PDF hyperlinks; Confusing situation

[Ed Hawco]

Here's the situation:

Two projects, both using the same skin, same typography, and the same project configurations (e.g., Publishing Options > PDF Output).

Specifically, the Publishing Options > PDF output are set as follows:

X Interactive PDF document
X Create Table of Contents (Outline)

ALL OTHER OPTIONS ARE UNCHECKED.

Now here's the result:

PDF #1:
- Items in the Table of Contents are hyperlinks. There is no visible link styling (no color change, no underline) but they work as links to the appropriate PDF pages.

- Cross references work as hyperlinks. These links are styled in blue, and underlined.

- External links work as expected (linked page opens in default browser). These links are styled in blue, and underlined.

PDF #2:
- Items in the Table of Contents are NOT hyperlinks. There is no visible link styling (no color change, no underline) and they are not linked.

- Cross references do NOT work as hyperlinks. These links are NOT styled in blue, and NOT underlined.

- External links work as expected (linked page opens in default browser). These links are NOT styled in blue, and NOT underlined.


How can this be? Is there something else that affects PDF linking behaviour?

Note: I went into the configuration for PDF #2 and checked "PDF has active hyperlinks." As a result, it now behaves like PDF #1 except that the links are not styled (no blue, no underline), so that's actually a third scenario.

What's the missing factor here?

[Tim Green]

Hi Ed,

Activate the option "Underline links and paint in color: ..... "

[Ed Hawco]

Thanks Tim, but that doesn't explain why the two PDFs behave so differently (one has links and one doesn't) given that NEITHER have that "Underline & paint" option enabled.

Basically, what is different about PDF#2 that makes its links not work even though "interactive PDF" is checked?

[Tim Green]

Hi Ed,

Basically, what is different about PDF#2 that makes its links not work even though "interactive PDF" is checked?

The TOC links should always work when that is checked. If they are not working then something is very wrong. If just topic links aren't working the most likely reason is that the targets aren't there.

My guess is that you are linking to topics that aren't in the TOC, which don't exist in PDF. A PDF is really just an electronic representation of a printout -- essentially it is printer data rendered on the screen. It is physically impossible to have "hidden" topics in a PDF, any more than you can have them on a printout on paper. If a topic is not in the TOC in PDF you can't link to it because it isn't there.