Adobe Acrobat Professional

You can make your PDF document more interactive and easy to navigate by adding clickable links within it. For example, if you reference a resource to back up one of your claims, a clickable link to the site that contains the data will allow your viewer to quickly verify the information, then continue reading. You can create PDF word links either directly in Adobe Acrobat Professional or by adding the links to your document in a word processing program like Microsoft Word, then converting it to PDF format.

Adding Links in Acrobat

1. Step 1

   Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.

2. Step 2

   Choose the “Link Tool” button from the Acrobat main menu (“Tools” then “Link”). This might also appear as a chain link on a toolbar underneath the main menu.

3. Step 3

   Draw a box around the text you want to make into a link using the link tool. Simply click and drag the cursor so that a box forms around the words.

4. Step 4

   Select “Word Wide Web Link” from the “Action” drop down list. Type in the URL where you want the user to visit when he clicks the link.

5. Step 5

   Click “Set Link” to confirm the link. Repeat this action for all of the text in your PDF document and then save it. Each link will open in its own separate browser when clicked.

Adding Links in Microsoft Word

6. Step 1

   Compose your document in Microsoft Word as you would normally. You must have both Word and Acrobat 5.0 Professional or later installed on your system, with an “Acrobat” tab displayed on your Word toolbar (it is added there when you install Acrobat to your computer).

7. Step 2

   Use your cursor to select the text you want highlighted with a link. Click “Insert” then “Hyperlink” on the Word main menu (this may appear as an icon that looks like a Globe with a link at the bottom). A dialog box appears.

8. Step 3

   Type the full URL address where you want the user to visit when he clicks the link into the “Address” section of the dialog box.

9. Step 4

   Click “Target Frame.” Click the drop down list to select how you want the link to appear–in its own new window or the same window. Click “OK” twice to set the link. It will appear underlined in blue or another color.

10. Step 5

    Save the Word file.Click “Create PDF” on the “Acrobat” tab to convert the file to PDF format. Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat or Reader and test the links to assure they are clickable.