Controlling web links in PDFs with PDF by Zaweba

Links in PDFs are useful and occasionally risky. A document from a stranger can contain a link dressed up as something harmless, and a click sends your browser somewhere you didn't expect. PDF by Zaweba lets you decide how web links in documents behave, and keep a list of sites you trust.

The internet access settings offer three choices. The app can ask before opening web links, always open them, or never open them. Alongside, a list of trusted web sites lets chosen sites open without asking.

The three choices

Ask before opening is the balanced setting, and the one most people will want. Click a link and the app asks before opening it. That small pause is often enough to notice that a link labelled with your bank's name actually points somewhere else.

Always open is the convenient setting. Links behave as they would on a web page. It suits someone who mostly reads their own documents, or manuals from sources they know well, and finds the question tiresome.

Never open is the cautious setting. Links in documents do nothing. It suits a PC used for handling documents from many unknown senders, or anyone who would simply rather type addresses themselves.

Trusted sites

The trusted list sits between those choices. Leave the setting on Ask, then add the sites you open often, such as your own company's website or a supplier's catalogue. Links to those open straight away, and everything else still asks. You get convenience where it's safe and a pause everywhere else.

Keep the list short and specific. Adding a site you only visited once undoes the point of asking.

Why this matters for an offline app

PDF by Zaweba does its work offline. It opens, edits, signs and prints documents without going online, and your files stay on your PC. A link is one of the few places a document can reach outwards, so it makes sense for you to be in charge of it. Combined with the app's approach to scripts, which it never runs, it means a PDF can't quietly send you somewhere by itself.

The same thinking runs through the rest of the app. A Send button on a form asks before posting values. Checking a signature's revocation status online happens only if you switch it on. Internet access is something you choose each time, never a default you have to discover.

Links in documents you make

If you're preparing a document for others, remember they may be using a cautious setting too. Make link text describe where it goes, so a reader who is asked can recognise it. And if you're cleaning up a document before sharing, Remove hidden information can list and remove links, along with scripts and actions, if you'd rather the copy you send has none.

A sensible setup

For most people: set it to Ask, add a handful of trusted sites you use every week, and leave it. Revisit the list now and then and remove sites you no longer use. If you handle a lot of documents from outside sources, consider Never and copy addresses by hand when you need them.

It is a small setting, but like much of PDF by Zaweba, it's there so that the documents on your PC do only what you tell them to.