Creating RO document links that iOS will open

I’m preparing a document using TechWriter v.9.12, which although dated 2013 is, I believe, the latest available, to create a set of notes, including JPEG images and HTML links, which needs to be accessible by iOS devices (iPad, iPhone). Saving this as a PDF file gives no problems on Windows: the images are visible and the embedded links work, but iOS, while it displays the pdf correctly, resolutely refuses to open the links, either in the original file (in pCloud) or when exported to Notes on an iPhone. Is there any work-around? I really /don’t/ want to have to attempt to recreate the document on my iPhone…..
EDIT: if there is a more up-to-date programme than TechWriter capable of creating HTML links, handling text layout and importing graphics files I’ll gladly consider it

Do you use the Postscript 3 drivers to print as PDF or some Techwriter function?

I tried both, also printing a Postscript file on RISC OS and using GSView on a Wintel machine to convert to PDF; but nothing gets past the Mac silo that is iOS, seemingly :-(

Have you tried the different PDF compatibility options in Techwriter choices?

God, Gwyn, you were up early! I have, but no adjustments have made any difference. I noticed that ‘Choices.PDF generation options’ offers a PDF compatibility level of 1.4 (Acrobat 5) as the highest available, which is at least 3, and possibly as many as 7, versions below the current standard (depending how you interpret Adobe’s version numbering system). So I think I’m stuffed, basically.

Does Techwriter have any special mechanism to actually embed html links into the PostScript/PDF output? I didn’t know that it does. If it doesn’t, what I think you are seeing is the PDF reader software automatically detecting portions of text that start either with ‘http://’ or ‘www’. This happens with recent* versions of Adobe Reader/Acrobat.

What you could be seeing is that the PDF reader softwrae on windows (possibly Adobe Reader as it’s the most comment) is offering you the chance to click the link, but there is nothing actually set in the PDF document itself that defines the text as an active link.

My usual route to creating PDFs from RISC OS (which I do regularly), is to print to PostScript (PS3 driver) then use Adobe Distiller the convert to a PDF, which I then can edit further in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Acrobat has an option to scan through the PDF detect text that looks like a URL or mailto link and create an active link region around the text. This region then becomes clickable in (most) other PDF viewing software.

Have you tested the iOS version of Adobe Reader to see if that works with the links?

If it is just one document that needs ‘fixing’ I’d be happy to run it through Acrobat to detect links for you.

*recent as in the last few years.

Being able to follow links created in EasiWrite is something I’ve taken for granted. I don’t have TechWrite but would have expected it to use common code for it’s PDF generation.

Take a look here for a PDF saved out of EasiWrite 9.12 on which I’m able to view and follow the links using both an iPad and iPhone.

1. When stored on my NAS and viewed on the i device.
2. When downloaded onto the i device and viewed in Notes.

As far as I can remember, I’ve not done anything special to make it work.

Looking at Robin’s PDF it does look like EasiWriter (and therefore TechWriter) does indeed have a way of embedding in the link into the PostScript/PDF so what I said above doesn’t really count in this case. So I’m not sure why it isn’t working on iOS. It is perhaps down to the settings within the PDF viewing apps? Perhaps they have been set not to allow links to be clicked as security measure?

Take a look here for a PDF saved out of EasiWrite 9.12 on which I’m able to view and follow the links using both an iPad and iPhone.

I’ve tested Robin’s file, and both web links work on my iPhone – excellent! Do you know if it works with email links, Robin?

Does Techwriter have any special mechanism to actually embed html links into the PostScript/PDF output?

When you highlight a bit of text, a Link icon appears on the toolbar. Click it and enter the web address, then the text becomes a blue underlined link.

Also need to make sure the “Export live links” option is turned on in Easi/TechWriter’s PDF generation options in Choices.

All the above applied in the case of the file that was the cause of my original post, however. It seems to be the case that EasiWriter-created pdfs have web links that iOS will open, whereas those created in TechWriter do not. Why that should be so, in closely related applications, is not clear to me at present.

Can I ask what the visible text looks like in the PDF that forms the link? What i mean by that is does it contain the letters http:// or www at the start of what is visible on the page in the PDF.

The web links format is e.g. www.aviva.co.uk; the email links are shown as e.g. mickey.mouse@btinternet.com, both links coloured blue and blue-underlined. Both open as intended under Win7, neither works on my iPhone.

So it is possible that none of the actual TechWriter links are appearing at all in the PDF output and it is purely the PDF reader software that is detecting the text as links.

You could try a sample document where you create a link where the output text doesn’t contain www and see if that appears as a link in Windows.

That should read links are NOT appearing

The web links format is e.g. www.aviva.co.uk; the email links are shown as e.g. mickey.mouse@btinternet.com

How about "MailTo:mickey.mouse@btinternet.com", and even URL:www.aviva.co.uk – does that make any difference?

Edit: I notice that Textile colours the mailto as a link but not the URL. Does it need the HTTP://, I wonder, as well?

URL:http://www.aviva.co.uk

No, that’s no different in Textile!

Do you know if it works with email links

Yes and no
Stored on the NAS and viewed on the iPad – no
Stored on the iPad and viewed in Notes – yes

Needs mailto:

Tried a few more things and found (for the iPad) http:// is required to get a working link.

Suggest recreating the doc links I uploaded yesterday in TechWriter and then comparing the output of TechWriter with that of EasiWriter in Zap

The web links format is e.g. www.aviva.co.uk; the email links are shown as e.g. mickey.mouse@btinternet.com,

So it looks like you need http://www.aviva.co.uk and mailto:mickey.mouse@btinternet.com as the link text to get this working on the iPad

http:// is required to get a working link.

The difference between URI and URL (no, they’re not the same thing).

If you open the PDF in Zap or StrongEd and search for /URI that should show up which links are embedded into the PDF.

There are different issues going on.

Firstly, are the links actually being created in the PDF output from TW as defined URI clickable areas?

Secondly, are the links that are showing up in Windows just a result of the PDF viewing software happens to recognise the plain text of something starting with ‘http://’ or ‘www’ and decides that is a link to a website?

Thirdly, does the PDF viewer software that is NOT showing the links actually recognise links, either in the correct embedded format or as a consiquence of spotting plain text that looks like a link to a website.

The first thing to clear up is obviously the first issue above. If TW is not embedding actual URI links then the rest is purley down to the features of the software displaying the PDFs. There are many applications that can display PDFs especially on mobile devices, my android phone offers seven different options when I attempt to open a PDF – they don’t all offer the same functionality.

After considerable experimentation I can report success (at last!). The correct formalities are as follows (using TechWriter):

1. Email addresses should be entered as

mailto:mickey.mouse@donaldduck.com

and the whole line, including the mailto: part, highlighted before using TW’s Misc-Link-Update dialogue.

2. Web addresses should be entered as (e.g.):

https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/posts

and highlighted and linked as for emails.

3. TW’s own Menu-Save-PDF-Save_As dialogue should be used in preference to creating the PDF using the RISC OS printer driver.

A test file incorporating all the above opened all the links successfully under both Windows (Win7 in my case) and iOS on my iPhone and iPad (in the latter case, it had to be copied first to ‘Notes’).