Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

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David.P
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Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Hi forum & Tracker team,

I thought this has been covered somewhere already, but can't find it on the forum.

If I create a hyperlink with the link tool and then afterwards highlight the same text with the highlighter tool, I can't click the link anymore in PDF-XChange Editor, unless I manually change the layer order of link and highlight.

However, in different other PDF readers, the link is clickable without problem.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks
David.P
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Peter2 »

I don't know exactly, but something with "Preferences - Annotations - exclusive mode"?? (Einstellungen - Anmerkungen Exklusiver Modus)?

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

"Preferences - Annotations - exclusive mode" doesn't seem to exist. Toggling "Exclusive Mode" via the respective toolbar button doesn't change the described behavior.
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Peter2 »

Have you used "Shift+Click"?
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Yep, but doesn't work.
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

This is probably a rendering issue in the actual version 5.5.313.1 of PDF-XChange Editor that must be resolved.
Hyperlinks should get priority over Comments.

Years ago, there was a similar issue with PDF-XChange Viewer:
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... ink#p21263

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi guys,

I've reproduced this here and have created an internal Dev. ticket to track progress (RT-3138).

Thanks for your patience!
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

That is great Will, thank you.
Cheers
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

:D
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Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hi Will,

To me it seems like this issue has been resolved (or in either case it is working now) in version 5.5.314.0 of PDF-XChange Editor.

Can you please confirm ?

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Willy,

The ticket was still open, so I hadn't received any notification. I've tested and it all seems to work fine now. I've closed the ticket, but if anyone still has the problem, let me know and I will re-open.

Cheers,
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Hi forum & Tracker team,

thanks for working on this issue, which indeed seems to be resolved, with regard to the highlights that made an underlying hyperlink un-clickable.

There is however a side effect now: it is much harder to actually select an existing highlight, no matter if the Hand tool, the Select Text tool or the Highlighter tool are used.

It seems that for selecting an existing highlight (e.g. for changing its color, or for deleting it), most of the time you have to hover around over the highlight for some time, until the little triangle mouse pointer appears. This can be quite hard/take some time, and therefore has made working with highlights more difficult than it was before.

Maybe the developers can look into the issue once more, and check whether highlight selection can be made easier/more stable again.

One possibility that I see would be to instantly change the current mouse tool to the triangle mouse pointer when hovering a highlight, no matter where inside the highlight, in order to instantly be able to select the highlight.

If on the other hand it should be necessary to actually use the selected tool (e.g. the Select Text tool or the Highlighter tool) INSIDE an existing highlight, this could be manifested by hovering over the highlight for like 1-2 seconds. Only then, the triangle mouse pointer should change to the currently selected tool (e.g. Select Text tool or Highlighter tool).

This way, we could have the best of both worlds, i.e. quick and easy highlight selection on the one hand, and ability to select text also INSIDE highlights if necessary, on the other hand.

Thank you
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi David,

Thanks for the post - I'm not having any issue here, at all. The highlight selects perfectly normally for me and I don't have to wait, at all. Can you please try the attached sample and see if you see the same thing with that?
David.P Test.pdf
(6.77 KiB) Downloaded 104 times
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Thank you Will -- yes, I have difficulties to select any of those two highlights, either with the Hand tool, or with the Text Selection tool.

No matter what zoom view ratio I choose, the cursor keeps changing between the selected tool (Hand or Text Selection, which do not allow highlight selection) and the little triangle tool (which is needed to actually select the highlight), all the time.

The mouse must be positioned very carefully, slowly and exactly in order to be able to select one of the highlights.

While this is understandable for the second highlight (with the link underneath), where you usually will want to hit the link and not select the highlight, it is inconvenient for the first highlight.

Cheers
David
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

David, at my opinion you are testing with version 5.5.314.0 (to check via Help > About).

Myself, I am testing with the latest version 5.5.315.0, and I am just seeing the opposite behavior.
When I hover the mouse over the highlighted text, it is only possible to select the Highlight comment.
It is not possible to reach the hyperlink (the one on the second line).
Only after removing the highlight, it is possible to click the hyperlink.

I think it should be more logic that comments should only be select-able and edit-able when "Edit Comments" is active.
Except, when you select them via the Comments-pane. So, the hyperlinks would not be disturbed by overlaying comments.
And, also in that way, it should be working similar to the "Edit Content" function, where you can only edit the text when this function is active.
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Willy Van Nuffel wrote:David, at my opinion you are testing with version 5.5.314.0 (to check via Help > About).
Whoa Willy -- that's correct. I'll download the latest version ASAP.

However what you are saying:
Willy Van Nuffel wrote:Only after removing the highlight, it is possible to click the hyperlink.
...sounds worrying, because this was the problematic behavior that was supposed to be resolved in the meantime!
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

OK so now I tested it with build 315. Indeed there is no difficulty anymore with selecting the highlight.

However strangely, as Willy also said, now we are back where we started, in that any highlighting that is made after a link is created, makes the link un-clickable again.

Only if the link is created later than the highlight, it can be clicked afterwards.

:?: :?: :?:

So it seems that this issue starts again from post #1, because the exact same problem has turned up again :oops:
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

That is an interesting finding that there is a comments-layer and also a hyperlink-layer.
By right clicking on one of these layers, you can change the 'Order' (Bring To Front, Send To Back, ...).
And indeed, when the hyperlink-layer has been brought to the 'Front' then it is correctly working.

When trying the same PDF in Adobe Reader XI, it does not matter whether the hyperlink layer is in Front or at Back.
It works in both ways. So, the solution must come by the correct interpretation of the two (or more) layers.

A third attempt to resolve the problem should be the good one ?
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi guys,
When I hover the mouse over the highlighted text, it is only possible to select the Highlight comment.
It is not possible to reach the hyperlink (the one on the second line).
Only after removing the highlight, it is possible to click the hyperlink.
However strangely, as Willy also said, now we are back where we started, in that any highlighting that is made after a link is created, makes the link un-clickable again.
I hadn't noticed that until you had pointed it out. I've re-opened the original ticket (RT-3138) and have informed the Dev. Team of the issue.

Sorry for inconvenience guys, hopefully the 3rd time is the charm, as Willy said.
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Thank you.

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Willy Van Nuffel wrote:That is an interesting finding that there is a comments-layer and also a hyperlink-layer.
By right clicking on one of these layers, you can change the 'Order' (Bring To Front, Send To Back, ...).
And indeed, when the hyperlink-layer has been brought to the 'Front' then it is correctly working.
I guess that comments and hyperlinks basically are both in the same category of "not-base-content". As such, they can overlap, each being in its own different layer, just as in a drawing program.
Will - Tracker Supp wrote:I hadn't noticed that until you had pointed it out. I've re-opened the original ticket (RT-3138) and have informed the Dev. Team of the issue.

Sorry for inconvenience guys, hopefully the 3rd time is the charm, as Willy said.
As always, thanks very much for the great support!

Cheers
David
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

You're more than welcome David :)

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 12:24 pm
Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable
Willy Van Nuffel wrote:
That is an interesting finding that there is a comments-layer and also a hyperlink-layer.
By right clicking on one of these layers, you can change the 'Order' (Bring To Front, Send To Back, ...).
And indeed, when the hyperlink-layer has been brought to the 'Front' then it is correctly working.

I guess that comments and hyperlinks basically are both in the same category of "not-base-content". As such, they can overlap, each being in its own different layer, just as in a drawing program.
An explanation on Links Vs. Highlights maybe necessary to explain this:

Highlights made by the Highlighter Tool are a type of annotation, just as mark-ups made by the Circle Tool, Arrow Tool, Sticky Note Tool, etc. all are. Essentially, these are all just different types within the same category of annotation. Links, however, are a bit different.

You may or may not be aware that, in a PDF, there is no such thing as a true Hyperlink, as links cannot be embedded within text, in the PDF format, as they can be in i.e. a Word document. Given this, it was necessary to create a special type of annotation to accommodate this feature. Links in PDF's are neither an annotation, nor not annotation, they're really their own thing. This is why they cannot be selected or edited with the Edit Comments Tool.

You're right, in a sense, in that annotations and links both belong to a 'Not Base Content' category, but strictly speaking they're also quite different.

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Thank you for the technical explanation, Will!

In this regard, what is also interesting is that a link almost exactly behaves like any graphics element (when the Link creation tool is active). You can freely move the link around, clone it by holding Ctrl while dragging, and even change its width and height. Only rotation is not possible...

Image

Anyway, thank you again for both the best PDF software, and the best software support in the world :)

Regards
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi David,

In the PDF specification there is no provision for links to rotate. They can either be a rectangular object, or a quadriliteral.
If you want an irregularly shaped link - right click a rectangular one, click "convert to quadriliteral" and you can then move each of the corners independently - and make it look as if it was rotated.

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

Thanks Stefan!

Actually, I don't think that I will need to rotate links -- however the quadriliteral conversion is great stuff, for just in case :)

Cheers
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi David,

Glad I helped you learn something new! The Quadrilateral was a separate tool in the Viewer - but given how rare it's use is - having it in the drop down of the normal link tool is a better solution :)

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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by David.P »

:)
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Re: Highlighter makes hyperlink un-clickable

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

:D
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