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Linking to a page within a PDF (and more!)


If you have a PDF document live on the Web, can you link to a specific page within it instead of the PDF opening at the title page? Absolutely! The page=<pagenum> parameter let’s you do just that.

For example, try http://blogs.adobe.com/samartha/Handbook/pdf_handbook.pdf#page=8. When you click this link, the destination PDF opens directly at page 8.

There are several other parameters that you can specify when you open or link to a PDF document. The following parameters I think are especially useful:

For more information, see Parameters for Opening PDF Files (PDF) in the Acrobat SDK documentation set.

Another quick Acrobat tip

If you’re emailing the PDF or placing it in a shared network directory, you can also set it up to open at a specific page. Here’s how:

  1. Open the PDF document in Acrobat.
  2. Click File > Properties. Alternatively, use the Ctrl+D (Windows) keyboard shortcut.
  3. On the Initial View page in the Document Properties dialog, adjust the value of the Open To Page field.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Exit Acrobat and reopen the PDF file in it.

While at it, also read this Help topic to understand other settings/metadata that you can specify using the Document Properties dialog box.

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This entry was posted on January 8, 2011, 7:47 pm and is filed under Acrobat, How to, TCS specific, Tips and tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. #1 by photoshop on January 9, 2011 - 8:30 am

    thanx very much.

  2. #2 by Jan Polman on January 12, 2011 - 7:09 am

    Hi Samartha,
    I’m sorry to report that the first link is not obeying to your “prediction”.
    For me, the document opens on page 1 (tried with IE and Firefox). This is also the “default” behaviour as set in the properties of the document.
    And the next link: is it supposed to show the results of a search for “change bar”? Doesn’t work for me either. Sorry. (would be interested to find the reason for this misbehaviour).

    • #3 by Samartha Vashishtha on January 12, 2011 - 2:43 pm

      Thanks for your comment, Jan. Both the options work fine for me (as well as my colleagues). Could you share the versions of Acrobat/Reader, IE, and FF installed on your computer? I’ll try to get you an answer.

  3. #4 by Jan Polman on January 18, 2011 - 7:50 pm

    I’m using Acrobat 9.4.1, Firefox 3.6.13 and IE 8.0.
    I will do some testing with and without security software to find a reason for the behaviour.
    Thanks anyway.

  4. #5 by Pat MacNeill on August 26, 2011 - 8:31 am

    I have tried 2 methods (destination & page). The PDF file opens to the first page of the PDF, not where I’ve indicated in my HTML link. I have tried using both Acrobat 9 and 10 to add destinations in the PDF.
    Tested in FF 3.6 and IE 8 on a PC (Reader); FF 3 on a Mac (Acrobat 9).

    Last year, I used the bookmark as my #link and it worked for us.

  5. #6 by Elliot on February 27, 2012 - 8:50 am

    this also did not work for me. up-to-date Google chrome on ubuntu 10.04

  6. #7 by Will Lorenz on May 21, 2012 - 1:41 pm

    Didn’t work for me either. I am using FF 12.0 and I also tried it on IE 9.0. Has anyone figured this out yet?? Would be a huge help. Thank you.

  7. #8 by Susan Cousins on July 3, 2012 - 3:29 pm

    I am having trouble with this as well. The link to a specific page in a pdf document works using Chrome but not in Explorer 8. Any fixes?

  8. #9 by David on August 29, 2012 - 2:48 am

    How can I change the page (in code) without reloading the pdf?

  9. #10 by Joanne Thomson on October 24, 2012 - 6:45 am

    I am trying to do the same thing. Everything worked fine with the #page but now that most employees have updated to IE8, the link just opens up on the first page of the pdf. I have searched and searched for an answer, but found nothing. Has anyone managed to resolve this issue. Please I am desperate to get this fixed as soon as possible.

  10. #11 by mahendran on November 8, 2012 - 7:48 am

    hi,

    i am using “search” pdf open parameters
    example:http:\\test\ex.pdf#search=”test”

    i m getting the result.
    but my question is how i will get the search result count:
    if(count==0)
    {
    i need to close the pdf file

    }

    could you please help to do this

    advance thanks

    Mahendran.J

  11. #12 by Karen on December 14, 2012 - 11:14 am

    page parameter works fine in Firefox and Chrome but does not work in IE. Any other syntax that can be used to link to a specific page in a PDF that works in IE? I have IE 9, but I’ve seen posts about this on other sites that it hasn’t worked as far back as IE 6. Why can’t IE play nice with everyone?

  12. #13 by Reblok on December 14, 2012 - 1:36 pm

    Hmm. Almost 2 years later and it seems no one but the original poster can get this to work (me too)

  13. #14 by Pat Sartini on March 6, 2013 - 1:50 pm

    I just got a new laptop: windows 7 64 bit, IE9 (64 bit and 32 bit). Acrobat 9 Pro and Reader 9 (all updates installed). I’m opening PDFs from a sharepoint library using a URL with the page# . With my old PC (XP, IE8), they opened to the page # in Reader…no problem. Now the PDF only opens to the page# if I open it in the browser. When I open it in Reader, it opens to page 1. I’ve tried using both IE 9 64 bit and 32 bit and have played around with enabling / disabling add-ons – nothing works for me. I had someone at another site try it on his older Windows 7 / IE 9 and it worked for him. So it must be some kind of setting that’s unique to my build…any ideas?

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