Acrobat 9 Portfolio feature

Links within a single document (to a page number or to an external URL) are preserved. Links between documents are not, but they can be recreated by hand once the portfolio is assembled.

That's not good. Too much work !
Can I write a script to go thru the links created by the PDF add-in ?
In other words, are the links still there, but just need to be updated ?

The links across members in a portfolio use the concept of page views rather than filenames, and so can't be easily scripted. Links created in the original files will still be there, but won't do anything as they'll be trying to open your original filenames from disk.

Ok. Then what would the linkage employ if one wanted to use Javascript ?
OpenDoc ?
LaunchURL ?
Is there a special script function for opening a PDF member in a portfolio ?

You might want to look at [url=http://blogs.adobe.com/formfeed/category/scripting]FormFeed blog - Data Sharing in Packages[/url]

Sorry, I found nothing of use at that blog.
All I am trying to determine is why it is so difficult to set hyperlinks within a portfolio.
I don't "get it".
IOW: I would have expected all existing links to simply work within the portfolio's PDF files as long as relative references were used.
Also, I'm assuming I could create a "folder" within the portfolio ?

Scroll down to the sections about data sharing in packages.

[url=http://blogs.adobe.com/formfeed/2010/07/shared_data_in_packages_part_1.php]Shared Data in Packages Part 1[/url]
[url=http://blogs.adobe.com/formfeed/2010/07/shared_data_in_packages_part_2.php]Shared Data in Packages Part 2[/url]

Links can be address specific or directory relative, but packages or portfolios of PDFs have neither of these addresses or file structure within the package.

No, No, NO. You don't understand. Those articles are about sharing DATA.
All I want to know is how to link various documents via hyperlink or bookmark within a PDF portfolio.
That's it.
It doesn't make any sense why this capability would be any different that the old pre-version 9 technique of linking external PDF's.

Remember, portfolios are a new feature in Acrobat 9, and so are still evolving. We appreciate suggestions from users, but you'll have to wait and see what happens in the future.

As in a PDF package, a [u]portfolio[/u] knows what files it contains, but each [u]member file[/u] does not know what else is in there. This is intentional, as you may not want two member files to be able to communicate - portfolios are often used to collate together documents from different sources, and if one of them starts poking about inside its neighbors, it might get access to sensitive information.

Linking Portfolio Files

The above is from Donna Baker's book "Acrobat 9 - 125 Essential Techniques".
This was a pathetic omission or oversight on Adobe's part. Can you imagine having to manually update 1000 hyperlinks that disappeared after you place the documents into a portfolio ?

What I want to know is: What is the Javascript code for a SetAction in a link to Goto a page view ?
I wonder if I could write a script that takes all of the comments in a PDF and converts them to hyperlink Goto Pageviews ? Possible ? In that manner, I could place the hyperlinks into Word as comments and they'll distill into the PDF as comments.

You can't script your links, because the destination is unknown to the member document in which it appears. As I said, only the [u]portfolio[/u] knows what's inside itself, and the links therefore have to be applied at the portfolio level (where you only have access to the UI Link tool). You could in theory write a C++ plugin that re-purposes links once the portfolio is built, but that's about it - there's no AcroJS method to replicate what the Link tool does, and to be blunt, writing one would be a huge amount of work given how few people would need more than the UI tool we have now.

For example you can rename files in a portfolio whenever you want, and update members with new copies - should Acrobat somehow understand how to track all those changes and rebuild every link that might be affected? What happens if a link points to a page that isn't there anymore? How about if the user opens a member file in an external window, or saves it as a separate file (as they can always do)? It's far more complex than just changing the string in a link's action property.

Sorry UVSAR, once again I disagree, and no one was thinking at the switch at Adobe when this came out.
Your points are valid regarding doc changes within a portfolio AFTER it has been built.
HOWEVER...What I am referring to is a function/feature/tool to re-purpose links to at least the DOCUMENT level after there is a MASS LOAD of linked documents to initiate a portfolio.

It's insane that all hyperlinks would need to be rebuilt manually after the load.

Have you looked at [url=http://joelgeraci.com/adobe/devjunkie/web/]Cusotmizing PDF Portfolio Layout Series] by Joel Geraci?

You will have to provide the necessary code.

And you have links within the PDFs and the end user brings the PDFs out of the package, they will have to recreate the exact directory structure and you will have had to make the links as relative links. And for this type of transfer, WinZip or PKZip would be a better transfer method if you include the needed path structure within the Zip file.

Hi
Its good (in some ways) to find that others have discovered the same problems as I. I did find that saving the Word 7 document to an XTM and then converting to PDF strengthen the links, however one link is still presenting a problem. When I open one of the linked Pdf documents from my main document it closes the portfolio. Not a problem when developing the portfolio at this stage but unless I can solve it I cannot distribute it to others.

I have also followed Donna Baker's #111 procedure but found that the link routed me to a preview page imploring that I download Adobe Reader or Acrobat. The only way that I found around that was through the procedure outlined in the above paragraph. I am about to embark on modifying an old portfolio - with some dread since there are hundred of links and I can already see that some are broken.

I must point out that I am not a technical person, just finding Acrobat very useful in my own line of work.

I had the same question and thanks that it is still under discussion.

Steps to create links in Package:

1. Create Package by selecting PDFs.
2. Open a PDF



3. Select "Link Tool"



4. Create or edit link



5. Make link action "Go to View"



6. Open PDF within Package and go to page within PDF



7. Click the "Set Action"



8. Repeat for next link



9. Save Package

You can add the PDFs to a Portfolio, then use the link tool to sent the links between the PDFs within the Portfolio and then save the Portfolio. See Linked Package for an example made with Version 8 Professional. Note the links will only work between PDFs.If one has a PDF open then Acrobat or Reader knows it can read a PDF but a non-PDF file will require a helper file to view or convert to a PDF and Acrobat or Reader will not know if a helper application is available.

It's important to understand what a PDF portfolio is, and why preserving links between member documents isn't permitted.

Structurally, a PDF portfolio (or a PDF package in previous versions) is simply a 1-page document with a load of attachments. This is why if you open one in Acrobat 7, you'll see precisely that. The "page" to which all the files are attached is the cover sheet - which explains why that's the thumbnail you see in Windows Explorer. This is intentional, so we can preserve backward-compatibility, but it means that linking to "the portfolio" from an external file will in effect send you to the cover sheet. As with any PDF containing attachments, the way to link to a specific page in a specific attachment is via the "go to page view" action, not the "open file" action. Portfolios look different, but they're following the same rules every other document does.

PDF attachments cannot see each other. The parent document can (subject to some limitations), but it's an important security rule that attachment A can't see or communicate directly with attachment B (hence the reason for the pass-via-parent workflow for exchanging data). Links follow the same rule: If you create a link at the portfolio level, you can see both ends and the link works. Links created within a member document can't see the destination - although both files are attached to the same cover sheet, as far as the files are concerned they are sitting in a folder all by themselves. The "other file" pointed to by the link isn't on your computer file system, so trying to navigate to it fails. It's rather like opening one file from a ZIP and expecting links to other files in the ZIP to magically work, even though you haven't extracted them yet.It's also important to remember that although a portfolio can have virtual folder structures within the Flash navigator, PDF attachments don't have folders. Instead, the arrangement displayed when you view a portfolio is stored as XML data - so if a file is linking to "myforms/2010/application.pdf" even if it was allowed to see the other documents, that destination folder wouldn't exist.


I do appreciate that re-linking a complex series of documents within a PDF portfolio can be tiresome, but that's the way it works - both in Acrobat 9 and Acrobat X.