Making PDFs out of Word Docs and Preserving Embedded Links

September 28, 2006 11:01 AM

How can I make a .pdf of a .doc file that maintains the copious hyperlinks in the original MS Word doc on Mac OS 10.4?

So I've got a Word document with a TON of links in it (created using Insert/ Hyperlink...), and OS X's built-in PDF maker (through the Print dialog box) doesn't create those as clickable links.

I've tried a couple things mentioned in similar AskMe threads, including Jaws PDF Maker, Adobe's online service, and pdfonline.com. Jaws won't even create an openable file, and the two online services work great, so long as I don't mind all my fonts being replaced with Courier, which I kind of do.

I've got Acrobat 5.0, and know I can create them manually with that, but Good God there's a lot of 'em, and I'd like to avoid going down that road.

posted by hwickline to computers & internet (8 comments total)

If you know someone with a Windows box and Office, Acrobat installs a button right into Word's toolbar that creates PDFs with the links intact.
posted by ChuckLeChuck at 11:10 AM on September 28, 2006

Acrobat for Mac's PDFMaker button, which it installs (annoyingly) in the Word toolbar, should do it for you.

Then, in Acrobat, go to Advanced > Links > Create from URLs in Document. That should take care of it.
posted by timetoevolve at 11:19 AM on September 28, 2006

Creating links from URLs in the document will only help if there are in fact URLs in the document. If the text of the hyperlink is not a URL, which it probably won't be, it won't help.

The Mac version of Acrobat (at least not the version you have, maybe they've added it lately, though I doubt it) simply doesn't have the capability you want.

The Windows version does do this, and generating your PDFs on a Windows box is probably the simplest solution.

Alternatively, migrate the document to InDesign and generate from there.
posted by kindall at 11:27 AM on September 28, 2006

Take it into FedEx Kinko's and have them convert it for you. If you are nice enough, they might even do it for free.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 11:37 AM on September 28, 2006

Thanks everyone-- looks like I'm going to bite the bullet and go to Kinko's... though it pains me something terrible to enter the land of XP.
posted by hwickline at 11:52 AM on September 28, 2006

Just saw this a bit ago @ macosxhints. Haven't tried it though.
posted by a_green_man at 1:04 PM on September 28, 2006

CutePDF is, IMHO, the best (free!) PDF converter I've ever seen. It's as easy to use as a printer. I've got Adobe Pro on my PC and at work, and I still use CutePDF.
posted by mysterious1der at 10:58 PM on September 28, 2006

If you post a link to the document, I'm happy to tell you whether OpenOffice can do anything clever with it.
posted by flabdablet at 4:54 AM on September 29, 2006