PDF XChange Forum

Hi - anybody know how to use PDF XChange Editor to get the URL associated with hyperlink text in a PDF? This is not obvious to me. In nearly every editor I'm familiar with you can simply right-click on the hyperlink and there will be an option to copy the URL, or open the URL. Not the case for PDF XChange Editor. I have poked around and found no other way to do this. So how do I get this information?

Highly annoyed at this point being unable to perform this simple operation and then having to jump through hoops to post this question.

Hello ed.w,

Thank you for the post. Once a link has been set in the document and you wish to copy the text of the link, select the "Hand" tool then right-click the link. You will be given an option to "Copy Link Location". This will allow you to paste the text of the link where you need it.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Why isn't this available with the Select tool? While reading you need all the usual features (highlight, copy, select, find, annotate) and copy URL. It doesn't make sense at all to hide 'copy URL' as a feature of the Hand tool and having to switch between Hand and Select all the time.

Hello glocal,

With both the hand and "Select Text" tool - when you hover over a link - the cursor changes and becomes a hand that you can use to click on the link.
While the "Edit content" tool is selected however - you need to have access to all the base content of the page, and as such we have to stop offering the clickable link so that you can access all the other content, and e.g. change the e-mail for which a link is generated.

Regards,
Stefan

I don't see why the Select (not Edit) tool offers 'Copy text' and clickable links, but not 'Copy URL'. Adobe does it just fine. 'Select' is the obvious default tool for serious reading and annotating, and switching between tools for such a simple (and here very frequent) thing is a pain.

Hi glocal,

Please take a look at this document: The top link cannot be right clicked and copied in Adobe, because no link is actually placed in the document, it's just auto-generated on the fly and stored in memory.

The bottom link can be copied in Adobe, in the manner you're looking for. This is because this is an actual link that is placed and stored within the document.

In the PDF format, hyperlinks do not exist. Links are a special kind of annotation and are not attached to any other object (e.g. text), they are simply stored at a particular location, and done so in their own right, as with all objects in PDF's.

We could likely add an option to copy the URL for actual link objects and I'll see what can be done about this, but copying the URL of links generated on the fly is not possible because they don't actually exist, strictly speaking.

Thanks,

Thanks, Will. I know what you mean. If it is or is made clickable, the the application knows the URL and in both cases displays it in a tooltip. Then, it can obviosuly copy it too.

But I was referring to real URLs. It simply doesn't make sense not to offer at least to copy an actual URL, the way Adobe and any other application handling URLs do it. Or the way the Hand tool does it already actually.

HI glocal,

I agree with that completely - I'll put that forward for consideration.

Cheers,