Finding Link Errors in Multiple PDF Files

Introduction

This tutorial shows how to produce a detailed link and bookmark report for multiple input PDF documents, and use it to check link errors. For example, some links may attempt to open a missing file, or have invalid page references, missing named destinations or broken weblinks.

The software checks link and bookmark actions and detects the following errors:

Destination page is out of correct range or does not exist (for "Go to a page view" actions).
Referenced named destination does not exists (for "Go to a page view incurrent document" actions).
Destination file name is not specified (for "Open a file" and "Go to apage in another document" actions).
Destination file does not exists at the location specified (for "Open a file" and "Go to a page in another document" actions).
URL address is empty (for "Open a web link" action).
Validates web URLs by trying to open a corresponding web page (takes extra processing time, use with care).
Checks if URL has a proper formatting (for example starts from "http", "https" or "ftp"prefix and conforms to URL format).

This operation is also available in Action Wizard (Acrobat's batch processing tool) and can be used to automate document processing workflows.

Prerequisites

You need a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® along with the AutoBookmark™ plug-in installed on your computer in order to use this tutorial. Both are available as trial versions.

Step 1 - Open the "Create Link Report For Multiple Files" Dialog

Start Adobe® Acrobat® and select "Plug-Ins > Links > Create Link and Bookmark Report..." to open the "Create Link Report For Multiple Files" dialog.

Step 2 - Select Input Files

Click "Add File..." to select PDF documents that need to be processed. Optionally click "Add Folder..." to add an entire folder.

Select one or more PDF documents, then click "Open". Note that multiple files from different folders can be added by repeatedly using the "Add File..." button.

Step 3 - Specify Processing Options

Select processing options to control the scope of the report.

Click "OK" to proceed.

Select the output folder and the file name. Click "Save".

Step 4 - Examine the Report

The output report is generated as a HTML file and is automatically opened in the default web browser. When multiple PDF documents have been selected, the report contains detailed information about every input PDF document.

The report is divided into 7 parts, for each input document. Locate the "Errors" section(s) for detailed information about any link/bookmark errors found in each document:

Possible errors:

Destination page number is out of range (for "Go to a page view in current document" actions).
Referenced named destination does not exist (for "Go to a page view in current document" actions).
Destination file name is not specified (for "Open a file" and "Go to a page in another document" actions).
Destination file does not exist (for "Open a file" and "Go to a page in another document" actions).
URL address is empty (for "Open a web link" action).
Checks for proper URL formatting (for "Open a web link" action), for example starts from "http", "https" or "ftp" prefix and conforms to URL format.
Every external file reference is labeled as either relative or absolute to aid in finding absolute path links (links that are using absolute paths will be broken, if a PDF document is moved to a different location).

You can find a list of other step-by-step bookmarking tutorials by clicking here.