Trouble getting PDF bookmark order to match TOC

[fieldworking]

In my document, I'm relying on the TOC to create the PDF bookmarks. The correct bookmarks are all there and the nested bookmarks are in the correct order (thanks to my reading in these forums about ensuring layers were sorted correctly), but I can't figure out for the life of me why the bookmark order for the top level bookmarks has the section for pages 165-167 listed between the sections that end at page 20 and begin at page 21. What should I be checking for at this point? What am I missing? Why is that top level bookmark appearing there instead of where it belongs?

[bbrother]

Welcome on the forum @fieldworking

29 minutes ago, fieldworking said:

What should I be checking for at this point? What am I missing? Why is that top level bookmark appearing there instead of where it belongs?

If I understand correctly, you mean the order of the top-level bookmarks in the anchor panel. Then you should know a few things:

• Bookmarks are ordered alphabetically by title in this panel.
• Even though the order in the anchors panel is different comparing to TOC they will be generated in correct order in the PDF.
• Durning the export they are generated in the so-called "document order" (the order in which they appear in document), reflecting the child-parent relationship, if you set the indent level in the TOC panel.

 

I hope this cleared things up a bit for you. Best regards and Merry Christmas fieldworking

 

[fieldworking]

1 hour ago, bbrother said:

If I understand correctly, you mean the order of the top-level bookmarks in the anchor panel. Then you should know a few things:

• Bookmarks are ordered alphabetically by title in this panel.
• Even though the order in the anchors panel is different comparing to TOC they will be generated in correct order in the PDF.
• Durning the export they are generated in the so-called "document order" (the order in which they appear in document), reflecting the child-parent relationship, if you set the indent level in the TOC panel.

Sorry for the lack of clarity, but I do not mean in the Anchor Panel. I mean when I open the exported PDF and look at its bookmarks. If you take a look at the image I've attached, the highlighted top-level bookmark is showing up in the wrong spot in the list. It should be just before Example of Play, but instead it's showing up in between sections over a hundred pages earlier. The section of the text it links to is in the right spot, and the TOC shows it in the correct spot, so I'm confused as to why it's showing up like this in the bookmarks of the exported PDF.

I've checked in Adobe Reader and it's showing the bookmarks in this incorrect order as well.

[fieldworking]

I've attached an image of the TOC in Publisher to show how the section is in the correct location in the text despite showing up earlier in the PDF's bookmarks.

[bbrother]

The photos you uploaded suggest that this is not how it should be.
They clearly show that the order of bookmarks in PDF does not match the order in TOC.

These types of bugs have been reported in the past, but there have also been reports that the issue has been fixed by developers.
Maybe the problem it's back again.

Is the problem only with this one chapter, or are there other incorrectly placed bookmarks?

 

PS: Information about the operating system you use will also be useful.

[fieldworking]

16 minutes ago, bbrother said:

Is the problem only with this one chapter, or are there other incorrectly placed bookmarks?

 

PS: Information about the operating system you use will also be useful.

Just with this one chapter. I'm using Windows 10 and Affinity Publisher 1.10.6.1665.

[bbrother]

6 minutes ago, fieldworking said:

I'm using Windows 10 and Affinity Publisher 1.10.6.1665.

I'm also on W10 but i'm using Affinity Publisher 2.3.0 and i don't have problems here.

The problem is that if it turns out to be a bug, which is very likely, you can't count on it being fixed because support for V1 has been limited to critical issues caused by operating system updates.

[fieldworking]

37 minutes ago, bbrother said:

The problem is that if it turns out to be a bug, which is very likely, you can't count on it being fixed because support for V1 has been limited to critical issues caused by operating system updates.

Should I post about this in V1 Bugs found on Windows, then?

Does anybody have any workarounds to re-organize the bookmarks?

[MikeTO]

34 minutes ago, fieldworking said:

Should I post about this in V1 Bugs found on Windows, then?

Does anybody have any workarounds to re-organize the bookmarks?

I believe this was a known issue in v1 that was fixed in v2. However, I can't recall how to trigger the bug. I don't think there was an easy workaround.

You should upgrade to the latest version, 1.10.8, but that won't fix this problem. If your computer is able to run v2 you should consider upgrading to that. You can download a free 30-day trial to see if that resolves the issue for you. Note that documents saved from v2 cannot be opened in v1.

Cheers

[bbrother]

8 hours ago, MikeTO said:

You should upgrade to the latest version, 1.10.8, but that won't fix this problem.

There is no version 1.10.8 for Windows. And this is the operating system the OP is using.
For Windows, the latest version of Publisher is 1.10.6.

 

9 hours ago, fieldworking said:

Should I post about this in V1 Bugs found on Windows, then?

You can but, I don't know if it makes any sense. This is not a critical issue caused by an OS update, so you cannot expect a fix due to limited support for V1.
I would like to point out that this is bad company practice. Features and tools, if added, should work, period. But I understand that Serif doesn't have the resources.

 

9 hours ago, fieldworking said:

Does anybody have any workarounds to re-organize the bookmarks?

Not really. Probably the only way to get around this error is to use third party program to generate bookmarks.

I'm sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear.

[fieldworking]

7 hours ago, bbrother said:

Not really. Probably the only way to get around this error is to use third party program to generate bookmarks.

I'm sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear.

Oh well. It is what it is. I'll fire up an older version of Acrobat and take a look at what I can do.

[fieldworking]

On 12/20/2023 at 10:15 AM, fieldworking said:

Oh well. It is what it is. I'll fire up an older version of Acrobat and take a look at what I can do.

And this, folks, is what I ended up doing. Problem easily fixed by dragging the bookmark to the location it's supposed to be and saving. In Acrobat Professional 8.