App communities Links lost from Word to PDF It seemed like my conversion of word docx files used to convert to pdf and would retain the hyperlinks that had been created. But lately it hasnt been automatic. What am I missing? How do I ensure that the carefully placed hyperlinks in my word document make it over into my Adobe PDF files. Using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC ver. 2017 This problem persists--and Adobe Create PDF cloud service isn't available. Specs: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 2020.009.20074 Word 16.39 (20071300) Select Acrobat from the Word ribbon in a Word document with hyperlinks. Click Create PDF. Result: Error dialog with "Acrobat cannot convert this file using Create PDF online service. Use Adobe Acrobat's local PDF converter instead?" Standard Save dialog appears with PDF-specific options for Best for electronic distirbution and accessibiilty (uses Microsoft online service) and Best for printing . User selects Best for electronic... because of hyperlinks. Click Export button. Result: Error dialog with "Links in this document could not be retained in the converted PDF." Select Print from the File menu in Word. In the bottom-left corner of the Print dialog click the dropdown arrow beside PDF. Select Save as PDF. A new dialog will appear asking for filename, location, and basic metadata. Complete as needed. Security may also be set on the PDF at this point. Click Save. Result: PDF is generated without errors and with functional hyperlinks. Thank God Mac offers the option of completely bypassing the broken PDFMaker. Thanks for the article. Our requirement is slightly different. I create an "index" file that holds hyperlinks to folders on the local Windows file system. The index file sits in the "root" folder together with all the folders that hold the various documents. The idea is to create a complete distribution (1 zip file) with index file, folders and documents in the various folders. The distribution can then be sent, unpacked and all components accessed via the index file. It's meant for people with less computer skills. The above works well for the creator. The creator can correctly access the folders via the "index" file. However when the distribution is unpacked and the index PDF is opened by a person other than the creator the links don't work. Hovering over the links in the index file shows the absolute path is stored rather than the relative path that is used say when you link a file into Excel and so the links break as the person will have another folder structure than the creator. Do you know of a way to make the hyperlinks relative? How EXACTLY do you make the links today? The concerns about uploading confidential docs to the cloud were never addressed. Is it true that we just can't get a PDF with links using our own computers? What if we're offline? I can feel my blood pressure rising... Actually, current versions of Acrobat Pro can no longer open XPS files. For years it has been able to convert XPS to PDF, but Adobe took that out quietly on a recent update. Confirmed! Okay. I learned something today. Doesn't make sense that Adobe just removed that compatibility. Until a few years ago, many of my financial clients used XPS b/c the docs are difficult to modify. Thanks for the update. It does, however, not change the main point of this discussion that PDFs created in PC Word retain embedded links, but MAC Word doesn't. And by my estimate, this is a long long long running battle. Can you shed some light why this is? " Also note that PDFs created in Word PC are actually XPS format" No they aren't. "Adobe Reader easily reads XPS." No it doesn't. I'm afraid this part of your message is based on bad information. Thank you for pointing out an error: My current process: Compose document in either version of MS Word (PC/MAC) Open doc in PC MS WORD Select "Export" Function reads: "Create a PDF/XPS Document." Option to save as PDF or XPS (default is PDF) Current versions of Adobe Pro can open XPS files (tested). Adobe Reader will not open XPS without first converting to PDF (didn't know that, so I stand corrected). However - another thing I just realized - when XPS is converted to PDF, the links still work - but why would you do that? So, for those of us with PC, this remains an option. More information: Supported file formats in Acrobat and Reader ​ Open XPS file with Acrobat by command line or another way My solution may be a sacrilege in this audience, but I'm a PC/Mac user. Discovered long ago that Microsoft and Apple do not play well with each other - even now. My solution for Word>PDF>retain link - don't save the doc as PDF in Mac. Use a PC instead. All inserted links preserved. I was told quite a while ago that this is not an Adobe problem, but a problem with Apple unable to let the software flag links. Result, the software can't resolve the ahref tag when it is "Inserted" into the text (e.g., ctrl k). I asked if this will be solved - they shrugged. No idea. Also note that PDFs created in Word PC are actually XPS format - Microsoft's own variant of the PDF-like doc. XPS preserves layout features and makes it so that the contents cannot be easily changed/manipulated. There are XPS converters that work on Mac - can't vouch for any of them, but it could be an option. Adobe Reader easily reads XPS. Probably just committed outright heresy. Like everyone in this thread, I ran into all the same problems and tried all the suggested fixes to no avail. I'm not sure why this is a problem now as I used to be able to convert MS Word files successfully (with links) in the past on my Mac. After spending far too much time on this, I ended up uploading the MS Word file to Google and downloading it as a PDF. Links work perfect! Thank you Google! I just came across this thread and was in no mood to battle Word until I lost my sanity, so this is a brilliant save. I am trying to convert a document created in Microsoft Word for Mac version 16.11.1 (180319) to PDF such that I have (a) the fonts I have chosen and (b) the hyperlinks I added in Word. I have spent the past hour failing at this seemingly simple task. I can get a version of the document that has the fonts but not the hyperlinks. I can get a version of the document that has the hyperlinks but not the fonts. Frustratingly, I can’t get both in the same PDF. The fonts I’m using in Word are Granjon and Helvetica Neue. In the document with hyperlinks, Granjon appears to have been substituted with Garamond, which is pretty close for a guess, but Helv Neue appears to have been substituted with Sylfaen, which is not correct at all. In Word, the Preferences button on the Adobe ribbon tab has only one checkbox—Prompt for using the Adobe Create PDF cloud service—and no other settings. The only workaround I can think of is to generate both PDF versions, then use the edit links tool in Acrobat Pro to manually, tediously copy the links from the document that has them and paste them to the document that doesn’t, resizing each link frame’s width and height when needed. I’m hoping there is a better way. :-( How are you converting the Word file to PDF, exactly? What command are you Hi, Gilad, thanks. Here are all the methods I tried:

in word > acrobat ribbon > create pdf > no in word > acrobat ribbon > create pdf > yes in word > file > print > save as pdf in word > saved as pdf for electronic dist in word > saved as pdf for printing in word > file > print > open in preview in word > file > save as adobe pdf > high quality print in acrobat pro dc > file > create pdf from file via the Apple Pages roundtrip method described at Re: Losing links when saving Word 2011 Mac to Acrobat Pro X 10.1.3 (Phillip M Jones, response #2) uploaded to google docs then downloaded as pdf in word > saved as doc then saved as pdf for electronic dist in word > saved as rtf > opened in textedit > saved as pdf in word > Document Cloud button > upload > save to OneDrive in word > Document Cloud button > upload > download Word to PDF - Convert your DOC to PDF for Free Online opened in Apple Pages > file > print > save as Adobe PDF in smallest file size opened in Apple Pages > exported as pdf In #10 I tried the method suggested at Re: Losing links when saving Word 2011 Mac to Acrobat Pro X 10.1.3 (Sue the teacher, response #12) and this mostly resolved my problem—it has the correct fonts and the hyperlinks—except a WMF image is missing and a few other images are askew. Wrong fonts, has hyperlinks, has WMF image = 2, 4, Correct fonts, no hyperlinks, has WMF image = 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16 Correct fonts, has hyperlinks, missing WMF image = 10 Correct fonts, has hyperlinks, missing all images = 12 Ended in error: Could not save to OneDrive = 13 Correct fonts, has hyperlinks, has WMF image, missing one other image, some text lines wrap incorrectly = 17 I also found in Acrobat Pro DC: Tools > Create & Edit > Edit PDF > Link button dropdown in Edit PDF toolbar > Auto-Create Web Links from URLs, but this resolved the problem for only some of my urls that began with http:// or https:// and ignored those that didn’t. I have Acrobat Pro DC for Mac, continuous release, version 2018.011.20038 Architecture: x86_64 Build: 18.11.20038.267465 CoolType: 5.14.5 JP2K: 1.2.2.39492 Other possible workarounds I encountered but haven't tried yet: Open the Word document on a Windows computer with a recent (or same) version of Office and the same fonts, inspect it for line-break or other changes, then save as PDF. open in online version of Microsoft Word, save as PDF open in Microsoft OneDrive, download as PDF? reinstalling Acrobat Pro XI, 10, or 9 open in OpenOffice or LibreOffice, save as PDF Acrobat -- Create Links from Partial URLs ($40) Further reading: Losing links when saving Word 2011 Mac to Acrobat Pro X 10.1.3 How to retain hyperlinks when converting Word docx to pdf hyperlinks in Word for Mac to PDF Word 2016 for mac not manage hyperlink when .doc is converted into .pdf Google search for pdf to word converters online After hours of fiddling to no avail... Turns out we don't even need the Acrobat ribbon. Use the built-in Word Save As PDF, and choose the "electronic distribution" option. Voila! Active links. No, then the images are compressed into oblivion. It's JPEG with the lowest settings possible. There is no control in MS Word on how this compression is handled. Thanks for clarifying that Dov. You say it's an option - but how is it turned off, and is the user warned? In the UK we are just seeing a new swathe of data protection legislation, which means many of us are the wrong side of the law if we let this happen. Companies may detect "leakage" of files too, with serious disciplinary results. Remix with Firefly Community Gallery Thousands of free creations to fall in love with and remix in Firefly. Already have an account? Login To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID. Sign in to Adobe Community No account yet? Create an account To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID. Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.