Cross-reference links (e.g., table of content, table of figures) not clickable when export/save as PDF in Word 2019 (Windows 10)

Question

Hi,

Converting a Word file to a well-formatted PDF with functional cross-reference links was easy in the past. The built-in function "export-create PDF/XPS" or "save as PDF" works well until this month (Oct. 2021). I used to export PDF documents on regular basis, however, I found the built-in export/save as function stops creating PDF with clickable cross-reference links any more. The table of content (TOC) becomes plain texts along with all the cross-references embedded. On the contrary, the http hyperlinks pointing to websites still work.

When I check my previous PDFs, I found that as late as Aug. 2021, the export/save as function still produced a PDF with clickable TOC. As a control test, I opend the very same Word file (the August one) and try export it again. Guess what? The cross-reference links broke just like any other files. This indicates that this phenomenon seems to be related to an update of Word (or Windows) within the past 2 months.

I'm looking for a solution to get this function back to normal. Anyone bumps into the same issue like mine? How do you fix it?

My environment:

Word version 2019 (build 14430.20270 Click-to-Run)

Windows 10 Pro 20H2 19042.1237 (Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3530.0)

Answer 1

As of this evening, Doug Robbins reported that it is working. I can confirm.

Here, the links in the pdf are working when the document is saved as a pdf from Word Version 2109 (Build 14430.20306 Click-to-Run) Current Channel.

Same for me, same release, in Office 365, 32-bit version. (Doug is using the 64-bit version.)

Answer 2

Thank you, that's great news.

Catherine

Answer 3

Hi Charles,

Thanks for your information. I can also confirm that the Word Version 2109 (Build 14430.20306 Click-to-Run) 64-bit version has this problem solved. All cross-reference links work perfectly now.

Also thank the Microsoft Word product team for tackling this issue in a week. I hope this will be added in their test plan before release in the future.

Nidor Huang

Answer 4

This is also a recent problem using Adobe Acrobat's Save as Adobe PDF in Word. It must be something in the structure used for the TOC/TOF. Ordinary hyperlinks do function.

Hi Charles

I don't think it's an Adobe problem this time though because I tried using Word's inbuilt pdf conversion facility to get around it and got exactly the same result. There was a recent problem with the Adobe conversion whereby alt text applied to images in Word was not being transferred across to the pdf via Adobe's converter, but the Word inbuilt converter did bring it across. That bug seems to have been fixed by Adobe but now this new bug has arisen.

It affects ToC entries and also automatic cross-references within the Word document, e.g. "see Table 6" where Table 6 is a cross-reference field. Hyperlinks to external sites and footnote links still work.

I thought it was something I was doing wrong so I spent hours yesterday trying different preferences on both the Adobe and Word pdf converters trying to solve it and nothing worked. Eventually I worked out it was caused by something in the update of Office 365 that occurred on my computer within the last few days. I was annoyed to find how difficult it is to roll back updates to Office and wasn't willing to do that.

Thankfully the workaround put forward by Doug Robbins worked - just hope Microsoft fixes the bug soon because this must be affecting thousands of documents every day.

Regards

Catherine

Answer 5

Don't edit online, only save as PDF and download