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Converting Word File To PDF Without Losing Hyperlinks

Resolution for Hyperlinks lost when converting to PDF

What I found is that you can not change the hyperlink to display as something different than the actual address. I.e., ACTUAL hyperlink you put in the "Link to" line is http://forums.macrumers.com, but you put in the "display" line something like, "click here to go to website" so you don't have an the gobbly-gook. This is when your links do not work.

However, in Preview you can go to "tools", "annotate" and "add link", then change the default to URL, and you can put the link back in manually. Works for me. You can use this for regular hyperlinks that don't work, OR ones that you want to display differently for brevity. Works for me:)
 
I found an EASY solution! (free)

I can't believe it. I had been having the same problems, too, but I didn't want to give up. I tried Google Drive. It worked one time, then not, then another time but the formatting was funky... Anyway after trial and error, I believe I have a solution I can stick with.

1) Save Word document.
2) Upload to Google Drive. Do NOT convert.
3) Get the OpenAsPDF app. Its a Google Drive App.
4) Open with OpenAsPDF app.
5) Use the Save As dialogue or the floppy disk icon (hah - anyone remember those?) to Save back to your computer.
6) Before saving, change the .doc extension to .pdf. Voila!

It kept all the links and even kept my fonts, which Google Viewer and Google Word did not.

Alternatively, you can do the same with Google Viewer/Google Word. It will keep the links, but I found that the formatting was all messed up and Google doesn't like my very pretty font (Century Gothic). very important. :)

I hope it works for you!
 
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Solution

I figured this out yesterday and you don't have to get any crappy open source software or buy Adobe for the low price of your first born son.

These are the instructions for Microsoft Word 2011. Note: You are not saving as PDF in word. You open it in Preview then save as PDF.

  1. Click File > Print
  2. Click the PDF dropdown (lower-left corner)
  3. Click "Open PDF in Preview"
  4. Save the file with working links
 
ecupaio said:
These are the instructions for Microsoft Word 2011. Note: You are not saving as PDF in word. You open it in Preview then save as PDF.

  1. Click File > Print
  2. Click the PDF dropdown (lower-left corner)
  3. Click "Open PDF in Preview"
  4. Save the file with working links
Click to expand...

Τhis does not work for me (MS Word 2011, OSX 10.8.5). The linked words appear in blue but are not clickable. What is your set up?

What does work for me is to:
  1. Save word file
  2. On Finder right click the file > Open With --> Preview
  3. Export to PDF

But if you have footnotes, they disappear. So always check your document carefully after using this method. Even if it does not have footnotes, other document elements might be affected too.

Unfortunately so far the best (only easy?) solution seems to be an online converter. I used www.freepdfconvert.com as suggested previously in this thread and it seems to work fine.
 
You can maintain hyperlinks in pdf from Word

If you SAVE as a pdf, rather than PRINT to pdf, it will retain the hyperlinks and not be saved as larger than 100%.
 
With all due respect, you are wasting your time. Adobe Acrobat Pro can produce certified PDFs. That is to say that your recipient can be assured that a PDF that is supposed to originate with you actually originated with you. However, there is simply no way that you can prevent a reader from copying the contents of a text-based document. Every Mac can take screenshots which can then be OCRed. Heck. If push comes to shove, then the determined snooper can retype the contents of a file that he cannot electronically copy.

High security PDF? Yeah, right!
 
stuffed-pepper said:
1) Save Word document.
2) Upload to Google Drive. Do NOT convert.
3) Get the OpenAsPDF app. Its a Google Drive App.
4) Open with OpenAsPDF app.
5) Use the Save As dialogue or the floppy disk icon (hah - anyone remember those?) to Save back to your computer.
6) Before saving, change the .doc extension to .pdf. Voila!

It kept all the links and even kept my fonts, which Google Viewer and Google Word did not.

Alternatively, you can do the same with Google Viewer/Google Word. It will keep the links, but I found that the formatting was all messed up and Google doesn't like my very pretty font (Century Gothic). very important. :)

I hope it works for you!
Click to expand...

Worked for me. Thanks!
 
Another option you can try to get hyperlinks to appear in a pdf:

  1. create your document in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac. then insert a blank line right above the text where you want the hyperlink to appear.
  2. copy and paste the full link onto this line. reduce the font size so that it just fits above your text
  3. highlight the link and change the line spacing to 1.0
  4. keep the link highlighted and change the font color to white - so that the link appears invisible in the pdf you will create
  5. go to the file menu and choose 'save as...'
  6. in the drop down box choose 'pdf' and save
  7. open your pdf and hover your mouse over where the text and link should be. the mouse will change to the 'hand' indicating there is a hyperlink there. if you hover for a couple of seconds, a popup will display the link so that you can double check that the URL is correct. click on it and you are good to go.
with these steps you maintain all formatting. You also don't need to forgo using MS Word altogether, or switch to using other software just to get hyperlinks to appear.

hope this helps.
 
It does not seem to be a Microsoft problem as I have tried different methods (Automator, Preview.app, Word 2011, Online converters) The only thing that seems to work are the online converters such as http://smallpdf.com/word-to-pdf. Automator, Preview.app and Word all have the links removed when converting to PDF. I believe this is a bug in Mac OS.
 
Recommend a good tool to you which could create PDF files from other format document including word, powerpoint, EPUB etc. The Cisdem PDFCreator, which is quit convenient to create PDF in Mac, although the MS software has same function. Just search the name in the google to find Cisdem PDFCreator, hope it will help you out!
 
I tried multiple solutions: the Google docs app dropped out my footers, so that was not good. None of the print-to-PDF ideas worked for me.

I finally settled on simply opening the Word-saved PDF with Acrobat Pro and inserting the link as a boxed area with the "Tools>Add link" tool, then saving it as a PDF. Kind of a pain, but at least it seems reliable. Truly staggering that something so basic continues as a bug in Word for Mac.
 
Try this - I've figured out a way to send a .docx file, where it's un-editable/locked and the hyperlinks work.

(I've been trying to send a CV with links to webpages, but I don't want anyone to access/edit the .docx file).

My Setup (jus incase):

MacBook Pro (10.9.5)
Microsoft Mac: 2011 (Software 14.6.1)

So you have your letter you wanna send loaded in Word in front of you > Save As > Select 'Options' from window (bottom left corner) > Show All > Security > Protect Document > Select 'Read Only' > OK > OK > Save the .docx ending with E.g. '_ReadOnlyVersion' (Put simply, this locks the document so no-one, or yourself, can edit the document, hence why changing the 'Save As' title to '_ReadOnlyVersion' as you still want access to the original incase you want to make any future edits) > Notice, once you select 'Save' the document will be locked > hover/select your hyperlinks > They should work > send to yourself via email (Test it) > check if hyperlinks and document formats look correct.

Any questions, feel free to message.

Hope this helps someone
Deamer
 
dusk007 said:
Try the PDF export of OpenOffice.
MS Office for Mac is quite bad with pdfs (and other stuff) I had some font issues which OpenOffice solved. Considering how long OO supports pdf exports it probably supports all forms, links and such too.
Or if you have Windows use Office 2007 SP2 or later those have an actual save as PDF option and not just some pdf printer that poses as a pdf saving option.

Not very convenient but if it is only very few files, online converters do the trick. They eat just about everything and most produce very good results with support for just about anything.
as an example.
http://www.freepdfconvert.com/
Click to expand...
Excellent thanks, had this pdf / mac / microsoft problem and thanks to your input, it was easily solved! Cheers!!
 
Could not be simpler. Just print the document as a PDF and the hyperlinks are maintained and open in Acrobat with active hyperlinks. I am using Word 2011, Acrobat X Pro and OSX Sierra GM.
 
tomewer said:
Hello,

It seems that the "Save as PDF" option in MS Word leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does it save the PDF as a huge file, but it also seems to remove all hyperlinks. The blue underlined text remains, but they are no longer clickable.

Does anyone know of a product that converts PDFs to a reasonable size, and with working hyperlinks? I don't spending a few bucks.

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...
Open the Word doc in pages and then export it to PDF from there. It will keep the links
 
tomewer said:
Hello,

It seems that the "Save as PDF" option in MS Word leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does it save the PDF as a huge file, but it also seems to remove all hyperlinks. The blue underlined text remains, but they are no longer clickable.

Does anyone know of a product that converts PDFs to a reasonable size, and with working hyperlinks? I don't spending a few bucks.

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...
Load the Word file into pages and then save as pdf - the links then work.
 
bherring said:
Export vs Print

It's true that printing shouldn't be concerned with hyperlinks, but for a long time, Adobe has positioned PDF as print-like output and had virtual printers for creating PDF from many applications, and included passing hyperlinks into PDF in some of those.

I'd prefer to have "Save to PDF" or "Save as PDF" or "Export to PDF" as the way I create a PDF with functioning links. Until Adobe/Apple/Microsoft get this done, I'm happy to have found a way that works that doesn't involve meticulous reformatting.

The Pages approach routinely altered the formatting, so the Web Office method is my preference at this point. If you have an alternative that includes "Export" or "Save As" to create the PDF and it works, I'll be happy to use it rather than Web Office Word's "File --> Print."
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1498387022][/doublepost]Dear All,
The following procedure maintains the hyperlinks in the PDF file from MS Word. Save your word file as PDF and in the dialog box click Options then select "include non-printing information". Now your PDF file will be with hyperlinks.
Regards,
Mian Hussain
 
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Mian Hussain said:
[doublepost=1498387022][/doublepost]Dear All,
The following procedure maintains the hyperlinks in the PDF file from MS Word. Save your word file as PDF and in the dialog box click Options then select "include non-printing information". Now your PDF file will be with hyperlinks.
Regards,
Mian Hussain
Click to expand...

doesn't work in Word 2011 for mac. no such option exists: "include non-printing information"
 
I've seen so many well intended but sometimes complicated solutions. It took me a while to find out but if you select File>Save As>PDF you see 2 options:

1. Best for online electronic distribution and accessibility
2. Best for printing

Somehow, option 2 was selected as default in my case. I changed to 1 and SOLVED:
 
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