Replace Pages feature breaks transferred links

[David.P]

Dear Forum and PXE Team,

First, thanks for the powerful Replace Pages function, which I use frequently.

However, there seems to be a glitch that could be addressed in one of the next updates:

Replace Pages feature breaks transferred links.png

(note that this exact issue happens only in Case #4 below, i.e. when replace-inserting more pages than are replaced)

When transferring pages that contain internal links, while the links are transferred to the target document, they lose their functionality.

For example, if two existing pages in document T (target document) are to be replaced with two new pages from document S (source document), and the source pages contain a link from page 1 to page 2, the link is transferred to target document T, but no longer works in document T, after replacement.

Notably, if the option "Retain comments and other interactive features on the [T-] pages to be replaced" is disabled, the transferred links do retain their functionality. However, this is not an ideal workaround, as this then removes all existing comments and other interactive elements from the target pages.

I appreciate consideration of this issue and the great work by the Dev and Support Teams.

Best regards,
David

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello David.P,

Just checking here - those "internal links" are proper "go to page x at position y" and are not e.g. pointing to Named destinations?

Can you please prepare a brief sample (e.g. 2-3 page source and 2-3 page target files) with such links and the result - so that I can ask our dev team to also look at this?

Kind regards,
Stefan

[David.P]

Hi Stefan,

attached are sample documents illustrating what turned out to be four different cases. I've provided source and target documents, and resulting documents for the four cases, each with different sets of "Replace Pages" option settings as per the screenshots.

The following two cases work exactly as expected:

1. "Don't Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments"

Case 1 - ✔️ Don't Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments.png

2. "Copy Source Comments, Remove Target Comments"

Case 2 - ✔️ Copy Source Comments, Remove Target Comments.png

The following two more cases exhibit unexpected behavior:

3. "Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments"

Case 3 - ❌️ Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments.png

4. "Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments, Replacing One Page with Two"

Case 4 - ❌️ Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments, Replacing One Page with Two.png

Case #3 (Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments):

Comments and links from the source document are not transferred into the target document, despite the option being selected in the Replace Pages settings.

Case #4 (Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments, Replacing One Page with Two):

• Comments and links from the first page of the source document are not transferred, just like in Case 3.
• Comments and links from the second page of the source document are transferred. However, transferred links become non-functional, even when pointing to other successfully transferred pages.

Case #4 matches the issue from my original post.

Could you please investigate this behavior?

It would be very useful if we could keep existing target comments and links intact while adding source comments and links successfully.

Best regards,
David
--

target document with pages to be replaced.pdf

source document for replacing pages.pdf

Case 1 - ✔️ Don't Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments.pdf

Case 2 - ✔️ Copy Source Comments, Remove Target Comments.pdf

Case 3 - ❌️ Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments.pdf

Case 4 - ❌️ Copy Source Comments, Retain Target Comments, Replacing One Page with Two.pdf

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

I was able to reproduce the behavior by following the instructions given by @David.P. I cannot determine if this is the expected behavior or the problem, but it appears that currently the "Retain comments and other interactive features on the pages to be replaced" option takes precedence over everything else and works exclusively regardless of the Options setting.

I don't have any additional information on this matter, but I comment because I am personally interested in the subsequent handling of this topic in PDF-XChange.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

I have managed to reproduce this issue. The handling does seem odd to me as well, but I have escalated it to the Dev team for review. I will let you know when I have heard back from them. I expect we will see a ticket made for this case in due time.

RT#7439: bug: Replace page - errors with links

Kind regards,