Hypertext link problems

[Shlomo Perets]

Karen,

You wrote:

>FrameMaker 7.2
>Acrobat Pro 7
>Windows XP
>
>I'm running into problems with hypertext mailto: links. If the email addy
>has a period, underscore, or dash in it, only the addy after that mark
>appears on the To: line when executed from the PDF. Any ideas?


Most likely, the problematic e-mail links are not "real links" in Acrobat; 
the activity you see is related to the "Automatically detect URLs from 
text" preference (Acrobat and Reader *7 only*: Edit > Preferences, General).

Acrobat's interpretation of text-based web addresses is problematic when 
the URL is split between lines, or when the "underlying" text is not 
recognized properly. In the case of e-mail addresses, the presence of 
characters such as dot, underscore or dash indeed causes a problem in the 
interpretation (so a_b at company.com is interpreted as b at company.com).

Links that are intentionally defined in FrameMaker using hypertext markers 
result in an active area, showing a 'w' or '+' in the hand icon when you 
hover above it (depending on the web capture preference). In Acrobat/Reader 
7, such links also trigger a Security Warning ("the document is trying to 
connect to the site: http://.....   If you trust the site click 'Allow', 
otherwise click 'Block'." There is an option to remember your action per 
web address).

Web links that are detected automatically only show the hand icon, and do 
not trigger the Security message.

It is possible that you have a "real" link, but that its area does not 
match the corresponding text. Try activating the link tool in Acrobat to 
make sure the link area is what you expect.

It is also possible that you have e-mail markers in FrameMaker, but that 
there is a problem with the syntax of some markers, or they may have the 
wrong type (when using Special > Marker, FrameMaker changes the default 
marker type based on markers present in the selected text area, so it's too 
easy to try and insert a hypertext marker but end up inserting an Index or 
Cross-Ref).


Shlomo Perets

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