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Subject:Re: Coloring hypertext links in PDF From:"Marie C. Paretti" <mparetti -at- RRINC -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 12 Mar 1998 08:46:13 -0500
At 05:35 PM 3/11/98 +0800, you wrote:
>Can anyone recommend a way to automatically display all the existing
>hyperlinks in a PDF document in a specified color . . . ?
The easiest way to do this (and I've stolen this idea from several other
folks on the Framers list) is:
1. Create a special paragraph tag for your hyperlinks.
2. Create a template identical to the one you use for the hard copy
document except:
- define a new color (I use a blue)
- apply that color to the hyperlink character tag (if your hyperllinks
are in the cross-refs, be sure you edit the c-r definitions accordingly)
I call this template OnLine, and actually include a few other changes
such as moving from a double-sided to a single-sided page layout (I assume
if my customers print it out, they probably won't take the time to copy it
double-sided in addition)
3. When you are ready to create the PDF, open the OnLine template and
import *only* the changed elements in your case, just Color Definitions and
Character Formats; my color is included in my Cross-Reference Definitions,
so I import those as well)
4. Change your printer setting to Distiller, make sure its properties are
set to color, and update the manual.
5. Generate the PDF.
You can then close the original doc without saving the changes, so that the
file you print from will still be b/w, but the PDF should have the
hyperlinks in color. In addition, if you use a color such as dark blue,
then if the customer prints the PDF the hyperlink will still be readable
(depending on the color definition and the printer, it may be more or less
gray than the surrounding text)
I do this for all the manuals I write, since we too distribute both hard
copy and PDF, and it's an extremely brief and painless process.
E-mail me if you have any questions, and good luck.
Marie
Marie C. Paretti
Recognition Research, Inc. (RRI)
1750 Kraft Drive, Suite 2000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
mparetti -at- rrinc -dot- com http://www.rrinc.com
