Hyperlinks to PDF Files Won't Open

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 31, 2020)

In Word documents you can add hyperlinks to other resources. One of the resources you can link to is a PDF file. If you click the correctly formed hyperlink, the PDF file should open in either Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, depending on which one you have installed on your system.

However, you may run into problems, as some versions of Adobe Reader may have a glitch when working with some versions of Word. If you click the hyperlink and the PDF document quickly opens then closes, it may be a sign that there is a glitch. Upgrading to the latest version of Adobe Reader should help correct the problem. (As of this writing, the latest version is 7.0.1.) Visit the Adobe site for the latest version; it's free.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (99) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Refreshing PivotTable Data

If you modify the data on which a PivotTable is based, you'll need to refresh the table so it reflects the modified data. ...

Discover More

Getting User Input in a Dialog Box

Want to grab some interactive input from a user in your macro? The best way to do that is with the InputBox function, ...

Discover More

Unlinking All Headers and Footers

If your document contains a lot of section, it can be tedious to unlink all of the headers and footers for those ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Controlling URL Formatting

When you type a URL into a document, Word helpfully converts it to a live hyperlink. If you don't want Word to be quite ...

Discover More

Adding Hyperlinks

Adding a hyperlink to s text selection is easy to do in Word. All you need to do is make a couple of clicks and specify ...

Discover More

Building Your Own Web Page

Want to build a Web page using Word? Here's an overview of how it works.

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is five minus 2?

2020-11-05 14:31:03

This PDF linked in Word prompts to update to the latest pdf viewer, and routes to the Adobe site. I checked, and he already had the latest version of Acrobat DC. We uninstalled and reinstalled from the page linked in the error message - same version, so I checked the Acrobat Help menu, and there was no newer version.

He still gets the same error message to update.

We have all his PDF defaults set to Adobe (is this wanting us to leave the one on Edge?).

Thoughts? Ideas?

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.