Before I report link checks, capture the live destination, note if it redirects to a mobile or paywalled page, and fla…
Open the PDF file you want to audit in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Go to the View menu, select Show/Hide, then choose Navigation Panes and click Attachments to display all file attachments.
NoteThe Attachments pane lists all files embedded in the PDF.
In the Attachments pane, manually review and note each attachment or use the options menu to export or save the list if needed.
Go to the Tools pane and select Action Wizard.
Create a new action and add a step to execute JavaScript.
Insert a JavaScript to iterate through all links in the document and output their destinations; for example, use: for (var p = 0; p < this.numPages; p++) { var annots = this.getAnnots({nPage: p}); if (annots) { for (var i = 0; i < annots.length; i++) { if (annots[i].type == 'Link') console.println('Page ' + (p+1) + ': ' + annots[i].URI); } } }
Best practiceYou can copy the console output to a text file for compliance documentation.
Run the action to generate the list of all links; review the output in the JavaScript Console (open via Ctrl+J if not visible).
NoteThis process lists all web and document links but does not export them directly to a file.
You can use the JavaScript Console to extract and review all link destinations in your PDF for auditing purposes.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
It is important to verify links to ensure that your readers can access all the information you intend for them to see. Broken links can make your document look unprofessional and prevent people from getting important details. Checking links helps maintain the document's credibility and usefulness, especially for reports or academic papers.
| Feature | Purpose | Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Link | Connects to another location (web, page, file). | Points to external or internal content. |
| Attachment | Embeds another file directly into the PDF. | Stored inside the PDF document itself. |
Currently, Adobe Acrobat does not offer an automatic 'check all links' feature. For large PDFs with many links, you will still need to manually click and test each link individually. This ensures accuracy but can be time-consuming. You can use the 'Edit > Link' tool to quickly navigate and modify existing links as you test them.