[ARCHIVED] PDF hyperlinks not working when uploaded

[kshannon]

Is there anything that has to be done to a pdf to have it keep hyperlinks when uploaded to a course in Canvas?

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Kelly,

They should work.  Are you sure the links are active in the PDF file before you uploaded it to Canvas?  I just tested a few pdfs in my courses and the links in them work fine when viewed with the DocViewer in Canvas and if I click the link to have it download.

I have occasionally seen cases where a PDF does not display correctly in the Canvas Doc View, such as if the PDF is password protected.  If cases like this the file needs to be downloaded to be viewed correctly so disabling the InLine preview option can help with that.  This only applies to links from withing the Rich Content Editor though, not links from Modules.

• In the RCE after linking to the PDF file, click on the link and then select the Link Icon in the old RCE, or if using the New RCE click the Options button. 
• Check the box next to Disable in-line preview

This will force the file to be downloaded to be viewed.  It's also useful to do this if you have Powerpoint files with media or other special features that won't display correctly with DocViewer in Canvas.

Rick

[lopezjamie]

Hello!

These solutions didn't work for me.

I have a PDF that is NOT password protected. The PDF has internal links so the instructor can "jump about" the PDF from a certain page to another specific page.

I have tried disabling the preview as recommended but still the links do not activate. The little hand cursor comes up as I roll over the link, like a link is recognized, but when you click on the link it does not go anywhere. The links of course work fine locally (viewing the document on my computer from within Acrobat).

For fun, I also tried to view the PDF in the viewing in Files to see if the links work, and also as a file brought into the module without being embedded in the page. None work.

Could it be a setting in the PDF itself that canvas needs in order to allow the links to be active if it is embedded in a page?

Any other suggestions are welcome!

Many thanks!

[AmandaID]

I have a similar issue as the OP. I work between multiple Canvas instances. When I upload PDFs with hyperlinks into my main Canvas instance they work as expected. When I download the course and upload it into a different Canvas instance, the links in the PDFs no longer work. So in my case it seems like something is happening to the PDFs when the course is moved to a different Canvas instance. Any ideas are appreciated.