Hyperlinks Not "Clickable" Using Printer Driver ...

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cfguy100
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Hyperlinks Not "Clickable" Using Printer Driver ...

Post by cfguy100 »

Hi Everyone,

I Love PDFXchange and PDFXchange Printer Driver - use printer driver often!!!

Problem I am having with PDFXchange Printer driver (I am using Driver Version 5.0, BTW) is that hyperlinks on printed documents are not always "clickable", despite my PDFXchange printer settings having all of the following options checked (as "active"): "Analyze URLs in Printed Text", "Detect Filenames and Convert to PDF Links" and also "Check Files Exist For Linking".

I often use Adobe Reader as my PDF viewer, and I have done all the troubleshooting to confirm that hyperlinks in PDF documents are actively allowed to be clicked (and user taken to specified web page), so I know that this is not the problem.

Additionally, when I want to print a PDF of a page/document in "Google Chrome", I will sometimes try using their built-in "Save as PDF" printer. When I do so, the same links that are not clickable when I use the PDFXchange Printer Driver (to save as PFD) *ARE* clickable when I use the Chrome built-in "Save as PDF" driver (I've done several comparisons using each print driver to print the exact same web page/document in "Chrome".

If someone would please offer me some suggestions on how to troubleshoot/fix this issue, I would really appreciate it, as I really love all of the options and flexibility that the PDFXchange Printer Driver has to offer (it is my absolute favorite, after having evaluated many PDF printer drivers).

Thanks so much for your help.
-Cfguy
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Hyperlinks Not "Clickable" Using Printer Driver ...

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Cfguy,

Thanks for the enquiry.
The printing drivers internal settings will be able to recognize only 'explicit' links - e.g. www.example.com , but will not be able to recohnize a "click here" one.
Those hidden links are not normally passed from the printing application to the printer - as when printing to paper this information is irrelevant, so when it is not sent to us - we can't create a link. When you use the "Save as PDF" internal tool of an application - it has much more control to the content, and is not limited in the same way as the printing drivers are.

We have a tool for IE that can convert whole web pages and preserve the links. Unfortunately Chrome (and lately Firefox and Opera) are not providing us with sufficient tools that will allow us to develop a similar plug-in for those browsers:
I cannot open PDFs in browser

Regards,
Stefan
cfguy100
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Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:32 pm

Re: Hyperlinks Not "Clickable" Using Printer Driver ...

Post by cfguy100 »

HI Stefan,

Thanks so much for your reply, and my apologies for such a long delay in getting back to you on this issue.

>>The printing drivers internal settings will be able to recognize only 'explicit' links - e.g. http://www.example.com , but will not be able to recognize a "click here" one.
>>Those hidden links are not normally passed from the printing application to the printer - as when printing to paper this information is irrelevant, so when it is not sent to us - we can't create a link. When you >>use the "Save as PDF" internal tool of an application - it has much more control to the content, and is not limited in the same way as the printing drivers are.
>>We have a tool for IE that can convert whole web pages and preserve the links. Unfortunately Chrome (and lately Firefox and Opera) are not providing us with sufficient tools that will allow us to develop a >>similar plug-in for those browsers:

This is a very frustrating situation, indeed.

Has your team there at Tracker brainstormed on some possible "workarounds" to this situation?

I know that in my own situation, I find myself relying less and less on what other people will choose to supply me with, and more and more on how I can take their current ("broken", or "less than ideal") situation and find a workaround or "hack" (and I say this in an "ethical way") that would allow me to take their imperfect (or "less than ideal") situation and try to find a solution to it that does not involve "them" (the people whose products or services that I am forced to deal with, but who are being less than cooperative or not very motivated to cooperate with me) and circumvent their cooperation completely (after all, their lack of cooperation, once asked, is their own choice, not mine) to find my own version of a solution- albeit many times less than ideal had "they" cooperated with me, when approached).

In fact, I oftentimes find that their lack of cooperation (or perhaps "perceived mistreatment of me" (by me)) motivates me all the more to be tenacious in working on my own to find a solution that does not even involve them. Of course I am talking about business psychology here, and I don't want you or anyone else to perceive me sharing my personal philosophy (and what motivates me to find solutions (if possible) in frustrating situations) as seeing myself as having a "superior" philosophy, or advocating unethical means of "hacking" or any other such shady techniques to accomplish such a goal, as I am not.

I just know this: I have tried almost every virtual PDF printing program I can manage to get my hands on (with the exception of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC - which I consider to be extremely "overpriced"), and your companies version completely outshines your competitors in terms of sophistication and configurability (in fact, your virtual PDF print driver is the "gold standard" that I personally use to compare any new such software to). So I am thinking that if there is a company that can be able to figure out how to recognize "non-explicit" PDF links in browser programs other than IE, I would think that it would be a company like Tracker that would be able to come up with a solution.

Furthermore, I can imagine what a "market edge" such a feature would further give Tracker's virtual PDF printer and line of PDF products if you were to find a solution to an issue such as this.

Just my $0.02, for what it is worth, and the lack of finding such a solution does not change my exceedingly high opinion of your software product, or company.

Thanks.
-Cfguy
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Hyperlinks Not "Clickable" Using Printer Driver ...

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

We do hope to sometime in the future find a workaround to allow this, but in the meantime the only workaround I have for you is to replace these links in the new document.

the convert function maintains more hyperlinks, and we are working towards having it maintain all of them. So if you have the Standard Printer, you could certainly use the Convert function in our Office Plugin and see if that suites your needs better.
Of course this will not work for non office doc's, but in those cases, you should see better results.
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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