Hyperlinks on images in PDF from Word 2010

I've got a Word 2010 document that I'm trying to convert to a PDF with "Save As...", preserving hyperlinks. Something odd is going on:

• Hyperlinks on inline text, or images that are inline, work fine.
• Hyperlinks on images with layout "in front of" text don't work in the PDF, same for hyperlinked drawing shapes.

What I'm trying to do is make a "clickmap" image by putting an image on the page and overlaying parts of it with transparent shapes that hyperlink to different URLs. This isn't working, and the transparency has nothing to do with it - hyperlinks in the PDF seem only to work on "in line with text" elements.

Am I missing something, or is there a better way to do this?

Solution 1:

I have noticed the same problems as noted above with one HUGE exception. I have several documents that were originally created in 2007 but now are updated in 2010.

Some of them save as PDF with no problems in the image Hyperlinks. But others drop the hyperlinks from the images. I know that it is some setting.

I noticed that if I use a document that works, delete everything out of it, (keeping the settings etc) then copy into the document the other documents contents, it converts fine.

So this means that it is NOT the contents that are the problem. Instead it is something to do with the settings on one document compared to the other.

I Just figured out what the difference was. The docs that worked were (.docx made with 2007) and the ones that did not work were (.doc)

When I took a document that was converting well (.docx made with 2007 & updated with 2010) and changed it to a (.doc) file, it no longer saved the image hyperlinks.

However, when I converted a (doc) to (Docx) in 2010, it did not work either.

So in order for the word 2010 to pdf hyperlink images, you need a (Docx) document created by 2007, and then save to pdf with word 2010.

TRY taking old (docx) files originally created with word 2007, delete all the contents, then copy and paste what ever you want into the "Shell" and I think that it will save to pdf with working hyperlinks. (It did for me)

Hope this helps.

Solution 2:

I just pasted a screenshot in Word 2010, then used Insert / Text Box / Simple Text Box, changed its properties to no outline and no fill, then set it to link to a URL. Did the same with another non-overlapping text box positioned elsewhere on the image. Finally, I saved as PDF using the Standard (not Minimum Size) option (also see screenshot below). The links work perfectly in Sumatra PDF. If you repeat the steps and it still doesn't work, most likely there's something wrong with your PDF viewer.

Solution 3:

I am currently experiencing the same issue and the ONLY workaround I've come up with after a couple of hours is to place a text character before and after my image, then insert my hyperlink, then make the text transparent. Lame, but I'm in a pinch!