Hyperlinks in Acrobat try to open files on computer as web documents

Question

I have been sent a large number of pdf files that were converted from Word. They have hyperlinks in them that should open other files on my computer, however, Acrobat 9 on my computer shows them as weblinks (with the W on the cursor when hovered over the hyperlink) and tries to open them with a web browser. The file address in the hyperlink is correct, as if I copy and paste it into a Word document the link opens the file on my computer. An example of one of the links is:
file:///C|/Users/Rob/Documents/Business/AGA/AGA%20-%20for%20Client/AGA%20Support%20-%20Dig ital/008%20HSE%20Performance.xls
Can anyone help with a way of converting these links in Acrobat so they work properly? If not, can you suggest how they may have incorrectly turned from Work hyperlinks into Acrobat weblinks, so I can ask the person who sent them to me to convert them again without the problem recurring.
Many thanks in advance.
Rob

Answer 1

"file://", like "http://" or "mailto://" is a URI/URL scheme. For a discussion of "schemes" visit W3C and associated RFCs.
As such, Adobe Reader/Acrobat knows to inform the OS which knows to hand off execution of the URL to the installed browser.
n.b., the link in PDF meerly reflects what was put in the authoring file by the content author - no "transformers" action by Acrobat.
To fix - create a link that is not a URL; establish a UNC link or relative file link:
--| manually edit the PDF link(s) with Acrobat
--| revisit the orignal authoring file and correct the used link in Word's hypertext dialog.
Be well...