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I want to hyperlink to a certain page of a pdf file created with LaTeX from an HTML context or just as a plain-text link outside the file, e.g. using <a href="...">...</a>. Is it possible to specify the page at which the pdf is opened?

Knowing how different pdf viewers are, there might be a solution that only works with Adobe Reader, that'd be ok though.

Can you have hyperlinks to locations in different PDFs? is a similar question about internal (LaTeX) hyperlinks.

I know this question is just borderline on-topic, it can be considered as being about

  • (La)TeX related software and tools like BibTeX, LyX, LaTeX editors, viewers, and converters

(from the FAQ). I posted it because I thought it could be valuable for answering questions here, e.g. if you want to link to a certain page of The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List or some other lengthy document. Likewise, people dealing with LaTeX often put their documents online and might want to provide detailed links.

Community
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doncherry
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  • I actually know a/the solution to this question, but in accordance with http://meta.tex.stackexchange.com/questions/4/asking-a-question-and-answering-it-yourself-straight-away I'll wait a day or two for other people to answer and complement answers given with my knowledge, if necessary. Just thought it's an interesting feature worth sharing with tex.sx. – doncherry Aug 17 '11 at 09:14
  • You can link to a specific page in a PDF from another PDF, but there is most likely no specified way to link from a browser to a PDF page. The browser would have to pass that information along to the viewer ... – Martin Scharrer Aug 17 '11 at 09:14
  • @Martin: As mentioned above, there is a way; I just confirmed that it works with Firefox 6, Adobe Reader 10 (FF Plugin), Windows 7 64-bit. Doesn't work with Safari or Internet Explorer, though. – doncherry Aug 17 '11 at 09:19

1 Answers1

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I doubt that there is an official way to do this (i.e. one mentioned in either the PDF or (X)HTML specification), but I could of course be wrong.

For Adobe Acrobat (in a web browser) it seems to work the following way as mentioned at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/317/317300.html:

<A HREF="http://www.example.com/myfile.pdf#page=4">

Simply attach #page=4 to the PDF link. (I myself was first thinking about ?page=4 instead, but # actually makes more sense.)

Example:
http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/adjustbox/adjustbox.pdf#page=11

Or as formatted link:
[`adjustbox` manual, page 11](http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/adjustbox/adjustbox.pdf#page=11)
⇒ adjustbox manual, page 11

doncherry
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Martin Scharrer
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    I think it might be of use for people to record whether or not solutions work for their combination of browser and viewer in the comments after each solution. – Andrew Stacey Aug 17 '11 at 09:29
  • Doesn't work: Linux, FF6.0, xpdf called externally (ie not as a plugin) – Andrew Stacey Aug 17 '11 at 09:30
  • Works: Win7 (64bit), FF6.0, Adobe Reader 10 called internally (plugin) – doncherry Aug 17 '11 at 09:42
  • Doesn't work: Win7 (64bit), Safari 5.1 and Internet Explorer 9.0, Adobe Reader 10 called internally (plugin) – doncherry Aug 17 '11 at 09:44
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    The good news, though, is that while the pdf doesn't open at the specified page for Safari and IE, it still opens, so using this solution doesn't do any harm. – doncherry Aug 17 '11 at 09:45
  • Works: Firefox 6.0 under Ubuntu 11.04 64 Bit with Adobe Acrobat 9.4.2 as browser plugin. – Martin Scharrer Aug 17 '11 at 09:56
  • Doesn't work: Ubuntu (64-bit), Firefox 6.0, evince called externally (ie not as a plugin). (Opens pdf though but viewing the first page.) – N.N. Aug 17 '11 at 17:45
  • Correction: For Safari 5.1.1 (Win7), http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/adjustbox/adjustbox.pdf#page=11 doesn't work, but ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/tex/macros/latex/contrib/adjustbox/adjustbox.pdf#page=11 works. The redirection from the mirror seems to make a difference. – doncherry Oct 17 '11 at 17:23
  • Doesn't work: OS X, Safari 6.0.5, built-in viewer (I'm guessing Preview.app-ish) – You Aug 07 '13 at 20:22
  • Works: Firefox 31.0 (Fedora 20), built-in viewer – alfC Aug 27 '14 at 06:30