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Thread: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
Number of posts in this thread: 12 (In chronological order)
From: Laura Roberts
Date: Tue, Jan 24 2023 4:18PM
Subject: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
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Hi,
In a PDF I was remediating, I inadvertently checked the "tag annotations"
in a tag right click menu. This causes Acrobat to assign annotations to
URL's as they are created.
The PDF in question has some URL's that they do NOT want linked, since the
links become outdated fairly often.
How to fix this?
I tried:
Edit PDF>Link>Add link - BUT there is no link to delete
I tried right clicking on the URL text tag itself to see if any menu
options appeared to remove the link, but there are none
I checked the tags attributes, etc but I don't see anything there
And as you all are probably aware - it's impossible to delete an annotation
in the content panel.
Even though the link appears not to be present in the tag and edit menus -
it the cursor still turns into a hand over it in the PDF and it is
clickable.
Attached screenshot of right click menu and of a cold link that pops up the
URL when it shouldn't - wasn't able to capture the cursor turning into
hand, you'll have to take my word for it.
I cannot figure this out for the life of me!
Thanks,
Laura
From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 12:22AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" inright-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you cannot control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the following structures:
[anything]://[anything]
www.[anything]
In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not https://.
It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For instance, Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome does create links, but it uses slightly different rules:
[http or https]://[anything]
www.[anything]
The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort to a nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't think that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading the link, but you would need to test it.
That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we can do.
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
From: Karen McCall
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 3:57AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations"inright-click menu
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There is a setting in Preferences called Create Links from URL's or web addresses...can't remember the exact wording.
It is the second check box in the General setting and I advise remediators to turn it off so that inaccessible links aren't created.
If you are remediating PDFs and keep this checked, it creates links that can't be seen when you go to Edit PDF, Links, Add or Edit Links. This means they also can't be edited/remediated.
Cheers, Karen
From: Karen McCall
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 4:01AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" inright-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
Uncheck the Create links from URLs in the Preferences, General settings. This gives you plain text for URLs instead of semi-activatable links that cannot be edited/remediated.
Cheers, Karen
From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 4:28AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "TagAnnotations"inright-click menu
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The Preferences setting only applies to your machine. Even if you turn it off when you create or edit the PDF, the links will still be created automatically on everyone else's machines.
Steve
From: Karen McCall
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 7:52AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked"TagAnnotations"inright-click menu
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At least it helps while remediating the PDFs.
If we want this changed, we should use the Adobe User Voice and express our thoughts.
https://acrobat.uservoice.com/
We've been successful in getting accessibility fixes through user voice in the recent past. Just let us know where to go to vote.
Cheers, Karen
From: Laura Roberts
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 8:08AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
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This is in Adobe Acrobat not Reader. You can only get to the menu in
question by right-clicking on a tag in the tags panel.
I found that if "tag annotations" is unchecked while remediating, the links
remain cold. In other PDFs I remediated where I didn't accidentally click
that, the problem doesn't occur.
I have the feeling I'm going to have to redo a big chunk of this PDF...ugh
On Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 2:22 AM Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you cannot
> control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the
> following structures:
>
> [anything]://[anything]
> www.[anything]
>
> In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not https://
> .
>
> It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the
> focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's
> just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
>
> The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For instance,
> Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome does create
> links, but it uses slightly different rules:
>
> [http or https]://[anything]
> www.[anything]
>
> The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links
> automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't
> think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort to a
> nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't think
> that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading the
> link, but you would need to test it.
>
> That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same
> problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we can
> do.
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
>
From: Laura Roberts
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 8:38AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
Did more troubleshooting and both of you are right.
Acrobat is acting a little strange here.
So what happens is if you create a PDF from a Word doc with cold links in
it, when you first open the PDF and hover the mouse over the cold links,
the cursor remains a cursor and it appears that the links are cold.
But don't be fooled - there's a DELAY - if you wait about a few seconds,
then go back and hover over the supposedly cold link again, the link has
changed to hot and clickable.
So Karen, I'm going to try what you said and see if that works when I'm
revising this PDF.
Been remediating for years and Adobe always finds a new way to drive me
crazy lol.
(To make things even more interesting, to save money my main client
switched to Foxit and IMO, Foxit is not ready for prime time when it comes
to remediation. I had to report bugs to Foxit on Day One.)
On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:08 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> This is in Adobe Acrobat not Reader. You can only get to the menu in
> question by right-clicking on a tag in the tags panel.
>
> I found that if "tag annotations" is unchecked while remediating, the
> links remain cold. In other PDFs I remediated where I didn't accidentally
> click that, the problem doesn't occur.
>
> I have the feeling I'm going to have to redo a big chunk of this PDF...ugh
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 2:22 AM Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
>> What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you cannot
>> control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the
>> following structures:
>>
>> [anything]://[anything]
>> www.[anything]
>>
>> In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not
>> https://.
>>
>> It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the
>> focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's
>> just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
>>
>> The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For
>> instance, Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome does
>> create links, but it uses slightly different rules:
>>
>> [http or https]://[anything]
>> www.[anything]
>>
>> The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links
>> automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't
>> think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort to a
>> nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't think
>> that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading the
>> link, but you would need to test it.
>>
>> That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same
>> problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we can
>> do.
>>
>> Steve Green
>> Managing Director
>> Test Partners Ltd
>>
>>
>>
From: Karen McCall
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 8:48AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
Yes! Adobe does present us with new adventures with each version.
I discovered the strange behaviour two years ago when remediating a PDF. I thought previously that the "Create Links from URLs" setting was for when you were tagging a PDF. I hadn't noticed the problem of the "phantom links" until two years ago when I got an annotation error in a PDF document and the links I remediated were created correctly. It took me two days to track down the problem. Once I unchecked that check box while remediating a PDF, I had no problems. I now add it to my training.
Yes, to create accessible links you need to have the Tag Annotations checked.
I agree about Foxit. I don't recommend it. I had to do training on it a few months ago and found many of the tools I rely on in Acrobat were missing or not fully functional. I also found that the latest version of JAWS does not work in the Foxit PDF viewer, so I had to launch Acrobat to test the files anyway.
However, Kofax PowerPDF is worse than Foxit. It tags everything as either a P, Figure or Table tag. There are no heading tags and no list tags even if you start with an accessible Word document. The quality of tagging has significantly deteriorated since Kofax purchase PowerPDF from Nuance in 2019.
Cheers, Karen
From: Laura Roberts
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 8:54AM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
There was already a suggestion on UserVoice which I commented on and added
a sample PDF.
If you want to vote, here you go:
https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/43552239-prevent-acrobat-auto-generated-links
On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:38 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> Did more troubleshooting and both of you are right.
>
> Acrobat is acting a little strange here.
> So what happens is if you create a PDF from a Word doc with cold links in
> it, when you first open the PDF and hover the mouse over the cold links,
> the cursor remains a cursor and it appears that the links are cold.
> But don't be fooled - there's a DELAY - if you wait about a few seconds,
> then go back and hover over the supposedly cold link again, the link has
> changed to hot and clickable.
>
> So Karen, I'm going to try what you said and see if that works when I'm
> revising this PDF.
>
> Been remediating for years and Adobe always finds a new way to drive me
> crazy lol.
> (To make things even more interesting, to save money my main client
> switched to Foxit and IMO, Foxit is not ready for prime time when it comes
> to remediation. I had to report bugs to Foxit on Day One.)
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:08 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
>> This is in Adobe Acrobat not Reader. You can only get to the menu in
>> question by right-clicking on a tag in the tags panel.
>>
>> I found that if "tag annotations" is unchecked while remediating, the
>> links remain cold. In other PDFs I remediated where I didn't accidentally
>> click that, the problem doesn't occur.
>>
>> I have the feeling I'm going to have to redo a big chunk of this PDF...ugh
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 2:22 AM Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you cannot
>>> control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the
>>> following structures:
>>>
>>> [anything]://[anything]
>>> www.[anything]
>>>
>>> In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not
>>> https://.
>>>
>>> It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the
>>> focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's
>>> just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
>>>
>>> The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For
>>> instance, Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome does
>>> create links, but it uses slightly different rules:
>>>
>>> [http or https]://[anything]
>>> www.[anything]
>>>
>>> The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links
>>> automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't
>>> think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort to a
>>> nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't think
>>> that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading the
>>> link, but you would need to test it.
>>>
>>> That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same
>>> problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we can
>>> do.
>>>
>>> Steve Green
>>> Managing Director
>>> Test Partners Ltd
>>>
>>>
>>>
From: Aliu Olaoye
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 2:02PM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
← Previous message | Next message →
Are you guys stupid ? What's all this rubbish in my gmail
On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 4:55 PM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> There was already a suggestion on UserVoice which I commented on and added
> a sample PDF.
>
> If you want to vote, here you go:
>
> https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/43552239-prevent-acrobat-auto-generated-links
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:38 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> wrote:
>
> > Did more troubleshooting and both of you are right.
> >
> > Acrobat is acting a little strange here.
> > So what happens is if you create a PDF from a Word doc with cold links in
> > it, when you first open the PDF and hover the mouse over the cold links,
> > the cursor remains a cursor and it appears that the links are cold.
> > But don't be fooled - there's a DELAY - if you wait about a few seconds,
> > then go back and hover over the supposedly cold link again, the link has
> > changed to hot and clickable.
> >
> > So Karen, I'm going to try what you said and see if that works when I'm
> > revising this PDF.
> >
> > Been remediating for years and Adobe always finds a new way to drive me
> > crazy lol.
> > (To make things even more interesting, to save money my main client
> > switched to Foxit and IMO, Foxit is not ready for prime time when it
> comes
> > to remediation. I had to report bugs to Foxit on Day One.)
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:08 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> This is in Adobe Acrobat not Reader. You can only get to the menu in
> >> question by right-clicking on a tag in the tags panel.
> >>
> >> I found that if "tag annotations" is unchecked while remediating, the
> >> links remain cold. In other PDFs I remediated where I didn't
> accidentally
> >> click that, the problem doesn't occur.
> >>
> >> I have the feeling I'm going to have to redo a big chunk of this
> PDF...ugh
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 2:22 AM Steve Green <
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you
> cannot
> >>> control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the
> >>> following structures:
> >>>
> >>> [anything]://[anything]
> >>> www.[anything]
> >>>
> >>> In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not
> >>> https://.
> >>>
> >>> It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the
> >>> focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's
> >>> just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
> >>>
> >>> The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For
> >>> instance, Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome
> does
> >>> create links, but it uses slightly different rules:
> >>>
> >>> [http or https]://[anything]
> >>> www.[anything]
> >>>
> >>> The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links
> >>> automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't
> >>> think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort
> to a
> >>> nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't
> think
> >>> that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading
> the
> >>> link, but you would need to test it.
> >>>
> >>> That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same
> >>> problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we
> can
> >>> do.
> >>>
> >>> Steve Green
> >>> Managing Director
> >>> Test Partners Ltd
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
From: Dean.Vasile
Date: Wed, Jan 25 2023 2:45PM
Subject: Re: Help! Inadvertently checked "Tag Annotations" in right-click menu
← Previous message | No next message
Aliu
This list is for helping people.
And I feel if you think you're having too much mail in your mailbox either forward it to a new mailbox or unsubscribe from the list.
Dino
617-799-1162
Dino's Canteen 1618
11 Eglin St,
Hanscom AFB
Bedford, MA
> On Jan 25, 2023, at 4:03 PM, Aliu Olaoye < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Are you guys stupid ? What's all this rubbish in my gmail
>
>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 4:55 PM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>
>> There was already a suggestion on UserVoice which I commented on and added
>> a sample PDF.
>>
>> If you want to vote, here you go:
>>
>> https://acrobat.uservoice.com/forums/590923-acrobat-for-windows-and-mac/suggestions/43552239-prevent-acrobat-auto-generated-links
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:38 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Did more troubleshooting and both of you are right.
>>>
>>> Acrobat is acting a little strange here.
>>> So what happens is if you create a PDF from a Word doc with cold links in
>>> it, when you first open the PDF and hover the mouse over the cold links,
>>> the cursor remains a cursor and it appears that the links are cold.
>>> But don't be fooled - there's a DELAY - if you wait about a few seconds,
>>> then go back and hover over the supposedly cold link again, the link has
>>> changed to hot and clickable.
>>>
>>> So Karen, I'm going to try what you said and see if that works when I'm
>>> revising this PDF.
>>>
>>> Been remediating for years and Adobe always finds a new way to drive me
>>> crazy lol.
>>> (To make things even more interesting, to save money my main client
>>> switched to Foxit and IMO, Foxit is not ready for prime time when it
>> comes
>>> to remediation. I had to report bugs to Foxit on Day One.)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 10:08 AM Laura Roberts < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> This is in Adobe Acrobat not Reader. You can only get to the menu in
>>>> question by right-clicking on a tag in the tags panel.
>>>>
>>>> I found that if "tag annotations" is unchecked while remediating, the
>>>> links remain cold. In other PDFs I remediated where I didn't
>> accidentally
>>>> click that, the problem doesn't occur.
>>>>
>>>> I have the feeling I'm going to have to redo a big chunk of this
>> PDF...ugh
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jan 25, 2023, 2:22 AM Steve Green <
>> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What you are describing is a native Adobe Reader feature that you
>> cannot
>>>>> control. It automatically makes text clickable if it has either of the
>>>>> following structures:
>>>>>
>>>>> [anything]://[anything]
>>>>> www.[anything]
>>>>>
>>>>> In the latter case, it adds the protocol http:// to the link, not
>>>>> https://.
>>>>>
>>>>> It does not alter the annotations or tags, so the links are not in the
>>>>> focus order and they are not accessible to assistive technologies. It's
>>>>> just a feature that Adobe thought would be useful to some people.
>>>>>
>>>>> The behaviour is different in other PDF reader applications. For
>>>>> instance, Firefox and VIP PDF Reader do not create any links. Chrome
>> does
>>>>> create links, but it uses slightly different rules:
>>>>>
>>>>> [http or https]://[anything]
>>>>> www.[anything]
>>>>>
>>>>> The only way to prevent Adobe Reader and Chrome from creating links
>>>>> automatically is to use URLs that don't match those structures. I can't
>>>>> think of any nice way to do that, so you would probably need to resort
>> to a
>>>>> nasty hack like adding a very narrow space after the colon. I don't
>> think
>>>>> that would cause any problems for assistive technologies when reading
>> the
>>>>> link, but you would need to test it.
>>>>>
>>>>> That said, I don't like doing hacks like that, so when I had the same
>>>>> problem I just told the client the reason and said there is nothing we
>> can
>>>>> do.
>>>>>
>>>>> Steve Green
>>>>> Managing Director
>>>>> Test Partners Ltd
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>