All Pages hyperlinks go to apple.com instead of the address listed.

Question

Level 1

8 points

All Pages hyperlinks go to apple.com instead of the address listed.

I am creating a document with several youtube links that I want to be active links. The drop-down menu under "insert" doesn't allow me to make the links active as all of the options are greyed out. I've done what it said I'm supposed to do. I used the drop down. It didn't work. I used the inspector. It didn't work. When I use the inspecter to enable the hyperlink and go back to check them, everything goes to an apple.com website video where Steve Jobs is sitting on his bed with an old apple II and then the violins start...

Look, I extend my condolences to the Jobs family and to apple employees...but: REALLY??? Honestly, I could give a ****. I want the hyperlinks to work. Properly. I don't think I should have to go through twelve steps to enable a ******* hyperlink to youtube!!! C'mon people! I thought that apple was supposed to be all about the user experience?? I guess my user experience ain't worth a ****.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.3), Flashback? What's it do?

Posted on Oct 5, 2012 8:20 AM

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Answer 1

levlaz

Level 1

4 points

Oct 5, 2012 9:43 AM in response to pedalmonkey

I just tried this in pages and I see what the issue is. For some reason when you click enable hyperlinks even if you already changed the address the URL changes and goes to livepage.apple.com.

Just make sure that when you edit the hyperlink in inspector by the time you exit you make the URL point to youtube or whatever site you want. I just tried it and it worked fine.

Also, there is no need to be so angry. You'll live longer if you just relax and solve problems in a calm and rational way.

Cheers,

Lev

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Answer 2

metroing

Level 1

4 points

Oct 22, 2015 2:16 PM in response to pedalmonkey

I'm using Numbers version 3.5.3 and also experiencing this annoying problem of the default url "www.apple.com" sticking instead of going to my chosen website.

Here's the workaround that I use which for the most part works:

1. Click 'Edit Link' to produce this window.

2. Click inside the 'Link:' field and delete the default link "www.apple.com" using your delete button.

3. Tab through the fields until you return back to 'Link:'.

4. Enter / paste your chosen url.

5. Click away from the cell for the saves to change.

Note: A good indication that your chosen url has saved is when you're tabbing through the fields. If you notice that the default url returns after you have deleted it, you'll have to go through the steps again.

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Answer 3

Oct 5, 2012 3:01 PM in response to pedalmonkey

As levlaz has pointed out, there is a default link applied, just change the URL: to the one you want.

Sometimes you can not edit a link if you have accidentally made it part of a much larger body of text that has another kind of link set, such as a bookmark or T.O.C. internal link or a data merge. In that case uncheck Enable as a hyperlink or uncheck the merge and try again.

The most reliable method and fastest to include hyperlinks is to drag the URL from the Address field of the web page into where you want it in Pages, not copy and paste.

Peter

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Answer 4

pedalmonkey Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 6, 2012 10:29 AM in response to levlaz

Thanks, Lev. Sound advice about living longer. Unfortunately I am not all that computer literate. Just enough to turn it on and pretty well get around to make it do what I want it to. Usually. Should I "make all hyperlinks inactive", as you show on your screenshot, or should I leave it unchecked.

My frustration here is that I have to have this done yesterday because others are depending on it. It is a school assignment we just got. Heck, now I have to figure out how to pull video from youtube to put into a media file.

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Answer 5

pedalmonkey Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 6, 2012 11:01 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Thanks, Peter. I seemed to have lost the response to your post...Jeesh, I'm batting 0. Anyway, I tried doing as you said. The "merge", whatever that is, was not checked. When I try to grab a url from the address bar I wind up having to release it in order to get my document to come back up (presumably because I have "touched" the address bar to grab the url); hence my cutting and pasting. Also, I was fishing around this site and found others who have had similar problems with this default url to apple's live page. In fact, Lev responded to one. It had to do with building a keynote file, I think, and all of the links went to the apple site. They had the same problem with being able to change the links. That was last year. Hmm, so much for apple listening to its users.

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Answer 6

Oct 6, 2012 1:27 PM in response to pedalmonkey

To drag an URL in, line up your web page and the Pages document so you can see both, click on the small icon at the front of the URL and drag that to where you want it in the Pages text.

That should work with no other changes necessary.

Peter

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Answer 7

pedalmonkey Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2012 1:54 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

It still doesn't work. Well, not all the time. Sometimes when I drag the URL in it is still active for the desired address. When it's not, sometimes I can get the inspector to work, sometimes not. Sometimes I can paste the url into the little inspector window, sometimes it will not accept ANYTHING into the window. Sometimes it will paste the live.apple.com address just before the link that I am trying to make active. This is obviously an apple problem. I have followed the instructions you and Lev have given me. I have spent waaayy too much time at the apple store trying to figure this out. The geeks over there get the same results. It is somewhat arbitrary and appears to have something to do with either apple being worried about somebody's intellectual property, or apple's little tiff with google, or both. What's so sad, not to mention EMBARRASSING (for me at any rate), is that there is no warning that these links are going to do what they do. They just do it. If I'm building a ducument that needs links to youtube for people to look at, they need to work or give a pop-up that says "Sorry, dude. You can't do that at this address. Let your readers cut and paste the address into their own browser windows", or words to that effect.

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Answer 8

Oct 7, 2012 3:46 PM in response to pedalmonkey

I don't think this has anything to do with any supposed "tiff with google".

When you use the youtube link are you using the link at the top of the webpage or the one youtube supplies to give the direct link?

Is the issue one consistently related to particular youtube links or does the same link sometimes work and sometimes not?

Can you supply me with a non working link to test?

I have tested a few links by dragging the address in and also by pasting it in and changing it to a hyperlink, both work every single time I try it, so there is something different with what you are doing.

Peter

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Answer 9

Apr 1, 2013 6:36 PM in response to pedalmonkey

Defaulting to an Apple page might be good advertising for Apple, but that design is not user friendly. A blank field would be better, so I don't need to select the original before I enter my URL.

There are many other examples of Apple code that successfully recognizes a URL (in iOS at least). I may not yet have entered the URL as text in Pages, so letting me enter it into the dialog (rather than needing to replace an Apple URL) would be fewer clicks.

Thanks

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Answer 10

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,148 points

Oct 22, 2015 3:51 PM in response to metroing

I select the apple.com stuff, backspace, paste the new link, press return to set it, and then click outside of the link dialog to get it to work 100% of the time — providing I have remembered to use the proper URL syntax (no partial percent-encoded links will work). If you provide a bad URL, Pages will replace it with the apple.com address in your document — despite every precaution from above.

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