Imperial War Museum: Opening up the PDF front

Adding hyperlinks to PDF documents has been possible for several years but is still a relatively rare use of the format.

The Site

The collection of the UK’s Imperial War Museum covers Britain and the Commonwealth’s involvement in conflicts from the First World War onwards and includes large archives of photographic and written material from official records to personal diaries and letters. Its website features a Family History section, accessible from the home page, that explains how individuals can make use of the museum’s archives for their own research.

Part of the advice takes the form of five PDF-formatted guides to researching family history through military archives. Each has references to sources other than the museum’s collections, many of which are hyperlinked so that the external sites can be accessed from within the guide when viewed online.

The Takeaway

Adding hyperlinks to PDF documents has been possible for several years and desktop software is now readily available that will allow hyperlinks to be retained in documents being converted to PDF from other formats. But Imperial War Museum’s is still a relatively rare use of the facility.

Most PDF documents offered online are part of a library service, in which role they have greatly added to the web’s value as a research tool. Straight copies or scans of a print document, such as an annual report or technical specification sheet, they allow users to download or print off material there and then without the site owner needing to recreate the document as a web page. Lack of interactivity betrays their print origins.

Imperial War Museum’s guides almost certainly began life offline as well, but it has recognised that users of its Family History section are not so advanced in their research as someone looking for a spec sheet. Providing live links within the guides is therefore an appropriate use of additional PDF functionality, bridging the gap between a static PDF and a web page so there is no need to create an additional HTML version of such a simple document.

First published on 26 October, 2004