There are eight tabs available to choose from that contain the options of LINK, all of which have different tasks in the process of PDF manipulation. Each will be explained in further detail in the following sections.
Note: If you are unable to see any of the tabs, ensure that they are enabled by going to View > Tabs > PDF Publishing. If you do not see the Tabs menu, ensure you are in Publish, not Review (desktop-based).
Update Appearance
The Update Appearance tab is the first available for LINK in Publish. It is common for submission publishers to receive PDFs containing links and hyperlinks that are not in accordance with ICH and regional guidance and that are not clearly defined in the documents. Manually finding the appropriate links and modifying them to meet eCTD specifications is a tedious task. To assist in this, Publish automatically identifies any existing links and bookmarks, regardless of their formatting. The Update Appearance tab allow users to format those link properties in bulk, saving time and frustration.
It is important to keep in mind that changes are made for both bookmarks and links. To only modify bookmarks, select As Is for any hyperlink settings that will not change, or vice versa on the bookmark tab to modify just link settings.
To apply changed settings, from the Update Appearance tab, select the files requiring updates from the Update dropdown.
You will have the option to select multiple files or the currently selected file in the Navigation tree.
Adjust the appearance settings using the drop-down menus. The Sample Link and Sample Bookmark preview the way links and bookmarks will appear after processing the changes. Remember that all bookmarks AND links will be modified. Please unsure that both sections have been set to the desired formatting or use the As Is selection as available.
Process the changes as discussed in the “Process Changes in LINK in Publish” section.
See the following sections for descriptions of specific settings:
Link Options
Links can be modified in various ways through the LINK tab, such as:
Appearance of hyperlink border and text
Line Color around the hyperlink
Line Style options (Underline, Box, etc.)
Line Width and Highlight Style
Text Color of the link inside of the document
Zoom Type: Modifies the Zoom automatically to the desired type.
Modify Destinations to Relative: When checked, modifies any absolute links.
Delete Broken References: Automatically deletes any references that Publish confirms as broken
Pages: Allows a user to set the pages on which the link actions are to apply.
Bookmark Options
Bookmarks can be modified in the same fashion as hyperlinks. The following options can be modified in regard to bookmarks.
Font Style: Allows a user to select font types for created bookmarks: Bold, Italic, Bold and Italic.
Expand: This sets the bookmarks to be automatically collapsed, expanded, or to use the existing configuration.
Zoom Type: eCTD specifications require PDFs be set to Inherent Zoom; therefore, it is not advised to change this.
Modify Destination to Relative: Automatically changes any absolute bookmark destination to relative.
Title: Allows a user to choose upper, lower, or title case for bookmark titles. This option can also be set to follow the format from the document by selecting As Is.
To Level: Used to delete any bookmarks that are in a child level lower than the selected option.
For example, by choosing 3, any bookmark that is in the fourth level of the hierarchy or lower will no longer show as a bookmark in the document.Trim Whitespaces: Automatically removes extraneous spaces at the beginning or end of a bookmark title.
Title Case Bookmarks
Another available option on the Update Appearance tab is to change bookmarks to comply with title case requirements.
From the Title dropdown, select how you want the bookmarks to appear.
To view and modify the default list of words that will be title cased, click on Title Case Exclusion List icon:
Update Appearance Presets
To simplify the process of modification, Publish gives you the option of saving a group of settings as a Preset. Creating multiple presets saves you time by allowing you to automatically apply a specific combination of settings that have been previously used, instead of applying the same settings manually each time.
To create a preset, click the Add Preset icon:➕ , assign a name, and choose the options and properties applicable to the set. Click the Save Preset icon: 💾
To update a preset, select the set to modify from Preset drop down and choose different settings. Click on Save Preset icon: 💾
To delete a preset, select preset from Preset drop down and click the Delete Preset icon: ❌
The Reset Preset icon (🔄) restores a preset’s original properties if a change was made accidentally.
Checking the Default checkbox will automatically apply the designated preset when the Update Appearance tab is chosen.
Create Bookmarks from Table of Contents
LINK offers you two ways of creating bookmarks for PDFs in bulk. For highly structured documents that have a Table of Contents, bookmarks can be made based on the TOC. If consistent heading properties of text are followed throughout the document, LINK can also automate the creation of bookmarks based on fonts, color, and text size (see the “Bookmarks by Font” section).
Publish can create bookmarks for the document selected in the Files pane and links for the Table of Contents using the Create TOC Bookmarks tab. Choosing Current File uses the file selected in the Navigation pane.
TOC First/Last Page — Set the first and last page numbers that the TOC is to use. For example, if the TOC in your document is only one page, you will use page 1 as the first and last page.
Top and Bottom Margin — Set the margins at the top and bottom of the TOC page(s). This is how much of the page you want LINK to exclude. The blue line near the top in the Preview pane gives a visual indication of what will be excluded from being used for bookmarks. That line moves based on the Top and Bottom Margin settings.
Create Links for the Selected TOC — When checked, a link is created for each entry in the TOC. LINK creates bookmarks based on the links present in the TOC. To create links, the document must have valid destinations for the links in the TOC. If the TOC already contains links, you can leave this option unchecked.
Hierarchy By — Specify how to indicate the levels of TOC entries. There are three options for LINK to create bookmarks.
Indentation creates bookmarks based on indentation of headers in the TOC
0 dot places bookmarks in the hierarchy based on the quantity of periods, as shown in the following screenshot. Each addition of a period or dot will result in a deeper placement inside of the hierarchy. Thus section 3.1 is considered a child of section 3.
1 dot instructs LINK to remove the first dot from consideration when making the hierarchy. Thus, section 3.1 is now on the same level as 3.
In the Bookmark Appearance pane, specify any desired attributes for the bookmarks. For example, if you want the bookmarks to be collapsed when the PDF is opened, you will choose Collapse All.