Unable to activate links in uploaded .pdf files

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnwdhughes · Member ·

    When I generate a .pdf file with a number of blue underlined links to various articles the links work OK when it’s still a standalone .pdf file. However, when I place the .pdf file into a WordPress link, the embedded links will not work. Furthermore, if the .pdf file is saved from the link, the embedded links work again. The links used to work OK in WordPress, now they don’t. What is the problem. Here’s an example: https://norwoodresource.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/1607-tnr-newsletter-jul16.pdf

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    I checked the pdf that you provided and noticed that the hyperlinks that are not clickable all have https in the URL while the few clickable hyperlinks all contain http. If you can switch all the URLs with https to http, they should work for you.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnwdhughes · Member ·

    Hi Darnell,
    Thanks for your suggestion.
    I’ve tried it but still seem to have problems:
    https://norwoodresource.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/1607-tnr-newsletter-jul16_s-removed.pdf

    Thanks

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hmm..thought that might’ve been it.

    The other thing that I noticed is that all of the URLs that are clickable are on one line and not multiple lines. I wonder if the fact that some URLs are on multiple lines are deactivating them somehow.

    Since some of the URLs are too long to on one line, we at least have to see first if that is the issue. If you lower the text size of a few of the URLs to fit on one line and see if the URL becomes clickable, we’ll be able to rule out this issue.

    Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnwdhughes · Member ·

    Hi Darnell,
    I don’t believe it’s a problem with the length of the URLs as there are some short ones that don’t work. As the links in the .pdf work when it is standalone but don’t work when the .pdf has been loaded into WordPress, I’m sure it’s a WordPress problem.
    Here’s the link: https://norwoodresource.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/1607-tnr-newsletter-jul16-brh-1_edits.pdf
    and, if I can do it, here’s the original .pdf: 1607 TNR Newsletter Jul16 brh 1_edits.pdf

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnwdhughes · Member ·

    PS. The links do work but they open in the same tab as the tab that opened the .pdf so, when you close the link, you “lose” the open .pdf and go back to the page prior to opening the .pdf link.

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hey there,

    I had a few other people check the PDF and I even checked in a few other browsers. It’s not a WordPress.com problem. It is a browser compatibility problem. All of the links are clickable in Safari, only a few are clickable in Chrome, and none are in Mozilla when I checked – I learned that each browser renders the PDF differently which affects how dynamic it is within the browser.

    PDF forms also do not work when simply displayed in the browser – you have to download them in order for them to by fully dynamic. It appears that also applies to URL links.

    So what URL is clickable is arbitrary many of the times. I would definitely make sure that you have the most up date version of the browsers you commonly use. I read that Mozilla has worked on improving compatibility, so the most recent versions of those browsers will provide the best results. Chrome has a built in viewer and no longer supports Adobe’s plugin, so that is why there are issues when using that browser.

    Hopefully this helps – downloading the PDF is the best option for full functionality.

    Thanks!

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