Any help with problem with links in PDF created from Excel file??

As part of some work during the last few months for a thread I'm preparing to post on ATS about connections between ufology and documents released by the CIA on remote viewing studies, I've put together a large PDF archive (over 3Gb of searchable PDF files) and a fairly large index (over 1,000 pages long - developing indexes originally prepared by the CIA).

I've nearly finished preparing the relevant thread and have already uploaded an Excel version of the index to the link below:
www.isaackoi.com...

I've also uploaded a copy of that index to a Google Sheets page:
docs.google.com...

I'd like to include a PDF version of the index as part of the archive I'll be sharing.

Unfortunately, I have had some problems creating a PDF version of the Excel spreadsheet which has working links.

From my searches so far online, it seems that this is a known problem with using the HYPERLINK function in Excel - see e.g. :
www.mrexcel.com...

The existing links in the Excel spreadsheet:
(1) combine quite a few fields to get the URL,
(2) display just one field of those fields for the name.

I've tried using a Macro to convert some fields to links which are preserved when exporting to a PDF, and can easily get working links if I just use the full (long) URL in one column - but I've not managed to get working links AND retain the shorter name (with the full URL remaining undisplayed).

Here's a screenshot of the index that I'd like to retain:


A sample full URL is:
www.isaackoi.com...

I'm getting a bit frustrated with this problem since I want to finish writing the relevant thread.



I'm thinking about writing a macro in Excel (not my strong suit...) which will create a field displaying the text from one field while creating a hyperlink which combines all the relevant fields - i.e. duplicating the HYPERLINK function in Excel, which may or may not avoid the problem that exists when exporting to a PDF fields containing the HYPERLINK function.

Any ideas??

originally posted by: IsaacKoi
The existing links in the Excel spreadsheet:
(1) combine quite a few fields to get the URL,
(2) display just one field of those fields for the name.

Hello Isaac,
Just drop (2) i.e. remove the 2nd parameter of the HYPERLINK function and your links are going to work perfectly well in PDF.

originally posted by: nablator

originally posted by: IsaacKoi
The existing links in the Excel spreadsheet:
(1) combine quite a few fields to get the URL,
(2) display just one field of those fields for the name.

Hello Isaac,
Just drop (2) i.e. remove the 2nd parameter of the HYPERLINK function and your links are going to work perfectly well in PDF.

Thanks for your response Nablator.

Mmm, but doesn't dropping (2) then mean I'm stuck with displaying the really long URL (including isaackoi.com/documents/stargate etc) in the first column rather than just the document reference number?

As I mentioned above, I can "easily get working links if I just use the full (long) URL in one column - but I've not managed to get working links AND retain the shorter name (with the full URL remaining undisplayed)".

See your messages.

Why not use tinyurl and shorten all the long links to short ones? PDF problems will appear on IPAD's often as there is a known problem with them. I have to use FLATTEN so these users can read contracts on IPADs that are PDF. It is an issue with their reader. So, I don't know what is going to happen with that for mobile users. I know it would be a lot of work changing them to tinyurl.com links, but you may want to try the pdf on an ipad just to see if there are other problems. Good Luck!

originally posted by: ArMaP
See your messages.

ArMaP has kindly solved the problem that was irritating me. :

(His solution was to write a macro which creates links that can be exported to PDFs (unlike the links created by Excel's HYPERLINK function).

Many thanks to everyone that took the time to look at this problem.

Onwards and upwards...

I'm glad I could help in your great work for Ufology.