Create Hyperlinks in PDF with Make

What this module does

PDF4me — PDF - Create Hyperlinks turns any text string in a PDF into a clickable link inside a Make scenario. You tell it which text to find, where it should point, and which pages to search — the module handles the rest. No coordinates, no manual annotation, no PDF editor open on a desktop.

Authenticating Your API Request

Every PDF4me module in Make requires a valid Connection. Create or select one that holds your PDF4me API key so the scenario can call the hyperlink service securely.

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Important Facts You Should Not Miss

Text-search targeting — no coordinates needed

Most PDF link APIs require you to specify exact x/y coordinates. This module finds the text for you — type the word or phrase you want to become clickable and it handles the positioning automatically.

New Text optionally replaces the label

Leave New Text empty and the original searched text stays visible as the link label. Fill it in to replace what the reader sees — useful for turning a raw URL or a product code into readable anchor text.

Chain modules for multiple links

One module handles one text-to-URL pair. To add several different links to the same document, connect multiple Create Hyperlinks modules in sequence — each one receives the output of the previous.

Enter the exact text to find in Searched Text, the destination in Input URL, and which pages to search in Pages.

Parameters

Required: Connection, Searched Text, and Input URL. New Text and Pages are optional.

Parameter	Required	What it does	Example
Connection	Yes	PDF4me API connection used to authenticate hyperlink creation requests.	Your PDF4me connection
File	Yes	Source PDF. Choose Dropbox - Download a File for a direct Dropbox trigger, or Map to wire filename and binary data from a prior module.	Dropbox - Download a File
Searched Text	Yes	The exact text string in the PDF that will become a clickable hyperlink. The module searches the specified pages for this text and wraps every occurrence in a link annotation.	Welcome
New Text	No	Optional label that replaces what the reader sees over the link. Leave empty to keep the original searched text as the visible link label.	Visit our site
Input URL	Yes	The destination URL the hyperlink points to. Readers are taken to this address when they click the linked text.	https://example.com/
Pages	No	Pages to search for the text. Accepts a single number, a comma-separated list (1,3,5), a range (2-4), or the word all. Defaults to all if left empty.	all

Quick Setup

1. Add PDF4me → PDF - Create Hyperlinks to your scenario.
2. Select Connection (or click Add to create one with your API key).
3. Set File to Dropbox - Download a File or Map from a prior module.
4. In Searched Text, type the exact text you want to make clickable (e.g. Welcome or a product name).
5. Optionally enter New Text if you want the visible label to read differently from the searched text.
6. Paste the destination address into Input URL.
7. Set Pages — type all for every page, or target specific pages like 1,3 or 2-4.
8. Save and click Run once. The output contains Document Name and Document Data — the PDF with hyperlinks applied.

Output

Field	Type	What it contains
Document Name	String	Filename of the output PDF with hyperlinks applied.
Document Data	Buffer	Binary content of the PDF with link annotations added. Map this into an upload, email, or further processing module.

Workflow Examples

Workflow ExamplesCommon Make scenario patterns that use PDF - Create Hyperlinks to enrich documents automatically.

Add product links to a generated catalog

1. A scheduled scenario fetches the latest product list from your database and generates a catalog PDF.
2. An iterator loops over each product name from the list.
3. Create Hyperlinks runs once per product — Searched Text = product name, Input URL = product page URL.
4. After the loop, every product name in the catalog is a live link to its shop page.
5. The finished interactive catalog is uploaded to Google Drive and emailed to the sales team.

Enrich report citations with source URLs

1. A monthly report PDF is generated from a Google Docs template.
2. A data store holds a list of citation labels and their matching URLs.
3. Create Hyperlinks runs once per citation — turning each label into a clickable source link.
4. Readers can click any citation in the PDF to open the original source in their browser.
5. The enriched report is stored in SharePoint and distributed to stakeholders.

Link policy document sections to an FAQ page

1. HR uploads a new policy PDF to a watched Dropbox folder.
2. Create Hyperlinks searches for the phrase "More information" on all pages.
3. Every occurrence becomes a link to the HR FAQ page on the company intranet.
4. A second chained module converts the phrase "Submit a request" into a link to the ticketing system.
5. The finished PDF is saved to the HR document library and emailed to all staff.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the module require coordinates to place the hyperlink?+

No. You provide the exact text string in Searched Text and the module handles positioning automatically. The PDF4me engine scans each targeted page, finds every occurrence of that string, and wraps it in a URI annotation — no x/y coordinates, bounding boxes, or pixel offsets needed. This approach remains reliable even when the same document is generated from different templates with slightly shifted content, because positioning is always derived fresh from the live text location. It also works correctly after content shifts caused by font changes or added paragraphs.

What does New Text do?+

New Text replaces the visible label that readers see over the clickable link. If the searched text is a raw product code like SKU-4892 and you enter Shop this product in New Text, readers see the friendlier label instead of the code. This is especially useful when the text in your PDF is a reference number or raw URL that is technically correct but not reader-friendly as a link label. Leave New Text empty and the original searched text remains the visible anchor — nothing changes in appearance except that the text becomes clickable. The New Text value does not affect which text the module searches for; Searched Text always controls matching.

What if the same text appears multiple times on a page?+

Every occurrence of the searched text on the targeted pages becomes a clickable link pointing to the same Input URL. For example, if Welcome appears in the header, the body, and a sidebar, all three instances become links in one module run. If you need different occurrences to point to different URLs, replace the text in your source so each instance is unique, or use separate chained modules with slightly different search phrases. Matching is case-sensitive, so Welcome and welcome are treated as distinct strings.

Can I add multiple different hyperlinks to the same PDF?+

Yes, by chaining modules in the same Make scenario. Map the Document Data output of the first Create Hyperlinks module directly into the File input of a second module, each configured with its own Searched Text and Input URL. You can stack as many modules as needed — there is no Make-imposed limit on chaining. For a catalogue with many product names, use an iterator to loop over a data store and pass each name and URL through a single Create Hyperlinks module once per iteration. The result is a fully linked PDF built entirely within Make without opening a PDF editor.

Do the hyperlinks work in all PDF viewers?+

The module creates a standard PDF URI annotation as defined in the PDF specification, supported natively in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat, the built-in viewers on Windows (Microsoft Edge), macOS (Preview), iOS, and Android, and all major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. When a reader clicks the annotated text, the default browser opens the destination URL. Very old proprietary viewers that pre-date the PDF 1.1 annotation standard may not recognise the annotation, but those are no longer in common use. The annotation is not affected by PDF compression or linearization applied by other modules in the same scenario.

Related Modules

Delete Hyperlink

Remove specific hyperlinks from a PDF — the companion to this module when you need to clean up outdated or broken links.

Extract Hyperlinks

Read all existing hyperlinks out of a PDF before adding new ones — useful for auditing what links are already in the document.

Get Document Information

Check the page count before setting the Pages field — helpful when you only want to add links to certain pages of a long document.

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