Ben-and-Nadine

Q: How can I save a Word document as a PDF whilst retaining hyperlinks?

I know that Word can't do it (not on Mac anyway).

 

What other software (ideally free) can do it though?

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Posted on Mar 8, 2014 12:47 AM

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Q: How can I save a Word document as a PDF whilst retaining hyperlinks?

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  • by TrailTrim,

    TrailTrim TrailTrim Mar 19, 2014 9:59 PM in response to Ben-and-Nadine
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2014 9:59 PM in response to Ben-and-Nadine

    Word (Mac Office 2011) readily retains hyperlinks as a Word document, but not when saving as PDF. The docs look terrific, but the concern is alaways how they will be look to the recipient. Will formatting and page breaks be maintained?

    And that's why we have Acrobat...Acrobat Pro XI yet. But wait, Acrobat XI has a bug in the hyperlink plug-in on the Mac version. For years, Adobe has denied this, but an Adobe tech admitted as much to me this week. I am paying $49.95 a month for a Creative Cloud subscription where I only use a few of the programs. Adobe has an on-line PDF program nw called PDF Pack (formerly known as Create PDF). This program converts Word docs to PDFs with all hyperlinks fully maintained. However, the program costs an additional 9.95 a month. I am having a battle royale with Adobe. My position is that since the Mac version of Adobe Acrobat Pro XI is technically deficient, Mac users should be able to use PDF Pack for converting Word docs to fully interactive...with hyperlinks...PDFs without having to pay an additional fee. To date I am getting nowhere. We need to organize a coalition of Adobe Acrobat Pro XI users to demand that PDF Pack (conversion from Word to PDF with hyperlinks) be offered for free until such time as Adobe fixes the problem. Adobe is getting more and more like Quark Express.

     

    Any ideas on how to bring the defective Mac version of Acrobat Pro XI to the forefront of Adobe's attention would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

  • by clintonfrombirmingham,

    clintonfrombirmingham clintonfrombirmingham Mar 20, 2014 2:29 AM in response to TrailTrim
    Level 7 (30,009 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 20, 2014 2:29 AM in response to TrailTrim

    TrailTrim,

     

    I've heard so many different versions of why the AcroPro driver won't save hyperlinks from Mac Office apps that I could write a book. I had no trouble, of course, with Windows Office 2010 and now 2013. Since there's another Mac version of Office oming 2Q of this year, I'm hoping that Adobe/MS will iron out whatever bugs, etc., that have made the hyperlinks issue such a pain. I now have to use Office 2013 and AcroPro under Windows simply to preserve hyperlinks.

     

    Maybe they will get it fixed in the upcoming release.

     

    Clinton

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Mar 20, 2014 2:34 AM in response to TrailTrim
    Level 9 (50,871 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 20, 2014 2:34 AM in response to TrailTrim

    TrailTrim wrote:

     

    Word (Mac Office 2011) readily retains hyperlinks as a Word document, but not when saving as PDF.

    I do this daily, but I use Libre Office instead of Word, it works, and it's free.

  • by GTR,

    GTR GTR Jan 23, 2015 6:31 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 23, 2015 6:31 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine

    in word for mac:

     

    File>Print>PDF>Save as Postscript

     

    File then saved as filename.ps

     

    Open the .ps file, it converts to pdf on the fly, all external hyperlinks preserved.

     

    links internal to document do not preserve, for example a link from a page to an appendix.

  • by lorifromcarmel,

    lorifromcarmel lorifromcarmel May 19, 2015 11:09 AM in response to GTR
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 19, 2015 11:09 AM in response to GTR

    The Postscript conversion did not work for me in retaining hyperlinks.

     

    However, I can retain some of the hyperlinks from word to pdf conversion in the Acrobat Pro XI - but not all. I have not been able to figure out why some of the hyperlinks are preserved and some are not.

  • by bsierer,

    bsierer bsierer Jun 9, 2015 10:56 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 9, 2015 10:56 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine

    I found a possible workaround to get all the hyperlinks to work:

    1. Save your Word file with the links.
    2. Open the Word file in Pages.
    3. Export to PDF.
  • by sameerkhan2k,

    sameerkhan2k sameerkhan2k Jun 25, 2016 12:41 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 25, 2016 12:41 AM in response to Ben-and-Nadine

    I have figured a workaround for this issue.

    1. Upload the Word document into Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/)

    2. File -> Download as -> PDF Document (.pdf)

     

    Done!

  • by Loyal2MacSince 1988,

    Loyal2MacSince 1988 Loyal2MacSince 1988 Sep 19, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Ben-and-Nadine
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Sep 19, 2016 12:34 PM in response to Ben-and-Nadine

    This worked for me, using Word for Mac 2011.

    1. Save your Mac Word document as Rich Text Format (.rtf)
    2. Open the .rtf file in Mac for Word 2011.
    3. "Save as PDF" and the links are preserved.

    Annoying to have to go through the extra step, but it got the job done for me.

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