Convert PDF uni-directional cross-reference links to bi-directional links

today

1/26/24, 12:25 AM

I have a PDF file with some cross-reference links which when clicked on, they point to different parts of the file. However, this works only in one direction, say from "link..." to "content...". I was wondering if there is any way to make these links bi-directional, i.e. I can click on the "content..." to go to "link...".

One thing that annoys me the most is that currently when the file is read from first to the last page, I first encounter the "content..." part, without realizing that there is "link..." at the end of the file which has more info/notes on the "content..." part (as well as a link to it). So if a bi-directional link is not possible, it would even be great if a visual cue could be added to "content..." part so that I can understand there is more info about this part.

If it helps in particular, I have created this PDF file by converting an EPUB file using ebook-convert (i.e. calibre CLI).

1 + 0

pdf

epub

calibre

Score:0

Ubuntu

vanadium

1/26/24, 10:34 AM

Links are applied while the document is authored. So you will need to apply the links you want before they will appear in the PDF file.

In PDF reader software, you usually can return to a previous position. Thus, if you click a link, you can return to the place of the link.

Note that "content" can be linked to from different places within a document. To which of these locations are you going to backlink?

+ 4

today

1/27/24, 8:53 PM

Thanks. "In PDF reader software, you usually can return to a previous position." Yes, but you don't know the "content" has been linked in the first place! (That's why I mentioned the "visual cue"). Let me explain the situation more directly: this is a book and at the end it has a "notes" section. Each "note" can be clicked and you will be redirected to related part of the book (i.e. "content"). Now, I want each of those parts ("content") to link back to their corresponding notes (if there is any). And let's assume there is a one-to-one relation between the "content" and the "note" (i.e. link).

vanadium

1/30/24, 8:59 AM

Then the author of the document should link the note back to the content for that to work. To ¨know" if the content has been linked in the first place, the author should generate the PDF such that links have a visual clue (colored or underlined).

today

1/30/24, 7:23 PM

Ah, I see. I was hoping there might be a solution for this, at least for the case of adding visual cue (similar to the `--pdf-mark-links` option in `ebook-convert` which surrounds all links with a red box). Thanks for the replies, though.

vanadium

2/1/24, 1:00 PM

A "visual clue" is something else than the existence of a link forward and backward. As far as I know, also a "visual clue" is to be turned on at authoring time.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Convert PDF uni-directional cross-reference links to bi-directional links

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.