Word 2016 for mac not manage hyperlink when .doc is converted into .pdf

Anonymous
2015-09-24T14:03:23+00:00

Hi,

I'm using Word 2016 on Mac, but when I save a .pdf file from a .doc document it lost hyperlink.

In details, if I want to create an hyperlink starting to a simple word (ex: industry name) who take me to industry's website, saving .doc as .pdf will lost the hyperlink, but formatted word remain ad an hypertext.

How can I solve this issue?

Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2016-08-01T09:14:56+00:00

Actually, there is a way to generate PDF files including hyperlinks with Word 2016 for Mac :

1 - Insert hyperlinks in your document,

2 - Go to "Save as...", choose PDF and check the box "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" instead of "Best for printing",

3 - Save. It will take a while as it uses Microsoft online services but then the generated PDF file includes hyperlinks!

Hope it will be useful to someone.

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Anonymous
2016-08-18T13:39:05+00:00

Well, the folks at Microsoft have done some tweaking and adjustments and the feature is now active.
If you don’t have any Right-to-left input method (in Keyboards) or language (in Language & Region) active in the System Preferences, and you use a version of Word >15.23.1, then the options should now be visible when you use the Save As command and select PDF.

The file is processed through an online service and you get a Tagged PDF (with all forms of links active).
Make sure you select: Best for online distribution and accessibility
 Corentin

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Anonymous
2017-12-04T18:11:14+00:00

This really did not help. "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" does not retain the quality of visuals at all. in fact it also converts symbols as junk characters. 

Any other more sustainable solutions? Thanks!

Nope… There is no good option in Word.

As you’ve seen, you can 1. generate it through the MS online services, get the metafunctions like links, etc, but loose embedded fonts and the high quality of the artwork. 2. Use the macOS PDF Services which retain fonts and original artwork, but do not add metafunctions like links, etc.

The only option to get both is to open up the document in another app that will offer that (OpenOffice??) with the risk of seeing slight layout differences, or open up the document on Windows where Word can natively generate a full-featured PDF :-\

Corentin

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-30T13:56:49+00:00

    +1 for this issue.

    Exporting using the Microsoft online services does keep links but severely reduces the quality of the images. Image quality is arguably more important so this export option is useless until fixed :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-01T04:59:05+00:00

    Hey thanks for this, it helped!

    Hyperlinks are maintained, which was my primary need. It does have an unfortunate consequence where the resulting document has substituted fonts that are poorer in readability and aesthetics, compared to choosing the "Best for printing" option. But I do have my links... oh well.

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