Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Everything related to our flagship word processor.
Post Reply
johseb
Posts: 47
Joined: 2016-02-13 10:01:29

Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by johseb »

I searched the forum but didn't find an answer so here is my simple question.
I can easily create a link to a PDF file but I would like the file to open at a specific page; I tried to use #page=4 at the end of the Link destination without success.
Any suggestions? Is it even possible?
Thanks
Þorvarður
Posts: 410
Joined: 2012-12-19 05:02:52

Re: Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by Þorvarður »

Hello johseb,
and welcome to the Nisus forum!

There is a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is:

1. Open the PDF in your default PDF reader
2. Go to the page you want to be displayed when you open it, and
3. save the file.

That's all.

When you now click on the hyperlink in Nisus, it will launch your default PDF reader, which in turn will open the file on the page where you saved it.
johseb
Posts: 47
Joined: 2016-02-13 10:01:29

Re: Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by johseb »

Hi Þorvarður, thanks for your answer but that's not exactly a viable solution for a couple of reasons:
- I want to add two or more hyperlinks to the same PDF, each one pointing to a different page
- even with a single hyperlink, when you open the pdf using the link, read and scroll and then close, the next time you click the link the PDF will not open to the intended page.

I think the information relevant to the destination page should be somehow included in the hyperlink but I don't know how.
For people using DEVONthink, I'm looking for something along the lines of the internal URL scheme "x-devonthink-item://D513F74C-7344-4AD9-9E1B-E4A6B6E84D60?page=4" working with the default PDF viewer set on my machine.
I'm presently using Acrobat Pro XI to read and annotate my PDFs but I will accept suggestions for a different viewer if it will allow my desired workflow.
Þorvarður
Posts: 410
Joined: 2012-12-19 05:02:52

Re: Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by Þorvarður »

Hello johseb,

Thank you for the additional information. I understand now better what you want to do. I think your idea is an important step in a good workflow. Thank you for bringing this up here in the forum.
Unfortunately I don't know how to achieve this in Nisus. I hope someone else will chime in and help, if there is a solution to this problem.

P.S.
You can insert a Devonthink link into a Nisus document and open that link with one mouse-click in Nisus. The PDF will be opened in Devonthink and the correct page will be displayed.
I don't know if that appeals to you.

To do this, you would copy the link code in Devonthink, add "?page=44" to the code (or whatever page you want), and then execute the menu command Insert > Hyperlink > Add Link in Nisus.
User avatar
martin
Official Nisus Person
Posts: 5227
Joined: 2002-07-11 17:14:10
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:

Re: Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by martin »

I'm not sure this will be possible. It's going to rely entirely upon the destination application, ie: the app showing your PDF. On OSX the default PDF viewer is Apple's Preview.app, and I doubt it makes any accommodations for this kind of thing. Maybe something like Adobe Acrobat would provide this feature, but a quick web search didn't turn anything up, at least not for OSX.

If you do have an app that supports this kind of thing it would need to occur via a link parameter (ie: the URL's query string arguments). Basically you'd insert a link in Nisus Writer like:

Code: Select all

file:///path/to/my/file.pdf?page=6
Clicking such a link would pass the full URL to the destination application, which would pick up and use the provided page number. But this only works if the destination app has such a feature.

One additional complication is sandboxing. Nisus Writer still lets you edit and enter arbitrary URLs as above, but access to the destination file will likely be denied by the system (OSX). To establish proper access you should use the menu Insert > Hyperlink > Add Link to File which records and stores the proper sandbox authorization. That process doesn't allow you to enter arbitrary link parameters, like the hypothetical "page=6" parameter above.
johseb
Posts: 47
Joined: 2016-02-13 10:01:29

Re: Hyperlink to a specific page in a PDF file

Post by johseb »

Hi Martin,
that's exactly the situation I'm facing when trying to create such a link.
It seems it's not possible to obtain what I want; that's unfortunate.
Thanks anyway for your help.
Post Reply