Adding web and e-mail links in Publish by Zaweba

Plenty of what you make in a page layout app ends up being read on a screen rather than on paper. A newsletter goes out as a PDF attachment, a menu sits on a website, an event flyer is shared in a group chat. In each case it helps if the web address or the e-mail address can simply be clicked.

Publish by Zaweba handles this with Insert > Hyperlink, or Ctrl+K. Select some text, add the link, and it becomes a web or e-mail link. Links are clickable in exported PDFs. On the page itself they show as coloured text, and Ctrl+click does not open them, so editing your layout never sends you off to a browser by accident.

Adding a link

Select the words you want people to click, press Ctrl+K (or choose Insert > Hyperlink), and enter the address. For a website, that is the full web address. For e-mail, it is an e-mail address, so clicking it in the PDF starts a new message in the reader's mail program.

Choose the words with care. "Book your place on our website" with the link on "book your place" tells readers what will happen when they click. A link on a vague word such as "here" is easy to miss and tells them nothing if they are scanning the page.

Printed and on screen at the same time

Most publications will be printed by someone, even if you mainly share them as PDFs. A link that works on screen is useless on paper unless the address itself is visible. For anything that might be printed, it is often best to show a short, readable web address as the link text, so a reader with a paper copy can type it and a reader with the PDF can click it.

Long addresses with lots of slashes and codes are hard to read and harder to type. If you control the website, a short page address is kinder to everyone. An e-mail address is usually short enough to show in full.

How links look on the page

Linked text is coloured on the page, which shows you at a glance which words carry a link. That also helps readers of the PDF recognise them. If the link colour clashes with your design, think about where you place links. A contact panel or the bottom of a column is a natural home, rather than scattering them through a headline.

Because Ctrl+click does not follow links while you work, you can click into linked text and edit it like any other text. To check that a link goes to the right place, export a PDF and click it there. That is the version your readers will use, so it is the right place to test.

Where links pay off

Newsletters are the clearest case: links to a club website, a booking form or an e-mail address for the editor. Menus shared online can link to an ordering page. Event flyers can link to a ticket page or a map. Business documents such as a letterhead used for PDFs can carry a clickable e-mail address in the footer.

For a web PDF meant for e-mail or a website, Publish can export a lighter file with smaller pictures, and the links work there just the same as in the print-ready version.

Checks before you send

Before the PDF goes out, open it and click every link. Typos in web addresses are common and invisible on the page. Check e-mail links open a new message to the right address. If a link points at a page that might move or close, such as a one-off booking form, make sure it will still be there for as long as the publication is in circulation.

Links are a small detail, but in a PDF from Publish by Zaweba they turn a printed style page into something readers can act on with one click.