Affinity Publisher - Hyperlinks don't work properly when text is a partial web address

[TheTome]

When creating a hyperlink in text that has a partial or broken web address, the partial text will always override the settings of the hyperlink.

This has been problematic in my resume where I have links typed out, but have them occur over multiple lines due to spacing constraints.

I have built an example document showing the problem using the IMDB page for the actor David Dastmalchian (I am not him). If you open it you'll see the second version of the link is split into two lines. After exporting, open the PDF. In the PDF if you click the part that says www.imbd.com it will take you to www.imdb.com even though it is set up to take you to David Dastmalchian's IMDB page. However if you click the second line then the export has not noticed that it is a web address and the link works as expected.

Example of Problem.afpub Exported Example of the Problem.pdf

[Hangman]

Hi @TheTome and welcome to the forums,

I'm not experiencing any issues with the URL split over two lines in your PDF, regardless of whether I click the first or second line...

Which PDF viewer are you using... I've tested the PDF in Acrobat Reader, Apple Preview, Foxit PDF Reader, Chrome, Firefox and Safari and all link to the David Dastmalchian page on IMDB...

There are other known issues relating to URLs split over more than one line but this particular instance doesn't fall into that category as far as I can see...

[kenmcd]

14 hours ago, TheTome said:

but have them occur over multiple lines due to spacing constraints.

Everything after the last / is not needed. That is their own internal reference tracking and is not needed to get to that page.

PDF readers typically have a feature to automatically convert text which looks like a link to an actual link. Most likely your reader is doing this wrong and breaking the link. Check the reader's settings to turn this feature Off.

[TheTome]

Thank you both for getting back to me.

Yes, the problem is the reader not the document. My computer uses Microsoft Edge by default, and Edge appears to create its own hyperlinks causing the problem. I thought I had tried it in different readers but clearly I had not as both Chrome and Adobe both have no issues with the hyperlink on my computer.

That said, I found a workaround that prevents PDF readers such as Edge from causing this problem, which I'll mention in case it helps someone else in the future.

Step 1: Type out the link as normal.
Step 2: Add a space between www and the dot "www .example.com"
Step 3: Adjust the kerning of the period to hide the space and make it visually appear to be "www.example.com"
Step 4: Insert hyperlink as usual.

This prevents PDF readers from treating it like a webpage while still retaining the hyperlink. Useful if you're sending a document such as a resume to someone and you don't know what software they'll be using to open the document. While so far only Edge seems to be affected, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of people who just use Edge by default since it's built into Windows.