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- print to pdf include hyperlinks?
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Apparently the Adobe PDF printer doesn't include hyperlinks due to postscript semantics? I copied text from a webpage to an Open Office doc then printed to pdf to find that the links are still blue and underlined, but their URLs have been lost.
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2 Correct answers
LEGEND , Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011 CtDave • LEGEND , Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Don't confuse the "apples with the oranges"; the PDF printer (File > Print > Adobe Printer or Print > Select Printer > Adobe Printer) is not the PDFMaker Add-in for Office applications.
Adobe Printer provides "print" similar to a printer driver for a local or network printer. Paper (even "ePaper") has no "interactivity".
PDFMaker provides configuration options that, along with other features, provides an output PDF that can have links.
1 1 Upvote LEGEND , Apr 02, 2023 Apr 02, 2023 Test Screen Name • LEGEND , Apr 02, 2023 Apr 02, 2023Use PDFMaker, not PDF Printer. Has been recommended 15 years and more.
2 2 Upvotes 19 Replies 19 /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965254#M6481 Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010Copy link to clipboard
Ah well, whatever. It looks like Open Office has an export to pdf function, which includes hyperlinks. I bet it was a lot of trouble for them to include it.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965255#M6482 Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010Copy link to clipboard
With Acrobat, use web capture to create the PDF or use the browser bar "Adobe PDF" to convert a web page to PDF.
Either provides PDFs containing the web page's links.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965256#M6483 Oct 05, 2010 Oct 05, 2010Copy link to clipboard
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, I'm in a situation where converting to pdf directly from a browser provides undesirable formatting results. Instead I have been copying formatted text from the browser, pasting it in a word processor (with links intact), making minor modifications to the format, then publishing to pdf.
I posted because I was surprised that the functionality wasn't available, and wanted to ensure that this is the case. Fortunately, Open Office has included hyperlink inclusion with PDF publishing through its exporter, so the Adobe PDF printer isn't really needed- at least until I run into some other issue that comes to fruition through the lack of universal semantics inherent of a language like postscript.
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Community Beginner , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965257#M6484 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
I'm having a similar problem, but with the Adobe print from my browser - the resulting PDF file does not include functional hyperlinks, just blue underlined text. How do I configure the PDF printer settings such that the links are clickable? Thanks.
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Community Expert , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965258#M6485 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Community guidelinesHow do I configure the PDF printer settings such that the links are clickable?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965259#M6486 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Hehehe, even in the year 2011, PostScript is not a hyperlink language, right?
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Community Expert , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965262#M6489 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Hehehe, even in the year 2011, PostScript is not a hyperlink language, right?
PostScript is not a hyperlink language.
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Community Beginner , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965260#M6487 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Really? Why? For a professional program, that seems pretty ridiculous. If I copy the same text to MS Word, and "Save as" PDF (using Word's native save as PDF ability, not Print to Adobe PDF), the links are clickable. It's not that complicated. . . . what's the problem?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965261#M6488 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
If I'm not mistaken, the PDF Printer is special in that it is a strict PostScript compiler. PostScript is a printing language, meant only for printing, and so the PDF Maker exists. I think it's about preserving the sanctity of PostScript, ensuring that it isn't tainted with other functionality like HTML. Seems silly either way.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965263#M6490 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Don't confuse the "apples with the oranges"; the PDF printer (File > Print > Adobe Printer or Print > Select Printer > Adobe Printer) is not the PDFMaker Add-in for Office applications.
Adobe Printer provides "print" similar to a printer driver for a local or network printer. Paper (even "ePaper") has no "interactivity".
PDFMaker provides configuration options that, along with other features, provides an output PDF that can have links.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965264#M6491 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
I'm confused about whether you added any info past what I just posted.
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Community Beginner , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965265#M6492 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
I was not referring to "PDFmaker;" you do not need to own Acrobat or install any plugin to "Save as. " PDF in MS Word 2010. PDF is just one of the available formats one can save a file as in the "Save as" menu.
Paper (even "ePaper") has no "interactivity". Actually, "ePaper" typically does have "interactivity." That's one of the advantages of it. It also has "metadata" and other "e" features.
If "PDFMaker" can be configured to include links, why can't Adobe Printer?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965266#M6493 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Like I said, the PDF Printer is special, because it is a "post-script only" printer. That means it has standards, it's like the girl next-door that doesn't mess around with any guys from the east side of town, you can guarantee that she'll only make certain types of babies- and so printing presses can believe in her and know that they will get a foreseable offspring in their printed result, without any crossbread HTML weirdness.
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Community Beginner , /t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965267#M6494 Jan 18, 2011 Jan 18, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Hahaha, okay. Still seems. less than ideal. Oh well.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/2965268#M6495 Jan 19, 2011 Jan 19, 2011Copy link to clipboard
Up through AA8, PDF Maker was a preprocessor for the Adobe PDF printer. The processor added PDF Marks to the printer file so that when it was processed by Distiller, the links would be added. You can still do that with the printer yourself, but you have to figure out how to add the PDF Marks information. It used to be that you could insert a small EPS file in the document that included the PDF Marks and when you printed to the Adobe printer, you would get the desired results. Problem is that you have a lot of work to learn the PDF Marks to do it directly with the printer. The PDF Maker process took care of this for you. I do not know the process that is used in AA9 and AAX, but suspect it is something similar, though not directly using the printer.
Bottom line is that if you want to do it with the printer, you can. However, you have to code it with PDF Marks yourself -- a lot of work.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/13068626#M370448 Jul 14, 2022 Jul 14, 2022
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If Adobe Team do not want to correct this simple bug, i will stop paying Adobe subscription and buy cheaper PDF Maker.
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/13068654#M370451 Jul 14, 2022 Jul 14, 2022
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The price for alternative and working PDF App is just £4 per year!
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/13698484#M406369 Apr 02, 2023 Apr 02, 2023
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Holy Cow! I am reacing this in 2023 and they still haven't fixed the problem. So much for caring about their customers, right?
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/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-to-pdf-include-hyperlinks/m-p/13698643#M406375 Apr 02, 2023 Apr 02, 2023
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Use PDFMaker, not PDF Printer. Has been recommended 15 years and more.
