Saving as pdf and hyperlinks

[Robert M. Lewis]

Using Word 10 and Acrobat Reader 6 (though nothing changes if I read the
file in AR 5 for windows). I have hyperlinks that work in my Word file.
However, when I save as a PDF file, while it appears that there are links
there, they do no work (the open hand never changes to the finger of fate
and the links don't open). Any clues as to working around this?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Using Word 10 and Acrobat Reader 6 (though nothing changes if I read the
file in AR 5 for windows). I have hyperlinks that work in my Word file.
However, when I save as a PDF file, while it appears that there are links
there, they do no work (the open hand never changes to the finger of fate
and the links don't open). Any clues as to working around this?

Well the system won;t create hyperlinks in PDF files. If the links
appear in the text as properly formatted hyperlinks (eg:
http://www.apple.com/) the Acrobat Pro can activate all these links, but
it won't help at all for Word links (eg links in the index redirecting
you to the appropriate parts of the manuscripts).

Few apps allow you to do that properly. FrameMaker was one, and I don't
know any other (which doesn't mean there is none, just that I don;t know
them). Paul Berkowitz might have a better idea on this one since he
raised the question himself not so long ago.


Corentin

 

[Robert M. Lewis]

Well the system won;t create hyperlinks in PDF files. If the links
appear in the text as properly formatted hyperlinks (eg:
http://www.apple.com/) the Acrobat Pro can activate all these links, but
it won't help at all for Word links (eg links in the index redirecting
you to the appropriate parts of the manuscripts).

I guess I should have been clearer, I just meant properly formatted, albeit
by Word (hmm that may be an oxymoron) hyperlinks. That is, either
automatically when an address like the following:

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~lewis/SA3318.htm/3318_Course_outline.pdf

is put directly into Word (that also happens to be the file in question, you
might also find it useful if you are having trouble sleeping) or when a word
is highlighted and Insert>Hyperlink (or apple-k) is applied.

What I don't understand is that they look like hyperlinks and if I have
opened the link in the Word document they even look like visited links
(i.e., purple rather than blue).

Now I know nothing about pdf files other than that I can make them from Word
and I can read them with Acrobat Reader (I don't have Acrobat Pro).

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I guess I should have been clearer, I just meant properly formatted, albeit
by Word (hmm that may be an oxymoron) hyperlinks. That is, either
automatically when an address like the following:

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~lewis/SA3318.htm/3318_Course_outline.pdf

I get a 404 error, but I understand what you are talking about. For that
I have no solution...

is put directly into Word (that also happens to be the file in question, you
might also find it useful if you are having trouble sleeping) or when a word
is highlighted and Insert>Hyperlink (or apple-k) is applied.

The only way I found to get hyperlinks active was to have properly
formatted links (http, ftp, mailto:....) in the text. A word or sentence
that are transformed into a link won;t be activated in Acrobat. All
Acrobat does is scan the text looking for proper links and activate them
(even if they were not active links in the original Word document).

What I don't understand is that they look like hyperlinks and if I have
opened the link in the Word document they even look like visited links
(i.e., purple rather than blue).

Yeah, because when you create the PDF, the system maintains the text
formatting (blue - underlined) without adding any of the "metadata" that
goes along with special formatting like that.

You can still re-create all the links manually in the document, but that
can prove extremely tedious.

Now I know nothing about pdf files other than that I can make them from Word
and I can read them with Acrobat Reader (I don't have Acrobat Pro).

Without Acrobat pro, I don't even know a way to make any link active :-\

Corentin

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Well the system won;t create hyperlinks in PDF files. If the links
appear in the text as properly formatted hyperlinks (eg:
http://www.apple.com/) the Acrobat Pro can activate all these links, but
it won't help at all for Word links (eg links in the index redirecting
you to the appropriate parts of the manuscripts).

Few apps allow you to do that properly. FrameMaker was one, and I don't
know any other (which doesn't mean there is none, just that I don;t know
them). Paul Berkowitz might have a better idea on this one since he
raised the question himself not so long ago.

I ended up using Acrobat 6.0.2 Windows in Virtual PC in order to do this. I
actually bought the Windows version of Acrobat rather than the Mac version
because I wanted this functionality. But in order to use it over there "on
the dark side" I had to have Word Windows as well, of course. That would
have been a prohibitive expense if I didn't already have a copy of Office
2003 (Windows) - a free perk.

I was especially interested in getting internal links - i.e. bookmarks,
including Table of Contents links - into my PDFs. Forgetting about these TOC
entries, it's very easy: just open the doc you made in Word Mac into Word
Win, and click the big red button for Adobe PDF PrintMaker from the toolbar
in Word Windows. It will create (maintain) all your automatic http and
mailto hyperlinks, and the hyperlinks you inserted in Word fro bookmarks
too. It will also create links automatically for Headings styles: you can
adjust this or add links for other styles in the Change Settings... menu
item of the Adobe PDF menu in Word.

But automatic TOC links are a little more complicated. First, you need to
select your TOC in the doc (imported from Word Mac) and Insert a TOC again,
replacing. In the Word dialog that comes up you have to select "Make
hyperlinks, not page numbers, on the web." Actually, it makes both
hyperlinks and page numbers. Then in the Acrobat PDF menu/ Change
Settings..., ***uncheck the last default referring to "Make tags for
assistive use" or something like that. If you don't uncheck that, you get no
PDF - it just quits. (It's even possible you need to do this when there are
_any_ hyperlinks or bookmarks, not just TOC. I didn't check that.)

Then make your PDF. You get a nice set of "bookmarks" - a permanent Table of
Contents. But if, like me, your Word TOC has fewer levels than headings
styles (I put Headings 3, 4 and 5 all into TOC 3 to make things look neater)
and you don't use _every_ TOC style in the hierarchy: i.e. you may have a
TOC 3 below a TOC 1 - the indentation (styles) get mixed up. If I have a TOC
1 and then 4 subheadings beneath it that in Word were TOC 3, I get a TOC 2
in the PDF as the first subheading and the rest are subheadings of that one.
It doesn't like that I skipped one, so fills it in for me. However, it's
quite easy to move them around manually to get the indentation correct.
(Basically the four subheadings have to become TOC 2 in this PDF list.) It
doesn't affect the layout of the original text TOC which still looks as it
did in Word - just in the "Bookmarks" list (permanent reference tab) which
appears as a left-side column in Acrobat (and as a right-side drawer when
viewed in Preview on the Mac later).

Save. Then copy or move the PDF to the VPC Shared Folder or directly over to
the Mac. Back on the Mac you can open it in Preview or Acrobat Reader and it
looks better than it did on Windows (fonts are nicer, as they were in Word
Mac.) Everything works, al hyperlinks of all types, and Preview makes this
really neat drawer with a permanent TOC containing hierarchal outline and
disclosure triangles, exactly as you made them over in Windows.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[claudel]

I ended up using Acrobat 6.0.2 Windows in Virtual PC in order to do this. I
actually bought the Windows version of Acrobat rather than the Mac version
because I wanted this functionality. But in order to use it over there "on
the dark side" I had to have Word Windows as well, of course. That would
have been a prohibitive expense if I didn't already have a copy of Office
2003 (Windows) - a free perk.

I was especially interested in getting internal links - i.e. bookmarks,
including Table of Contents links - into my PDFs. Forgetting about these TOC
entries, it's very easy: just open the doc you made in Word Mac into Word
Win, and click the big red button for Adobe PDF PrintMaker from the toolbar
in Word Windows. It will create (maintain) all your automatic http and
mailto hyperlinks, and the hyperlinks you inserted in Word fro bookmarks
too. It will also create links automatically for Headings styles: you can
adjust this or add links for other styles in the Change Settings... menu
item of the Adobe PDF menu in Word.

But automatic TOC links are a little more complicated. First, you need to
select your TOC in the doc (imported from Word Mac) and Insert a TOC again,
replacing. In the Word dialog that comes up you have to select "Make
hyperlinks, not page numbers, on the web." Actually, it makes both
hyperlinks and page numbers. Then in the Acrobat PDF menu/ Change
Settings..., ***uncheck the last default referring to "Make tags for
assistive use" or something like that. If you don't uncheck that, you get no
PDF - it just quits. (It's even possible you need to do this when there are
_any_ hyperlinks or bookmarks, not just TOC. I didn't check that.)

Then make your PDF. You get a nice set of "bookmarks" - a permanent Table of
Contents. But if, like me, your Word TOC has fewer levels than headings
styles (I put Headings 3, 4 and 5 all into TOC 3 to make things look neater)
and you don't use _every_ TOC style in the hierarchy: i.e. you may have a
TOC 3 below a TOC 1 - the indentation (styles) get mixed up. If I have a TOC
1 and then 4 subheadings beneath it that in Word were TOC 3, I get a TOC 2
in the PDF as the first subheading and the rest are subheadings of that one.
It doesn't like that I skipped one, so fills it in for me. However, it's
quite easy to move them around manually to get the indentation correct.
(Basically the four subheadings have to become TOC 2 in this PDF list.) It
doesn't affect the layout of the original text TOC which still looks as it
did in Word - just in the "Bookmarks" list (permanent reference tab) which
appears as a left-side column in Acrobat (and as a right-side drawer when
viewed in Preview on the Mac later).

Save. Then copy or move the PDF to the VPC Shared Folder or directly over to
the Mac. Back on the Mac you can open it in Preview or Acrobat Reader and it
looks better than it did on Windows (fonts are nicer, as they were in Word
Mac.) Everything works, al hyperlinks of all types, and Preview makes this
really neat drawer with a permanent TOC containing hierarchal outline and
disclosure triangles, exactly as you made them over in Windows.

Gee. that sounds simple. :^)

Do you think that a future Word for Mac will ever generate working hyperlinks
in a pdf created with the print to pdf function?


Claude

 

[Robert M. Lewis]

Thanks all, I fixed it by sending it over to the tech person here (I hate
being dependent on tech people, even nice ones like we have here). I may
just end up getting some version of Adobe Acrobat. Now for the simple things
I want to do (no graphics, TOCs, internal links, &c.) which version of
Acrobat would do, Professional, Standard, or Elements 6.0?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Gee. that sounds simple. :^)

Do you think that a future Word for Mac will ever generate working hyperlinks
in a pdf created with the print to pdf function?

It all depends on Adobe :-(
At least I can get my http links to be active, that's a first step. For
the rest of it, it still is a lot of work :-|



Corentin

 

[claudel]

It all depends on Adobe :-(
At least I can get my http links to be active, that's a first step. For
the rest of it, it still is a lot of work :-|

You lost me.

What does Adobe have to to with MS Word's print to pdf function being crippled?

Is the print to pdf something in the OS or an Adobe driver or something?

I don't remember needing to install anything extra, but it's been a
while since I built my system.

I have no idea how it actually works, so this is not a frivolous question.

I just know that the links are dead in Word generated pdfs.

Thanks

Claude

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

What does Adobe have to to with MS Word's print to pdf function being
crippled?

Is the print to pdf something in the OS or an Adobe driver or something?

Print to PDF is an OS function, built into OS X, and has nothing to do with
MS Word. Word doesn't have a PDF function. You can use Print to PDF from
any program.

Adobe Acrobat is an alternative to using the OS Print to PDF, which of
course requires buying an expensive program.

I *think* (and someone will correct me if I am wrong) that inactive
hyperlinks are part of the reason why Print to PDF is a free built-in
feature. It's a lot less sophisticated than PDF-creation programs like
Acrobat, producing bigger pdf files, and apparently, inactive hyperlinks.

 

[Phillip M. Jones, CE.T.]

Thanks all, I fixed it by sending it over to the tech person here (I hate
being dependent on tech people, even nice ones like we have here). I may
just end up getting some version of Adobe Acrobat. Now for the simple things
I want to do (no graphics, TOCs, internal links, &c.) which version of
Acrobat would do, Professional, Standard, or Elements 6.0?

Please get the Pro version Acrobat. The Standrad version is wasting
money. Stanadrd doesn't even allow you to work on forms or create forms.
Standard is just like a loss leader in a Groc Store. its teases enough
to get you hooked; but ten minutes after you install it you'll smack
yourself upside the head, and moan how stupid you are.


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Martinsville Va 24112-1809 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
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If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

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<http://home.kimbanet.com/~pjones/birthday/index.htm>
<http://vpea.exis.net>

 

[claudel]

Print to PDF is an OS function, built into OS X, and has nothing to do with
MS Word. Word doesn't have a PDF function. You can use Print to PDF from
any program.

I sorta thought that, but I wasn't sure.

Adobe Acrobat is an alternative to using the OS Print to PDF, which of
course requires buying an expensive program.

I *think* (and someone will correct me if I am wrong) that inactive
hyperlinks are part of the reason why Print to PDF is a free built-in
feature. It's a lot less sophisticated than PDF-creation programs like
Acrobat, producing bigger pdf files, and apparently, inactive hyperlinks.

Thanks


Claude

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Print to PDF is an OS function, built into OS X, and has nothing to do with
MS Word. Word doesn't have a PDF function. You can use Print to PDF from
any program.

Yep, but the System print to PDF is somehow limited (but free). You can
access some functionalities, but it sure won't allow you to create
complex PDFs with links, embedded movies, etc.

Adobe Acrobat is an alternative to using the OS Print to PDF, which of
course requires buying an expensive program.

Expensive, but quite extensive. There are really a lot of things you can
do through it to optimize/customize the PDFs.

I *think* (and someone will correct me if I am wrong) that inactive
hyperlinks are part of the reason why Print to PDF is a free built-in
feature. It's a lot less sophisticated than PDF-creation programs like
Acrobat, producing bigger pdf files, and apparently, inactive hyperlinks.

Let's say Acrobat offers many functions that you cannot find in the free
and limited print to PDF command.
The problem here is that many functions are present in the Windwos
version of Acrobat but we still miss them in the Mac one (eg:
auto-create the links in the PDF taking the data directly from the Word
file) - hence the fact that I'm saying "it entirely relies on Adobe" :-\
I know they can do it. They simply haven't implemented these features in
the Mac version.


Corentin

 

[claudel]

Yep, but the System print to PDF is somehow limited (but free). You can
access some functionalities, but it sure won't allow you to create
complex PDFs with links, embedded movies, etc.


Expensive, but quite extensive. There are really a lot of things you can
do through it to optimize/customize the PDFs.


Let's say Acrobat offers many functions that you cannot find in the free
and limited print to PDF command.
The problem here is that many functions are present in the Windwos
version of Acrobat but we still miss them in the Mac one (eg:
auto-create the links in the PDF taking the data directly from the Word
file) - hence the fact that I'm saying "it entirely relies on Adobe" :-\
I know they can do it. They simply haven't implemented these features in
the Mac version.

Thanks for explaining that..

Claude

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thanks for explaining that..

Claude

You're welcome CLaude,


Corentin