I’m going to step out of online marketing (kind of) for a day and throw out a tip for small business marketers who create documentation. We produce a ton of brochures and product data sheets that we use at trade shows and for sending to interested customers. Whenever we produce one of these pieces, we get a bunch printed up, but we also promote the document via email and make it available online for download.

Ever wish those customers who download the PDF or eBook document would have an easy way to get back to the site from which they took the PDF? Well, consider your wish granted. Using Adobe Acrobat Professional Edition, you can embed hyperlinks on important pieces of text or images within your PDF. (I’m kind of sounding like a commercial here :)) Before you jump up and down and think you can start doing that immediately, know that the free Adobe Reader does not have this capability. You have to purchase the Professional Edition to make it work, but I think you’ll find the purchase worthwhile. Adobe Acrobat has tons of functionality worth checking out.

Here’s a quick look at how it works. You first need to open up the Advanced Editing toolbar - it will look like this:

aptoolbar2.jpg

After clicking on the Link Tool icon, you’ll be able to draw a rectangle or square around the image or block of text you’d like to hyperlink. The “Create Link” box will appear and you’ll have multiple options for your link. Go to web page, open file, or another page view within the document are all options. For this example, I’ve chosen to open a web page. The top of the Create Link box contains formatting options for your hyperlink.

aplink.jpg

After selecting your options, hit Next. A simple box comes up that allows you to type or paste in your URL. Very easy! Hit okay and you’re done. Acrobat also allows you to change text so I typically will color my hyperlinked text blue to indicate to the reader that they can click and be taken to the web.

aplinkfinal.jpg

This is a very simple and easy way to drive traffic to your website. As eBooks, White Papers, etc. become more popular as downloadable PDFs, including hyperlinks will become a must. If you want to dig in and give it a try, here are a few tips:

  • Make it obvious that text is hyperlinked. Most people are not used to being able to click on a document and open a web page. Maybe indicate with a side note on the page that images and highlighted text are linked to web sites.
  • Turn hyperlinked text into a blue colored font to indicate a link
  • If your document contains your company logo, be sure to link that up to your home page.
  • Have a catalog you distribute on CD? An interactive PDF can be a great way to give the user navigation - thus making it easier to locate information.

I also did a quick search for some additional resources on the web to learn more about using Acrobat and similar programs:

Any other suggestions on how to use hyperlinks and related functions in PDFs?

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