Introduction to PDF Links

Introduction

The Adobe® Acrobat® application provides tools for viewing, creating, manipulating, printing and managing PDF files. This introductory tutorial contains frequently asking questions on creating and editing PDF links in Adobe® Acrobat®. Use AutoBookmark plug-in when more advanced functionality is required. This tutorial covers only basic functionality provided by Adobe® Acrobat® itself.

What is a PDF link?

A link let you jump to other locations in the same PDF document, to other electronic documents including attachments, or to websites, play media files or even execute a menu item. Clicking a link in a PDF document is similar to clicking a link on a web page.

Quick Links:

How to link to a page in a document?
How to link to another file?
How to link to a web page?
How to create a custom link?
How to link to a file attachment?
How to change the appearance of a link?
How to change color of text covered by the link?
How to edit a link action?
How to delete a link?
How to move or resize a link rectangle?
How to arrange links on the page?
How to cut/copy and paste links?
How to pin the "Link" icon to the Quick Tools menu?

How to link to a page in a document? ^↑overview: Step 1. Open a PDF document in Adobe® Acrobat® application. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu.; Step 2. The "Edit PDF" toolbar will appear. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Step 3. The pointer becomes a cross hair. Drag a rectangle where you want to create a link.; Step 4. Choose the link appearance options in the "Create Link" dialog box. Click "Next" button to specify the action details.; Step 5. Select "Go to a page view" action in the "Create Link" dialog box and click "Next" button.; Step 6. Navigate to a desired destination page and adjust document position and zoom level as required. Click "Set Link" button to set a current page view as destination for the link.
How to link to another file? ^↑overview: Step 1. Open a PDF document in Adobe® Acrobat® application. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu.; Step 2. The "Edit PDF" toolbar will appear. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Step 3. The pointer becomes a cross hair. Drag a rectangle where you want to create a link.; Step 4. Choose the link appearance options in the "Create Link" dialog box. Click "Next" button to specify the action details.; Step 5. Select "Open a file" action in the "Create Link" dialog box and click "Next" button.; Step 6. Select the destination file in "Select File to Open" dialog and click "Open" button. For PDF files, specify how the document should open (in a new or in an existing window), and then click "OK". Now the link is setup to open an external file.
How to link to a web page? ^↑overview: Step 1. Open a PDF document in Adobe® Acrobat® application. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu.; Step 2. The "Edit PDF" toolbar will appear. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Step 3. The pointer becomes a cross hair. Drag a rectangle where you want to create a link.; Step 4. Choose the link appearance options in the "Create Link" dialog box. Click "Next" button to specify the action details.; Step 5. Select "Open a web page" action in the "Create Link" dialog box and click "Next" button.; Step 6. Enter a URL (a web address) for this link and click "OK" button.
How to create a custom link? ^↑overview: Step 1. Open a PDF document in Adobe® Acrobat® application. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu.; Step 2. The "Edit PDF" toolbar will appear. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Step 3. The pointer becomes a cross hair. Drag a rectangle where you want to create a link.; Step 4. Choose the link appearance options in the "Create Link" dialog box. Click "Next" button to specify the action details.; Step 5. Select "Custom link" action in the "Create Link" dialog box and click "Next" button.; Step 6. Select the "Actions" tab in the "Link Properties" dialog box.; Step 7. Select a desired action from the "Select Action" menu.; Step 8. Press "Add" button. You will be prompted to specify the action parameters. For example, it can be a page view for "Go to a page view" action or a web address for "Open a web link" action.; Step 9. The newly added action will appear in the "Actions" box and click "OK" button.
How to link to a file attachment? ^↑overview: Step 1. Open a PDF document in Adobe® Acrobat® application. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu.; Step 2. The "Edit PDF" toolbar will appear. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Step 3. The pointer becomes a cross hair. Drag a rectangle where you want to create a link.; Step 4. Choose the link appearance options in the "Create Link" dialog box. Click "Next" button to specify the action details.; Step 5. Select "Go to a page view" action in the "Create Link" dialog box and click "Next" button.; Step 6. The "Create Go to View" dialog will appear. Select "View > Show/Hide > Navigation Panes > Attachments" from the main menu to open the Attachments panel or press the “Attachments” icon in the navigation pane.; Step 7. Select the attachment where the link needs to point to. Double click it to open the attachment.; Step 8. Navigate to the destination page in the attachment. Press "Set Link" button once done. Now the link points to the page in the PDF attachment.
How to change the appearance of a link? ^↑overview: Step 1. Select "Edit PDF" tool in Tools panle. Right click on a link and choose “Properties” from the popup menu.; Alternatively, choose the Selection tool in the main toolbar. Right click on the link and choose “Edit Link” from the popup menu.; Step 2. Change the appearance of a link in the "Appearance" tab. Select the "Locked" option if you want to prevent users from accidentally changing the link properties. Click "OK" once done.; Select a link type: visible or invisible rectangle. Select "Invisible Rectangle" if you don’t want users to see the link in the PDF. An invisible link is useful if the link is over an image. Note that the "Line Thickness", "Line Style" and "Color" options are not available if "Invisible Rectangle" is selected.; Select a highlight style: none, invert, outline or inset.; None: doesn’t change the appearance of the link.; Invert: changes the link’s color to its opposite.; Outline: changes the link’s outline color to its opposite.; Inset: creates the appearance of an embossed rectangle.; Select a line thickness: thin, medium or thick.; Select a line style: solid, dashed or underline.; Select a color for the link using the "Color" menu. The color is used only for drawing the link outline.
How to change color of the text covered by the link? ^↑overview: The links in PDF file format are just “hot spots” that can be placed anywhere on the page. Links are not associated with any text or image and are totally separate elements. This is the reason why Adobe Acrobat does not provide any standard tools for changing the color of the text that is covered by the link. However, it is possible to use AutoBookmark plug-in to set a color of the text that is covered by the links.; Step 1.Make sure the AutoBookmark plug-in is installed prior to using these steps. Select "Plug-ins > Links > Set Appearance..." from the menu.; Step 2. Press "Edit Appearance..." button in "Set Link Appearance" dialog.; Step 3. Check "Change underlying text color to" option and select a desired color from the pull-down menu. Press OK to close the dialog.; Step 4. Press OK button in "Set Link Appearance" dialog to start processing links. It is possible to process all links on all pages or only selected range of pages. The color of the text covered by links will be set to the selected color.
How to edit a link action? ^↑overview: Link action is an operation that is executed when a user click on the link. It can display a page view, open a file or a web page. It is possible to modify the link action by editing its properties.; Step 1. Open "Edit PDF" tool and right click on a link. Choose “Properties” from the popup menu.; Alternatively, choose the Selection tool in the main toolbar. Right click on the link and choose “Edit Link” from the popup menu.; Step 2. Select the "Actions" tab in the "Link Properties" dialog box.; Step 3. Select an existing action in the "Actions" box and press "Delete" button to remove it.; Step 4. Click the "Select Action" menu and choose a new action.; Step 5. Press "Add" button to specify the action parameters. See the previous topics for details on how to setup various kinds of links.; Step 6. The newly added action will appear in the "Actions" box. Click "OK" button to finish editing the action.
How to delete a link? ^↑overview: Choose the Selection tool in the main toolbar. Right click on the link and choose “Delete Link” from the popup menu. Alternatively, select the link and press the Delete key.
How to move or resize a link rectangle? ^↑overview: Open Tools panel and select "Edit PDF" tool. Press the "Link" icon. Select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Move the pointer over the link box to select it. Drag link box to move it to a new location.; Use "handles" to resize the link rectangle. Drag any corner point to adjust the link size.; If it is necessary to adjust link placement and/or size automatically for multiple links at once, then use AutoBookmar plug-in.
How to arrange links on the page? ^↑overview: Sometimes, it is necessary to align links on the page relatively to each other and/or make them of the same size.; Select two or more links that you want to align. You can select multiple links by holding the "Ctrl" key and clicking on links boxes.; Right click the link to which you want to align the other links. Choose Align, Distribute or Center, and then choose one of the following options:; To align a column of links, choose Align Left, Right, or Vertical. The links will be aligned respectively on the left or right edge, or will be cenetered at vertical axis.; To align a row of links, choose Align Top, Bottom, or Horizontally. The links will be aligned respectively on the top or bottom edge, or at centered at horizontal axis.; To center the links, choose Center Vertically, Horizontally, or Both.; In the following example, the group of links has been aligned to the left edge of the anchor link.; Right click the link to which you want to size the other links. Select "Size" and choose one of the following: Height (adjusts the heights without changing the widths), Width (adjusts the widths without changing the heights), or Both (adjust all widths and heights to match).; In the following example, the group of links has been set to the same width based on the top link.
How to cut/copy and paste links? ^↑overview: Use Copy/Paste functionality to place multiple links with identical properties. Select "View > Tools > Edit PDF > Open" from the Adobe® Acrobat® main menu or select "Edit PDF" tool in Tools panel.; Press the "Link" icon in "Edit PDF" toolbar and select “Add/Edit Web or Document Link”.; Right click on the link and choose “Edit”. Select “Cut” or “Copy”. Alternatively, select the link and press "Ctrl+X" (cut) or "Ctrl+C" (copy) keys.; Press "Ctrl+V" keys to paste link. Alternatively, right click on any other link and choose “Edit”. Select “Paste” and the copied link will appear on the screen. Drag it to place precisely.
How to pin the "Link" icon to the Quick Tools menu? ^↑overview: Hold left mouse button on the “Link” icon. Drag it to the Quick Tools menu panel and release.; Now the "Link" icon is pinned to the Quick Tools menu. Use the same approach with any toolbar icon.