The Pitfalls of Editing InDesign Hyperlink Destination Names

Today I was working on updating a old document with my email address in it. I decided to create a hyperlink from my email address. In the Hyperlink Panel, I chose: New Hyperlink From URL. Pretty simple so far.

Bu then I remembered that I needed the link should have a "mailto:" at the front of it. So I double click on my email link then click on my email address next to Destination Name. Then I choose "email." That should do the trick. 

So now I have my email address set up, the destination says it is set to my address, it all looks good.

But then I hovered over my hyperlink. And guess what I saw? My old email address from 3 years ago! What?!

It turns out that the URL referenced in the Edit Hyperlink dialog box isn't updated until you close the dialog box. I doubled click on the hyperlink to investigate, and this is what I saw:

You see, a few years ago when I originally set up this document, I didn't like the name that InDesign gave to my hyperlink destination. It was full of code and was unattractive looking. I wanted something cleaner looking, and shorter. So I went in and edited the ugly name of the hyperlink destination to something more attractive. Doesn't the short pretty name (email) look much nicer? 

Ugly Hyperlink Destination Name

Pretty Hyperlink Destination Name

Now, fast forward three years, to today. I had completely forgotten about having edited the name of this hyperlink destination. But when I chose to use the old named hyperlink destination "email," I unknowingly created a link to the incorrect email address.

The moral of the story is to never trust named Hyperlink Destinations. You need to double check to see that they reference the correct URL.

By the way, if you know of a way to take a a screen shot while still showing tooltips, please leave a note in the comments. Once again, I had to take a picture of my screen using my iPhone. Thanks!

How To Remove Reader Enablement in Acrobat

Today I am filling out a W-9 form. The IRS usually does a pretty good job making their forms fillable. I was successfully inputting my data and got about halfway down the page, when I came to the signature line.

I couldn't sign it.

Normally,when a form is properly setup, the signature field looks like this. See the little red "Sign Here" arrow?

With most PDFs, when I need to sign a document and there is no signature field, I can just make one. But with this PDF, that option is grayed out.

So I did a little research online and it turns out that this document had Reader Usage Rights enabled. Which is great for most people, because they can fill out the form on their computer, then print it and scan it back in.

But, I am not most people. I will go out of my way for an hour (or more) to avoid printing out a form and filling it out by hand. My husband asked me this morning, "Wouldn't it just be easier to fill out that form by hand?" To which I replied, "But Honey, what would blog about if I did that?"

So I tried following the instructions for removing the Reader Usage Rights. According the the dialog box, and several very popular forums, all I had to do was Save a Copy. Easy!

But despite three attempts at saving a copy of this file, I still couldn't make a signature field. So I decided to try a workaround. If you've read my other posts about Acrobat, you may know that it doesn't always do what I need it to do. And I have found a great solution for making PDFs...more accessible. ;)

That solution is Mac Preview. It's the free little application that comes on every mac (sorry Windows users), and is the default image viewer on a mac. Of course, as graphic designers, the first thing we do is change the default image viewer to Photoshop, and leave poor Preview to collect dust in the back of the Applications folder. But bring it out and have some fun! You'd be surprised what it can do. Check out my other articles about Mac Preview.

So I opened the file in Preview, saved a copy, and then reopened the file in Acrobat. And now I could make a signature field!

Using Mac Preview as a Workaround when Acrobat Pro Won't Open a PDF File

I recently had a problem file that was submitted to me by a client. When I tried to place the PDF into InDesign, I got the following error message: "Failed to open the PDF file."

So I decided to try to open the file in Acrobat to investigate what might be wrong. But instead Acrobat opening the file, I got the following message: "There was an error opening this document. The file is damaged and could not be repaired."

I decided to try an alternative to Acrobat. For certain tasks, I like to use Apple's Preview software. So just out of curiosity, I wanted to see if Preview would save the day for me as it has on several other occasions. So, I opened the same file in Preview and it opened without any problem whatsoever. I saved it with a different name and then imported the file into InDesign.

Out of curiosity, I checked out the file in Acrobat. All the fonts were embedded properly, and everything checked out properly from a prepress-standpoint.

I'm not sure what the problem was, but it sure is good to know that I have a workaround to rescue problematic PDF files when they don't want to open.

An Easier Way to Open Web-based PDFs from Safari

In the past, I struggled with how to easily work with PDFs from Safari. I used to save the PDF to my desktop, then launch Acrobat, and then open the PDF in Acrobat. I wanted to find an easier way. Here are some of the ways I use web-based PDFs on an everyday basis.

• Filling in PDF form fields and saving the completed document...with completed form fields intact
• Saving PDFs that are loaded as part of a web archive
• Properly viewing PDFs that I know have interactive features such as buttons and rollovers
• Because I'm curious, I want to see the Document Properties of the PDF (who made it, if there are any keywords applied, if it has embedded fonts, and most importantly, if it was created by a respectable software).

To demonstrate how to more easily work with PDFs, we'll go through the task of downloading some PDF bank statements from online banking.

I've got twelve different PDFs that I need to download, so I need to find a way to make the process easy. And it should be easy, right? PDFs make everything better, don't they?

So, I've got my first PDF loaded, and I try to save it. But it is saving as something called a .webarchive. A what? I don't know what a .webarchive is, nor what types of files it could contain. So I want to stay away from this mystery file type. 

I know my bank statement is a PDF, so I just need to find the best way to save it as a PDF. In Safari, when you are viewing a PDF, if you hover near the bottom of the PDF, you'll get a little pop-up that allows you to save the PDF to your download folder.

Unless you've changed the default setting in Safari preferences, the files will automatically download into your Downloads folder.

So saving to the downloads folder seems like a pretty good solution. So one by one, I save the PDFs to my Downloads folder. But then I take a look at the file names and they are very cryptic and need to be changed.

So I went back and looked at the other buttons that show up at the bottom of a PDF viewed in Safari. The button on the far right is "Open PDF in Preview." I love Preview and use it every day for certain purposes, but it's not my first choice when I want to view the metadata of a PDF. (To see what I use Preview for, read my blog article about it. Also see the Design Geek article on the same subject.) 

So I know how to open a PDF in Preview with 1-click, but what I really want is to be able to open a PDF in Acrobat Pro with 1-click.

And a few weeks ago, I found it! While viewing a PDF in Safari, right click and then choose "Open with Acrobat Pro."

Ahhhh...that's better. Now I can open my PDFs is Acrobat, and easily save them wherever I want, with whatever file name I want. 

I want to mention that this article is based on using Acrobat Pro 9, on a Mac. I've heard Acrobat X is totally amazing, and I look forward to using it, but currently, there is no Mac trial available (and I don't like to buy software without first testing it out for a few weeks). Bummer.