mac in the next
version. They've had it on the PC since Word 2000!! It will generate
hyperlinks if you set the "\h" switch in your TOC.

Then we'll be entertained by another round of excuses from Adobe as to why
hyperlinks don't get into PDFs

Cheers

John, about ur last note in regards to whose fault it is. I suspect it's MS
because of this reason: A toc created on the mac, when brought over to a PC,
will not create valid PDF links either. Or, that could just be another
problem. But regardless, the companies should work together to fix this. But I
am not holding my breath, both of these companies are terrible at fixing
things that mean the most. Cheers, Jigs

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

I would suggest that the equivalent, to MVP on the Adobe side, be clued
in by by equivalent parties be clued in to what's going on and get a
fire lit under adobe's backside to fix this problem and if it Partly
Apple's fault They need to be clued in as well. I would hate to think
Jobs would such a small niggling problem that causes so much grief
should remain a problem to fix.

Yeah, well, we have been taking boxes of matches to Redmond for some years
now I {think, hope, pray} that we may get a big improvement in the next
version. We certainly sweated blood in the development sessions at Redmond
last year to persuade them to bring us the best product they can.

Of course, as always, this is utterly dependent on the people, funds, and
time available.

Everything was looking REALLY good there for a few months. We were very
excited by what we heard in those sessions.

Since then, we have heard nothing to indicate that anything has changed.
But George Bush's little snooze at the wheel of the American Economy has
created serious problems in all of the world's major companies, and
Microsoft is no exception.

I would expect that the first thing they will do is delay the new product.
They have already announced a delay to the PC version. After all, there's
no point in bringing an expensive new product to market if nobody has any
money to buy it with.

But if the financial crisis gets worse, and it seems to be doing that, then
I expect that Microsoft people will get laid off and features will get cut.

Unlike some companies you may have read about in the news, the Microsoft
Board of Directors takes a dim view of suggestions that it should borrow
money it does not currently have the cashflow to pay back!

If Steve Balmer thought he could solve this problem by shouting louder, I am
sure no office in Redmond would be safe from flying chairs. But what he is
currently saying is that he, and his customers, will just have to wait for
the economy to turn around.

But that will indeed give you maybe four years to "encourage" Adobe to
greater efforts

Cheers

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[herojig]

Well i appreciate all the professionals who are working on this issue. But the TOC thing as a separate bug eases no pain. I guess I have to include a README.TXT file with every doc I collaborate on with another PC user. Either that or for every document I have to fire up bootcamp or whatever to edit the document on the PC side before returning to PC users. If I have to do that, then what's the point of MS Word 2008? [rhetorical].

The point made about the global recession is interesting...I guess it may be another lifetime before I see relief here. Cheers,
Jigs

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Well tell them folks as long as they fix everything needing fixing I'll
come up with the funds to buy it unless the charge the price of new
Cadillac for it ;-)

 

[herojig]

Interesting...as an ex-programmer back in the day before PCs, i think the global slowdown might be good for QA. I can remember the great recession of the 90s and we just slowed down our rollout schedule and focused on fixing bugs, putting out point releases like they were going out of style. What else was there to do...we even had review meetings for the tech docs/manuals. What a time passer! If any of that culture still remains in large corps like Adobe & MS, maybe there is hope in the coming years...

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

You expected to get it for *less* than the price of a new Cadillac??

My, the Global Financial Crisis must have passed your town by

Cheers

Well tell them folks as long as they fix everything needing fixing I'll
come up with the funds to buy it unless the charge the price of new
Cadillac for it ;-)

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Sadly, according to Microsoft, the hyperlink-less TOC is *NOT* a bug, it's
"by design". As a former programmer, you will understand the savagery of
that phrase, I am sure

Word on the Mac has NEVER been able to generate hyperlinks in its TOC, and
it still can't. Now, *I* would call that a bug, but Microsoft doesn't.

Adobe PDF used to be able to transport any hyperlinks in the document into
its PDF output. Now it can't. To me, that too is a bug. Different bug.

But attempting to blame Adobe's bug on Microsoft: well, now that's just
political mischief. Or what I said before ...

I wish the software companies of the world WOULD take the extra time to
clean up their old bugs.

Sadly, If I know corporate boards of directors, they will simply sack the
staff that could have fixed the bugs. After all, the alternative would be
to reduce the Executive's bonuses, and we can't have that...

Cheers

Well i appreciate all the professionals who are working on this issue. But the
TOC thing as a separate bug eases no pain. I guess I have to include a
README.TXT file with every doc I collaborate on with another PC user. Either
that or for every document I have to fire up bootcamp or whatever to edit the
document on the PC side before returning to PC users. If I have to do that,
then what's the point of MS Word 2008? [rhetorical].

The point made about the global recession is interesting...I guess it may be
another lifetime before I see relief here. Cheers,
Jigs

That's because the Mac TOC generator cannot GENERATE any Hyperlinks. And
yes, that IS Microsoft's fault.

When you get the document to the PC, just regenerate the TOC (click in it
and hit F9....). When prompted, say "Whole table". That will add the
hyperlinks, which will then appear in the PDF if you use Acrobat's "MakePDF"
utility.

But please keep the two issues separate in your mind: Adobe's fault is that
its Mac software cannot translate ANY hyperlinks that exist in a Word
document.

That's why you can manually insert hyperlinks in your TOC on the Mac and
they will work just fine if you save the file as HTML. Just not in PDF.

Microsoft's fault is simply that the TOC generator can't create hyperlinks.
Personally, I rather like it that way � when editing on the PC, one
stray
click and you end up half-way down the document!! But I'm just a grumpy old
fart...

Given the shouting we have all done, I would be very surprised if Microsoft
doesn't bring the Word PC TOC generator across to the Mac in the next
version. They've had it on the PC since Word 2000!! It will generate
hyperlinks if you set the "\h" switch in your TOC.

Then we'll be entertained by another round of excuses from Adobe as to why
hyperlinks don't get into PDFs

Cheers



--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: <http://www.word.mvps.org/>

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[herojig]

thanks for that last bit of nuance John. One last flog: i am downloading a demo of Pages (iWork09) and thinking that if Pages will accept rtf and make a decent table of contents that is hot linked in PDF, then I might go that route. Any one using Pages here?

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Actually we have 20% unemployment. My comment was meant to convey
outrageously increased pricing.

 

[Phillip Jones, C.E.T.]

Yep what about all those AIG bonuses? And the 10 million dollar office
make over for one of the banks?

Instead of working the D... Products, everyone is worried about lining
pockets of the CEO and the BOD's. <angry> at the big business like I've
said Big business don't give a rats a.. About customers.

Sadly, according to Microsoft, the hyperlink-less TOC is *NOT* a bug, it's
"by design". As a former programmer, you will understand the savagery of
that phrase, I am sure

Word on the Mac has NEVER been able to generate hyperlinks in its TOC, and
it still can't. Now, *I* would call that a bug, but Microsoft doesn't.

Adobe PDF used to be able to transport any hyperlinks in the document into
its PDF output. Now it can't. To me, that too is a bug. Different bug.

But attempting to blame Adobe's bug on Microsoft: well, now that's just
political mischief. Or what I said before ...

I wish the software companies of the world WOULD take the extra time to
clean up their old bugs.

Sadly, If I know corporate boards of directors, they will simply sack the
staff that could have fixed the bugs. After all, the alternative would be
to reduce the Executive's bonuses, and we can't have that...

Cheers

Well i appreciate all the professionals who are working on this issue. But the
TOC thing as a separate bug eases no pain. I guess I have to include a
README.TXT file with every doc I collaborate on with another PC user. Either
that or for every document I have to fire up bootcamp or whatever to edit the
document on the PC side before returning to PC users. If I have to do that,
then what's the point of MS Word 2008? [rhetorical].

The point made about the global recession is interesting...I guess it may be
another lifetime before I see relief here. Cheers,
Jigs

That's because the Mac TOC generator cannot GENERATE any Hyperlinks. And
yes, that IS Microsoft's fault.

When you get the document to the PC, just regenerate the TOC (click in it
and hit F9....). When prompted, say "Whole table". That will add the
hyperlinks, which will then appear in the PDF if you use Acrobat's "MakePDF"
utility.

But please keep the two issues separate in your mind: Adobe's fault is that
its Mac software cannot translate ANY hyperlinks that exist in a Word
document.

That's why you can manually insert hyperlinks in your TOC on the Mac and
they will work just fine if you save the file as HTML. Just not in PDF.

Microsoft's fault is simply that the TOC generator can't create hyperlinks.
Personally, I rather like it that way � when editing on the PC, one
stray
click and you end up half-way down the document!! But I'm just a grumpy old
fart...

Given the shouting we have all done, I would be very surprised if Microsoft
doesn't bring the Word PC TOC generator across to the Mac in the next
version. They've had it on the PC since Word 2000!! It will generate
hyperlinks if you set the "\h" switch in your TOC.

Then we'll be entertained by another round of excuses from Adobe as to why
hyperlinks don't get into PDFs

Cheers

On 18/03/09 8:37 PM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,
:

John, about ur last note in regards to whose fault it is. I suspect it's MS
because of this reason: A toc created on the mac, when brought over to a PC,
will not create valid PDF links either. Or, that could just be another
problem. But regardless, the companies should work together to fix this. But
I
am not holding my breath, both of these companies are terrible at fixing
things that mean the most. Cheers, Jigs
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: <http://www.word.mvps.org/>

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Michel Bintener]

Pages does exactly what you want. Furthermore, you can enable security
options if you export your Pages document as a PDF file, so depending on
your needs, you might indeed be better off with Pages. Keep in mind that
iWork also comes with Numbers and Keynote, which are great applications as
well (Keynote especially).