Re: Word 2003: Hyperlinks in "Multiple Word docs

["Jonathan West" <jwest -at- mvps -dot- org>]

If your document is well-structured (i.e. uses styles, is based on a
template) and doesn't have an excessive number of large photographic
images, then 800 pages can easily be accommodated in a single file, in
which case conversion to PDF with links intact is perfectly
straightforward. With a well-structured document up to 3000 pages in a
single file is quite achievable. Of course, when writing the document
you may wish to have it split into separate chapters so that different
people can work on different parts, and so that saving of intermediate
drafts is quicker. The document can be compiled into a single file as
the last procss before generating the ToC and cross-references.

But based on a another recent thread, I suspect that this is not the
case, so you may be pushing it a bit to get 800 pages into a single
document.


> (i) How can I make make hyperlinks between the bookmarks/headings in
> different Word documents

This is of course much easier if you have the document in a single
file, because you can just insert a cross-reference. But you can still
do it between documents. select the text you want to link to, press
Ctrl-K to bring up the hyperlink dialog, specify the chapter document
and the name of the bookmark marking the destination.

If you have numbered clauses, then it is possible to write a VBA
program to search the document for clause numbers and convert them
into hyperlinks.

> (ii) Are the hyperlinks are preserved when a single PDF is generated (taking
> all the Word documents and creating a single PDF)

If you are going to have to keep your documents separate in Word and
only compile them into a single document when you make the conversion
to PDF, then you are going to have to adjust your hyperlinks just
prior to making the conversion. If you have quite a lot of links (and
with an 800-page document, you probably do), then a VBA program do the
adjustments automatically will be necessary.

Such a program won't be too difficult for a programmer experienced in
the Word object model. Broadly speaking there are two parts to the
project

1. Making sure that that bookmark names are unique throughout all the
files, where necessary changing the names of bookmarks to resolve such
conflicts, and changing any hyperlinks that point to the changed
bookmark.

2. Setting the hyperlinks so that they appear to point to a
destination within the same document. (i.e. setting the Address
properly of each Hyperlink object to be an empty string.)

You can then convert the document set to a single PDF and all should
be well, with the hyperlinks pointing to locations within the PDF.
Hpwever, this depends on precisly what conversion software you are
using for the PDf conversion.

If you are going to have to do this repeatedly, I would recommend you
go the template+single document route for a document of only 800
pages. It will save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Regards
Jonathan West
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