Feature to add the linked page number as a text comment near the link in bulk

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

In the past, product manuals were often provided as thick printed booklets along with separate PDF files (Case A). However, in recent years, it has become increasingly common for manuals to be provided only as PDF files or web pages (Case B). In Case A, since the printed booklet was the primary medium, the PDF version naturally included the referenced page numbers as visible text at the source of each link. In contrast, PDF files created under Case B—designed from the outset for digital viewing—typically do not include any visible page numbers near the links; only the link action itself is embedded.

When viewing such PDFs on digital devices, this is generally not an issue. But when someone wants to print the manual on paper, PDFs of the Case B type become problematic because the referenced page numbers are not written anywhere in text form. In such situations, it would be extremely helpful to have a feature that automatically adds text comments around each link—above, below, left, and right—containing the same information that is currently shown in tooltips.

• figure.png

• SampleFiles.zip

Even beyond product manuals, there are many situations where digital documents still need to be printed. In those cases, having a way to express the meaning of embedded links in a human‑readable form on paper would be very valuable.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

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[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

Thank you for the suggestion, I have passed it along to the dev team for review, and will let you know when I hear back from them.

[Edit] - unfortunately this was rejected.

Kind regards,

[Nemo]

This viewtopic.php?t=37242

would be a solution.

[rakunavi]

Hello Daniel and Neno,

@Daniel
Thank you for sharing the results of your review. While it's disappointing, I fully understand that unless you've actually printed a PDF with such links and felt at a loss, it's difficult to grasp the necessity.

@Nemo
Thank you for letting me know. I'm surprised to learn a request with a similar purpose had already been raised. And it even made it to a ticket being issued. My request was rejected, but I hope yours will eventually be implemented.

• RT#5791: FR: print "target page number" for links in margins

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

Thank you Nemo for finding that ticket, I missed that one when checking for similar requests.

Ticket RT# 5791 was created as a "consideration" item. While it was assigned a Developer nearly 5 years ago - it has since been stalled.
I have just asked for an update on it, and am, trying to confirm if this item was also rejected (and incorrectly flagged), or if there was some reason for the different response at the time.

Kind regards,

[Mathew]

This feels like a task for javascript; unfortunately it has no way to get the link destination (links don't even have the .activate() method that bookmarks have, so I can't see a workaround). Javascript can get other properties of the links (borderColor, borderWidth, highlightMode, rect) so it could place the markup in the correct locations, and set appropriate colors/scales/etc. This is a rather nasty omission in the API.

I have a feature request for something similar to this: viewtopic.php?p=177585#p177585

[Sean - PDF-XChange]

Hi Mathew - thanks for the input, let's see how this one develops.

Kind regards,