When I wanted to create a flyer this week for an event I’m co-organizing, I ran into a very practical problem. I’d done a very basic design in Microsoft Word including some links that I wanted to make into a PDF.
But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get the links to work in my Mac’s Preview. They worked just fine if I opened the PDF in Acrobat Reader, but not in Preview where they transformed into static text instead of clickable links. A little research revealed this was a well-known problem.
So, here’s how to create clickable PDF links for Mac Preview:
How to Do It
Since ChurchMag no doubt has many Mac fans like me, chances are you will run into this same issue sooner or later, if you haven’t already. So I thought I’d share the two easiest solutions I found to create a PDF with clickable links on a Mac:
Use Pages
Much to my surprise, Pages does the job just fine. Just open your Word document in Pages, click the ‘Print’ button and choose ‘Save as PDF’. It will preserve your clickable links without any problem, provided you entered them correctly in the first place (using the full http:// address is important).
This is the solution I finally used and it worked perfectly.
Use Open Office
It’s free and it works, what more do you want? Just download Open Office and your problems are over. Well, maybe not all of them, but at least you will be able to get working links in your PDF!
Have you ever come across this problem?
If so, what solution do you use?
Oscar Gonzalez says
This is such a pain in the butt. You’d think that MS or Acrobat, or just the PDF function in the macs would be able to do this seamlessly.
I had to do something like you said. Work on Word, and then open in Pages to do the PDF export. But I had to manually edit each entry for the TOC if I want those links to work as well as external links.
Eric Dye says
Seriously.
Lorraine says
Thank you so much! Opening the word doc in Pages worked like a charm! Now I just have to figure out if I can open it in a new window!!! Thanks again!
Rachel Blom says
You’e very welcome 🙂
Einstein says
Yap worked for me… Was running around like a headless chicken before I found this.
Rachel Blom says
Well, since it took me forever to figure it out, I thought I’d write a post about it and save others the trouble 🙂
Sherry Grisham-Cushing says
Thank you so much, I have spent all afternoon on this and downloaded useless free trials of PDF editors. This was the ticket!
Sherry
Rachel Blom says
Glad to be of help! 🙂
Ratko Ivanović says
Strange that they don’t have it in preview. I have a similar issue – trying to put a link to a pdf with preview. I say strange because it’s quite a powerful little tool, and thought it would have something as simple as that.
Rachel Blom says
I know, right? It’s a feature I use so often and it’s such a hassle having to go back and forth between different programs.
Liz says
I had this problem too. My simple solution that worked was that I went to http://www.zamzar.com and converted my docx document to a pdf on the website and saved it back on my computer and the links worked great. Zamzar is free and takes about 2 minutes. The converted file is emailed to you. I have used this for years with no problems.
Rachel Blom says
Thanks for sharing Liz. Never even heard of this option. I saw that they convert many more files. I do wonder what’s in it for them…offering services like this out of the goodness of their hearts, I dunno…
Maria J Mas says
Pretty awesome and very helpful!
In fact you solved all my problems.
Thank you very much!!
GrahamNation says
HUGELY HELPFUL!!
Dave says
Genius!! Thanks.
April Rose says
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Sooo much!!!! This was driving me crazy and your answer is the only one that worked!!!!
John says
I’ve been wracking my brain for hours to come up with a way of adding links to a pdf.
Thank you so much for the tip about opening the document in Pages. It worked perfectly!
Seriously, I can’t thank you enough 🙂
Gordon Tibbitts says
Open Office works just fine thanks
Alan Chandler says
Thanks so much for the tip, worked like a charm. 🙂
Chuck says
My challenge is trying to create a link in a Pages document that will open a pdf file. Any help appreciated !
Brooke Burns says
I was in a bind. I couldn’t even PAY for Adobe for my computer b/c it’s not yet compatible with the new iOS. Your advice helped me solve a problem for a client (non-profit) in need. Thank you!!!!