incorrect Hyperlinks for URL with special character - _ ...

Anil Chadda · Post by **Anil Chadda** » Fri Oct 10 2003

While converting a document as a PDF with PDF Converter 2.09, if the URL has a dash in the domain name, then the conversion to hyperlink is incorrect.

For example, I tried:
http://e-wildbirds.com
http://www.e-spy-cameras.com
the converted pdf link was shortened to http://www.e

Has anyone faced similar issues, is there a workaround.
Is this issue open in 2.10e?

Joan · Post by **Joan** » Fri Oct 10 2003

Hello,

This is a limitation of the current version of the PDF Converter, the hyperlinks will be cut at a dash or if they are extended over multiple lines.

Thanks.

rushing · Post by **rushing** » Mon Oct 13 2003

I'm just curious. But could you use a non-breaking hyphen character in the displayed text and then use the normal one in the hyperlink itself?

I have used non-breaking spaces in hyperlinks created using PDF Converter.

Anil Chadda · Post by **Anil Chadda** » Tue Oct 14 2003

Joan,

Is this likely to be resolved in the next release of 2.10?

Anil

Joan · Post by **Joan** » Tue Oct 14 2003

Hi,

Anil, no this is not likely to be solved in the next release of 2.10, this is currently a limitation of the product.

Rushing, i am not sure I did get your question.

Have a nice day !

Anil Chadda · Post by **Anil Chadda** » Tue Oct 14 2003

Joan,

Thanks.
Please let us know as soon as the hyperlink with dash limitation is resolved.

rushing · Post by **rushing** » Tue Oct 14 2003

In the standard character set, there are special characters like a non-breaking space and a non-breaking hyphen.

They are used to indicate to programs like Word that you should not insert a line-break at this point in the line. No matter what, keep the words separated by these non-breaking characters together. It appears to me that PDF Creator is using a list of whitespace characters to determine where to break the hyperlink. Perhaps it is even using a library list of whitespace that it can't control. Typically, these libraries do not include the non-breaking characters as whitespace characters.

I had noticed a problem with the way hyperlinks were working for embedded images. The way I got it to work was to print non-breaking spaces over the image and hyperlink those. PDF Creator did allow a hyperlink on multiple non-breaking spaces.

Now, I do not know if the problem the first user described was in the way it was breaking the hyperlink on the displayed text or for the hyperlink itself. I also do not know if a URL that contained a hyphen in it would be reachable if you attempted to pull it up using a url that contained a non-breaking hyphen. I suspect that if you were using one of the newer unicode aware browsers that you would have a problem, but I do not know.

However, if the problem was only in the display side of things, I strongly suspect that using a non-breaking hyphen would work.

Anil Chadda · Post by **Anil Chadda** » Wed Oct 15 2003

Rushing,

Thanks for the inputs.

The issue can be simulated by:
1. Creating a Word document with the following two URLs:
http://e-wildbirds.com
http://www.e-spy-cameras.com

2. Convert the document to PDF, the hyperlink text is correctly displayed,
BUT the actual hyperlink link is shortened to http://www.e

rushing · Post by **rushing** » Wed Oct 15 2003

In Word, you can get a non-breaking hyphen by typing ctrl-shift-hyphen. (That is holding down both the ctrl and shift key and then typing the hyphen.)

I believe in Word, it is possible to make the displayed text different then the hyphen. If so, make the URL just as now, but use a ctrl-shift-hyphen when typing the visible URL. I'm pretty sure that will work.

If you can't make the URL different from the visible text in Word, you could try just typing the URL using the non-breaking hyphen, but I am not sure that the actual hyperlink will still work.

I've got the Developer version of PDF Converter, so I've never worked with the straight conversion like you are doing.

Anil Chadda · Post by **Anil Chadda** » Wed Oct 15 2003

Rushing,

We are also using a developer version of the PDF Converter
and have created Word, Excel, PowerPoint addins to convert
the various office documents to PDF.

As suggested tried out with non breaking dash, the appearance
is ok but Converter truncates the actual hyperlink URL as www.e

Joan · Post by **Joan** » Mon Dec 22 2003

Hello,

I just want to mention that we made further researches concerning hyperlinks that are cut after the dash or when they extend one line, this issue is due to the fact that some applications will split the hyperlink, after a dash or when it is longer than one line, when sending it to the printer, this is why in the output pdf file the hyperlink is cut.

The same hyperlink may work properly when printed from other applications.

I am posting this message for reference for users who search our forums.

Happy Holidays Everybody !