While this is convenient, it is often not usable because the process of Printing to PDF breaks many hyperlinks in my document.
So instead of that I choose “Save As” within Word and select PDF. This exports the Word file as a PDF while retaining the working hyperlinks. It works - but I need to save the file locally and add the separate step to then import the PDF to Devonthink.
Is there a way to keep the convenience of the “Save to Devonthink” plug-in but not lose the hyperlinks?
PDF generation is completely controlled by the source app & macOS, DEVONthink just receives and imports the PDF document (as the “plug-in” is basically an alias)
Is there a reason you’re not using the “export to PDF” function? I’ve not used Word for a couple of years but my understanding (and this is true for other apps too) is that when you’re ready to store the final PDF, you need to export it, not click save. That would fix your hyperlinks issue and ensures the PDF is in a “standard” format ready for digital use. “Save” to PDF is only meant to be a quick saving solution and doesn’t do the full formatting of PDF that would be required for long-term storage, which might be why your hyperlinks break sometimes.
Of course, the real (and unhelpful) solution is to use Pages
That does work - but it goes to the Inbox rather than opening the Group Selector.
DT does not honor the Group selector vs Inbox selectinon in this situation - not sure if that is an intentional “feature” or if it reflects some MacOS limitation for developers.
Print to PDF on MacOS maintains hyperlinks. Print to PDF on i*OS flattens them (Apple ). This remains a major source of annoyance for me, though isn’t the topic of this thread so I’ll not derail it!
Fair enough, I’ve not used Word for a couple of years. They used to be separate mechanics and I’m not sure it ever made sense except at a presentation in a Microsoft office.
I belive it maintains simple hyperlinks but not href hyperlinks
If your Word document contains www.cnn.com in the text then it would work as a link after Print to PDF
But if your word document contains CNN National News as a hyperlink to the same site then it will not work after Print to PDF. You need to instead to Save As PDF (which is considered exporting the document).
If this is the case then it’s an app-specific issue. Elsewhere on Mac embedded links work fine after Print to PDF. I use it regularly for storing PDFs of webpages and emails. I believe that’s why Korm noted it’s universal and can work anywhere (I also have a shortcut set up for doing this quickly when I need to). (Just for other readers to reiterate: this does not work with i*OS’s Print to PDF function.)
I don’t have Word so I can’t test if/why this function is working differently in the app.
Being curious I did some experiments with the test.docx using Word 16.110.2. Tried the links shown above by @rkaplan to CNN and a few others.
It’s down to how the two PDF printing in Word works with https vs. http prefix.
I viewed the pdf’s in macOS Preview and PDFPen, with same results. I don’t have Adobe PDF tools to test viewing. I do conclude it’s the two methods in Word work differently with the two prefixes.
I asked Grok AI about this and the reply explained it all succinctly in the summary: “Stop using Print → Save as PDF. Switch to File > Save As → PDF → “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility”. This fixes the http vs https inconsistency for almost everyone.” Read what Grok said at https://x.com/i/grok/share/30c7f3f7163b49ca918841e5394cc665
Be aware that this will send your file to Microsoft for accessibility tagging. Pages has done this in-app since forever, but Word still requires you to use their online service, so it may not be suitable for documents you’re not comfortable sharing.
). This remains a major source of annoyance for me, though isn’t the topic of this thread so I’ll not derail it!