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Enable Hyperlinks to Stay Live in PDFs ... Even After Importation into InDesign

Hi folks

We have figured out a 'work-around' to the problem of maintaining live hyperlinks in PDFs throughout the entire exporting/importing process in InDesign. However, it's purely a bandaid - although it works well. It would be great to have this process built in as a feature. I've attached a PDF with our workflow methodologies for your review.

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Frank S. Klassen shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • David Bovey commented  ·   ·  Report

    Yup. This is very annoying. When putting together an interactive ebook newsletter with imported PDF advertisements sent from the advertiser with their links embedded, having to recreate the links in inDesign is a serious software flaw.

  • S. Krupkowski commented  ·   ·  Report

    We've been placing small INDD files (1-5 pages), with working hyperlinks, into larger INDD files (15-20 pages). The larger files are collected into a InDesign Book. When the Book is exported to PDF (either Interactive, or Print PDF with Tags), none of the links work since upgrading to InDesign 17.0.1 (Windows). (If the smaller files are exported directly to PDF, the links work.)
    These links inside a Book PDF DID work in previous versions of InDesign (for the past 3-5 years)--why was this functionality removed?! Please bring it back!

  • Vince commented  ·   ·  Report

    One thing I noticed is that e-mail addresses and website addresses with www. and http:// in placed content (as long as the text is unflattened) will be live in the exported PDF. But otherwise, whether it's a .PDF or another .INDD file, the link will be rendered inert. Also, if the URL has www. and is written in ALL CAPS, it will also be rendered inert. I don't know if this is a clue as to how to fix this, but I just want the hyperlinks to work without having to create it manually AGAIN.

  • Bevi Chagnon | ACP commented  ·   ·  Report

    No just hyperlinks!
    Any time a PDF is placed in InDesign, it should retain all of these interactive elements when it's exported in the final PDF:
    -- Hyperlinks in the source PDF
    -- Buttons in the source PDF
    -- Accessibility tags and features in the source PDF

    At this time, placed PDFs are treated as "dead" graphics.

    The magazine ads described by Evan are an excellent example of what's needed.
    And accessibility is a huge requirement for government, academia, and general publishing.

    URGENT NEED, Adobe!

  • Evan commented  ·   ·  Report

    We do an online magazine that includes PDF advertisements. If the advertiser included hyperlinks in their original PDF ad, those are ignored once the PDF is placed into the indesign doc. So after placing in InDesign, we have to hand-draw dummy boxes over top of the ad's hyperlinked area and then manually type in the URL to make it an active hyperlink. It would be nice if there was checkbox in the IMPORT OPTIONS pane to "IMPORT HYPERLINKS" from the placed PDF.

Adobe InDesign: Feature Requests: Document/Pages

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