Links & bookmarks

This group adds navigation to a PDF: clickable links and the bookmarks they can jump to. You can link out to a web address, link from one place in the document to a named spot elsewhere in the same document, and mark those spots so links can find them. It also lets you turn a rectangular area of a page into a clickable “hotspot” that jumps to another page.

Prerequisite: before using any of these instructions, the workflow must already have a PDF created (with Create PDF).

These concepts recur across the instructions in this group; they are explained here once.

• Document: indicates which document in the workflow the instruction applies to. If left empty, the current document is used. If the document doesn’t exist (or is not a PDF), the instruction simply does nothing.

• Bookmarks and links work together. A bookmark is an invisible named marker placed at a spot in the document; a bookmark link is clickable text that jumps to a bookmark with that name. Create the bookmark with Insert Bookmark, then point a link at it by its name. A link to a name that doesn’t exist simply won’t navigate.

• Link styling has defaults you can change. The clickable text created by Insert Bookmark Link and Insert External Hyperlink comes out blue and underlined (the usual link look), but Color (hex) and Underline let you change both, and you can additionally make it bold and/or italic. Leaving Color (hex) empty keeps the paragraph’s own color.

• Where the link appears. Insert Bookmark Link and Insert External Hyperlink each add a new paragraph at the end of the document with the link inside it. Insert Page Link is different: it places an invisible clickable rectangle on a page and adds no visible text.

• Dynamic values (@name): in a text field (link text, URL, bookmark name) you can type @ followed by the name of a value saved earlier in the workflow, and it will be replaced by that value.

• “From variable” fields: the @name trick only works in text fields. In this group only Insert Page Link has numeric fields, and every one of them — the two page numbers and the four position and size fields — has a companion “from variable” field:

  • If you leave it empty, the number typed in the normal field is used.
  • If you fill it in with the name of a saved value, the engine ignores the normal field and reads the number from that variable.

  This is mainly for chaining instructions — for example, placing the clickable area wherever an earlier instruction left it. If you only work with fixed values, you can ignore these fields.

• Insert Bookmark .pdf
• Insert Bookmark Link .pdf
• Insert External Hyperlink .pdf
• Insert Page Link .pdf

Insert Bookmark .pdf

Places an invisible named marker at the current position in the document, so that links elsewhere can jump to it.

When to use it: to mark a destination — a chapter start, a section, a “top of page” — that an Insert Bookmark Link can point to by name.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Bookmark name	Name (identifier) of the bookmark; accepts @name	my_bookmark	Yes (empty = no action)

Important behavior: the bookmark is invisible — it adds no visible text. It is attached to the last paragraph if the document already has one; otherwise a new empty paragraph is created to hold it. If the bookmark name is empty, nothing happens.

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Insert Bookmark Link .pdf

Adds a new paragraph containing clickable text that jumps to a bookmark within the same document.

When to use it: for table-of-contents entries, “back to top” links, or any cross-reference inside the same PDF.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Link text	Visible text of the link; accepts @name	Go to bookmark	No
Bookmark name	Name of the bookmark to jump to; accepts @name	my_bookmark	Yes (empty = no action)
Bold	Show the link text in bold	No	No
Italic	Show the link text in italic	No	No
Color (hex)	Link color, 6 hex characters. Empty = keep the paragraph’s color. Accepts @name	0000C8 (blue)	No
Underline	Show the link text underlined	Yes	No
Bold (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Italic (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Underline (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: by default the link text is blue and underlined; Color (hex) and Underline change that (empty color = the paragraph’s own color). If the bookmark name is empty, nothing happens. For the link to actually land somewhere, a bookmark with the same name must exist (created with Insert Bookmark); a link to a missing name won’t navigate.

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Insert External Hyperlink .pdf

Adds a new paragraph containing clickable text that opens a web address (or other external link) in the browser.

When to use it: to link from the PDF to a website, an email address, or any online resource.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Link text	Visible text of the link; accepts @name	Click here	No
URL	Web address the link opens; accepts @name	(empty)	Yes (empty = no action)
Bold	Show the link text in bold	No	No
Italic	Show the link text in italic	No	No
Color (hex)	Link color, 6 hex characters. Empty = keep the paragraph’s color. Accepts @name	0000C8 (blue)	No
Underline	Show the link text underlined	Yes	No
Bold (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Italic (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No
Underline (from variable)	Reads the yes/no value from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: with the default values the link looks the way it always did — blue and underlined — but you can now recolor it or drop the underline. An empty Color (hex) leaves the paragraph’s own color (the link still works); an invalid hex code becomes black. If the URL is empty, nothing happens.

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Insert Page Link .pdf

Turns a rectangular area of a page into an invisible clickable “hotspot” that jumps to another page in the same PDF.

When to use it: to make a clickable region — over an image, a drawn button, or a shape — that navigates to a specific page.

Parameter	Meaning	Default	Required
Document	Document the instruction applies to	(current document)	No
Source page	Page that carries the clickable area (starts at 1)	1	No
Target page	Page the click jumps to (starts at 1)	2	No
X position (cm)	Left edge of the clickable area, from the left of the page	0	No
Y position (cm)	Top edge of the clickable area, from the top of the page	0	No
Width (cm)	Width of the clickable area	5.3	No
Height (cm)	Height of the clickable area	0.7	No
Source page (from variable)	Reads the source page from a saved value	(empty)	No
Target page (from variable)	Reads the target page from a saved value	(empty)	No
X position (from variable)	Reads the left edge from a saved value	(empty)	No
Y position (from variable)	Reads the top edge from a saved value	(empty)	No
Width (from variable)	Reads the width from a saved value	(empty)	No
Height (from variable)	Reads the height from a saved value	(empty)	No

Important behavior: the clickable area is added when the PDF is saved. It is invisible — it adds no visible text or border, only a clickable region. Positions and sizes are in centimetres, measured from the top-left corner of the page, the same as everywhere else in the app. If the source or target page number is out of range (below 1 or beyond the last page), nothing is added.

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