How to Create External Links in PDFs with Adobe Acrobat

[@erinwrightwriting]

The corresponding blog post for this tutorial is at erinwrightwriting.com/how-to-create-external-links-in-pdfs-with-adobe-acrobat/. Thank you for watching!

[@yousafraza2890]

Bless

[@acesarich8651]

Very clear, helpful and concise presentation. Well done!

[@erinwrightwriting]

I appreciate your positive feedback. Thank you for watching!

[@rohitrawat8383]

How will the added link open in new tab. If the pdf is open in browser.

[@MarisaShadrick]

Easy and fast tutorial--better than Adobe. Well done! (...and I don't usually comment) Thank you.

[@erinwrightwriting]

That's such a nice comment. Thank you for watching!

[@gretafuller2806]

Thank you Erin it was the best!!

[@pashaveres4629]

Thanks, that was great! Have struggled with this on my own for so long - that I had to break down and search for an answer. ;) Will check out your other vids.

[@erinwrightwriting]

I'm glad you found the answer you were searching for! Thank you for watching!

[@slee5666]

Wow such a great communicator. I really don't like adobe, but thanks to you, it's finally useful.

[@erinwrightwriting]

I appreciate your kind words! Thank you for watching!

[@vericapetkovic8799]

Thanks, your explanation was the best!

[@erinwrightwriting]

I appreciate your kind words. Thank you for watching!

[@michellelindemann9946]

Thank you, very helpful, I appreciate it x

[@erinwrightwriting]

I'm glad to hear that it was helpful. Thank you for watching!

[@timmontgomery1196]

This is exactly what I was looking for - way better than adobe help!

[@erinwrightwriting]

I'm so happy to hear that. Thank you for watching!

[@chasekdesign9822]

Thank you! This was helpful

[@erinwrightwriting]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching!

[@Think1stMedia]

Excellent Video. I have the Adobe Cloud Suite and have a lot to learn.

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@Trikytee]

Thanks alot

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@dipspujare2863]

thank you

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@shwetaahuja7417]

Super! Thanks a ton.

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@stebbbii000]

Thank you ! Is it possible for those links to open in new tabs when the PDF is viewed in a browser? I mean the browser tabs.

[@erinwrightwriting]

Great question! Outside of HTML code, browser settings generally determine how links are opened. However, I do have a separate tutorial showing how to set tab behavior within Acrobat and Reader: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp2Qd6WPoMqFgdU. Thank you for watching!

[@yugvirparhar1021]

Hi there, Im trying to open an external link in a new tab -- how would I do that?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you so much for watching! I have a separate tutorial about how to open links in separate tabs in Acrobat and Reader: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zp2Qd6WPoMqFgdU.

[@andromedanwildflower3383]

Thank you!

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@yousafraza2890]

thanks x

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@sax4passion]

How add an auto dialer in PDF. I e. If you click it should take you to the open dialer or dial automatically.

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! You should be able to add the phone dialer by entering tel:[phone] (enter your phone number instead of 7205555555) in the Edit URL dialog box instead of a URL. Ensure you don't have a space between tel: and the number. Best of luck!

[@sax4passion]

@@erinwrightwriting Thank you for your response. I tried that but it doesn't redirect to the mobile phone dialer.

[@erinwrightwriting]

@@sax4passion I'm sorry to hear that. Sadly, that's all the info I have about phone dialers. I do hope you find a solution. Thanks again for watching my video!

[@kaylamccormick53]

This is great! Might you know why a link isn't able to be clicked on a mobile device?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching! Unfortunately, I don't have any information about why the links work on some mobile devices but not others. It seems to be a known issue, so hopefully Adobe will address it in the future. (Fingers crossed!)

[@valentinaturner3991]

Достойный инвест проект. будем работать

[@naginaa3605]

Thank you

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@domdomlee7]

thanks so much

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@poliled-automovilismoconfr4465]

I have added some youtube links at the end of my PDF, but some phones cannot open them, while other phone can. do you have a solution for that ?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching! Unfortunately, I don't have a solution for that problem. I have seen a past article on the Adobe support website acknowledging that links created in Acrobat don't always work across all platforms, so hopefully they will offer a solution in the future.

[@fawziahamad3094]

Thanks a lot....

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching!

[@joekay7978]

Hi Erin, Thank you for your email, really appreciated. You video is describing an external link, but don’t think is what I need help with. My issue is that I have the other PDF files attached, but I want to put a shortcut to the attached file on the main body of the PDF document I want to send. The attachments are not shown in the main PDF file, they are shown when someone clicks on the shortcut to that attached other PDF file. I know it is probably very easy, but I cannot find the solutions. Many thanks for your help. Kind regards Joe

[@johnhertel7874]

Great tutorial. Now . . . Once you click the linked section and are taken to the part of the .pdf document it was linked to, is there an easy way to go back to the place in the document where the link was . . . without having to scroll back to it? It would be similar to when you have completed setting up the link -- it takes you back to the section you established the link on. thanks,

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! If you select View > Page Navigation > Previous View, you should return to your original location, if you are navigating within the same PDF. The keyboard shortcut is Alt + Left arrow.

[@stevenkmckendallsr1169]

Can you do a video on creating custom popup tooltips, for segments of specific / selected text (with hover over effect), within a PDF, and controlling where the tooltip pops up (i.e., relative to trigger field / button location), using Adobe Acrobat Pro ? ?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for the great suggestion! I will definitely add it to my list of future tutorials.

[@stevenkmckendallsr1169]

​@@erinwrightwriting Your very welcome, and thank you, for your encouraging reply. I will absolutely be looking forward to your video on this, with great anticipation, as no one seems to have created one in this respect, yet, and it would be a great help. Would there be any way to get an advisory and link to that video, via this thread, once you've created and made it available ? That would be TREMENDOUSLY appreciated. Thanks so much, again :)

[@erinwrightwriting]

@@stevenkmckendallsr1169 I made a note in my upload calendar to let you know here on this thread as soon as it is available. 🙂 Right now, it is scheduled for late August; however, it will be a shorter video, so I may be able to squeeze it in earlier as a bonus video outside of my weekly upload. Either way, I will let you know.

[@stevenkmckendallsr1169]

@@erinwrightwriting Awesome. "Thank you, so much !" 🙂

[@erinwrightwriting]

Hi Steven, just wanted to let you know that I am publishing a tutorial about tooltips in Acrobat tomorrow morning (8/16/21). It covers the basics (creating tooltips in forms and buttons), but I haven't forgotten your suggestions for the more advanced topics. 🙂

[@sering4]

i have the issue where i can click on links to files inside the pdf but others are unable.

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching! I am sorry to hear that your readers are having trouble opening the links. Several settings for opening the links are stored in the readers' software rather than in the PDF, so you may not be able to fix it for them. One setting you can check on your end is Edit > Preferences > General. From there, ensure that "Make links from URLs" is selected. Best of luck!

[@tahabostanc375]

Hello Erin ...I want to viev a website or a specific data (metrics) on a pdf like a pop up or anyway... For example when ı move my mouse on link ,ı want it to show me your likes under video or just webpage which ı have website link,embedded code,java script code can be used on websites.Is there a way to do it? ı just do not want to click it to open it which is useful for my document...Sorry if ı can not explain my issue clearly...I want to add metrics (about citation with PlumX metrics) from Sciencedirect to my sources that ı add to my document.Thank You

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! I'm afraid I don't have a solution to your issue, although having the type of pop-up you describe does sound useful. You may want to contact Adobe directly. Best of luck!

[@mariad33]

Do you just save this like normal then too?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Yes, after creating your external links, you should save the PDF as you normally would. Thank you for watching!

[@mariad33]

@@erinwrightwriting ty so much for resource!

[@teamtruth]

How do you link to files on a USB? (from any computer) I can set up the links and they work, until the USB / Flash drive is plugged into another computer. Help, anyone?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! Linking to a USB flash drive is very difficult because the file path will link to the USB port rather than the flash drive itself; this is a problem because the ports won't be named the same across different computers. If possible, you may want to upload your external file to cloud storage instead of a flash drive. Best of luck!

[@mariaparrick4267]

In a PDF can you link more than one link to the same number?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! I'm afraid I'm a bit confused about your question. What kind of number are you linking to?

[@marianhabib2010]

what if i need to add a link for another pdf document ?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video! If the other PDF is stored in a shared server with your audience, you can choose "Open a File" from the Link Action section in the Create Link dialog box. If you would like to attach the other PDF to your main PDF, please see my video "How to Create In-Text Links to Attached PDFs in Adobe Acrobat" (kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4SYqmadpJhpe6M) for complete instructions. Best of luck!

[@ahmedjubayer2429]

how can I insert this link in excel file?

[@erinwrightwriting]

Thank you for watching my video. I don't think it's possible to reuse a link within a PDF in an Excel file. However, if you want to link to an Excel file stored in a location accessible to your readers (e.g., cloud storage, etc.), you can choose "Open a file," "Open a web page" or "Custom link," (depending on the situation) from the Create Link dialog box. Best of luck!

[@juliecase6029]

How do I create a link and then password protect it in pdf? thanks

[@erinwrightwriting]

I'm not aware of a way to password protect a link itself. However, if you are linking to another PDF, you can set up a password protection on the target PDF (as shown in my other video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHLHfICkbryMqs0) and then create the link after you have set up the password. Best of luck!

[@juliecase6029]

Thank you for getting back to me and so quickly too. xx