Hyperlinks not opening in default program after print .doc to .pdf

Question

I am creating hyperlinks to network-stored .pdfs within a word document in Word2010 (initially).

When I ctrl-click these hyperlinks (in the .doc), they will open the file in the default program for that filetype (in my case Adobe Reader X).

However, if i then print my word document (the master index) to pdf, open this version & click a hyperlink, it will open in internet explorer.

Have already posed this question to the guys on the adobe forums - they tell me that word is producing the wrong type of hyperlink: (at the moment if I hover I will have a hyperlink type

"file://xxx/xxx/xxx.pdf"

which apparently, counter-intuitively, is a web-link-type hyperlink (the same 'hyperlink type' as "http://www.xx.xxx.xxx.pdf" would be).

I am wondering how I can overcome this problem... I just want all hyperlinks to open the files they are linked to in the default Windows program assigned to that file-type (yes I have this st to Adobe reader not IE).

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Will

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LINK to question on adobe: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1045589

Answer 1

I had this same problem and was able to resolve it by changing the hyperlink in Word to open in a new window.  Now when the pdf document is opened in the browser, the link the begins with "file//...." instead of "http://....."

Answer 2

meh I couldn't get that to work either...

Thanks for trying to help me though :)

Answer 3

Thanks for this Lasse, glad I'm not the only one having these problems too :)

I have downloaded notepad++ and too tried to find&replace all instances of /Type/Action/S/URI/URI/(doc.pdf)

with

/Type/Action/S/Launch/F/(doc.pdf)

but it doesn't seem to work for me?

If I then click the modified links using Adobe Reader X (10.1.3) it appears that nothing happens.  i should point out that they still appear as hyperlinks though (blue font colour, underlined).  Funnily enough though, if I then open the same pdf in internet explorer, the links do work; opening hyperlinked pdf documents in the same explorer window...

Any hints as to why I might be experiencing this behavior? Or am I typing my 'Launch' hyperlinks wrongly or something? (see below for an example of "find&replace'd" hyperlinks:)

<</Subtype/Link/Rect[ 77.651 600.07 149.5 613.86] /BS<</W 0>>/F 4/A<</Type/Action/S/Launch/F(file://Royfs04/database/MJ%20Quality%20&%20Technical/Quality/SANDBOX%20FOLDER/Royston%20Procedures/Series%203%20Procedures/QMS-3-0-5B.pdf) >>/StructParent 4>>

As far as I can tell, you should not include the file URI scheme in your argument to "F". I just tried it myself and it does not work. Also, the documentation states the following for the "F" argument: it is of type "file specification" where an example of a such could be:

relative: "subfolder/spec.pdf ", e.g., F(subfolder/spec.pdf)

absolute: "/c/pdfdocs/spec.pdf", e.g., F(/c/pdfdocs/spec.pdf)

• see page 181 and page 659 of the Adobe PDF spec for version 1.7 - sixth edition - link: http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/pdf/pdfs/pdf_reference_1-7.pdf )
• so to borrow your own example I would do something like this:

<</Subtype/Link/Rect[ 77.651 600.07 149.5 613.86] /BS<</W 0>>/F 4/A<</Type/Action/S/Launch/F(Royfs04/database/MJ%20Quality%20&%20Technical/Quality/SANDBOX%20FOLDER/Royston%20Procedures/Series%203%20Procedures/QMS-3-0-5B.pdf) >>/StructParent 4>>

Note however, that the path given to "F" ( in this example ) is a relative path ( relative to the PDF file ) - but I guess that is what you want :)

Answer 4

Thanks for this Lasse, glad I'm not the only one having these problems too :)

I have downloaded notepad++ and too tried to find&replace all instances of /Type/Action/S/URI/URI/(doc.pdf)

with

/Type/Action/S/Launch/F/(doc.pdf)

but it doesn't seem to work for me?

If I then click the modified links using Adobe Reader X (10.1.3) it appears that nothing happens.  i should point out that they still appear as hyperlinks though (blue font colour, underlined).  Funnily enough though, if I then open the same pdf in internet explorer, the links do work; opening hyperlinked pdf documents in the same explorer window...

Any hints as to why I might be experiencing this behavior? Or am I typing my 'Launch' hyperlinks wrongly or something? (see below for an example of "find&replace'd" hyperlinks:)

<</Subtype/Link/Rect[ 77.651 600.07 149.5 613.86] /BS<</W 0>>/F 4/A<</Type/Action/S/Launch/F(file://Royfs04/database/MJ%20Quality%20&%20Technical/Quality/SANDBOX%20FOLDER/Royston%20Procedures/Series%203%20Procedures/QMS-3-0-5B.pdf) >>/StructParent 4>>

Answer 5

I have spent a couple of hours today trying to figure this out - I found a solution involving manual post-processing of the MS Word generated PDF file ( changing the "URI" Action Type to its "Launch" equivalent ). I have posted a question on superuser.com where I elaborate on what I have tried and what I am missing to solve: http://superuser.com/questions/459185/ms-word-2007-can-it-encode-hyperlinks-using-the-pdf-action-type-launch-inst

I'm glad I'm not the only one with the same problem, and I hope that we will manage to get it solved :)