I have multiple Word docs that all link to each other via bookmark hyperlinking. So doc 1 might link to a specific paragraph in doc 2 etc.

Ultimately the Word docs will all have to be built as 1 PDF, which will probably be achieved by building each one as a PDF then merging the PDFs at the end (unless there is a better way).

The trouble with this as far as i can see, is I will lose all the linking between documents. I've tested what happens to the links to external Word docs when PDF'd, and it still links to a Word doc (as one might expect). So if i PDF doc 1, the link in the PDF still points to the Word version of doc 2, whereas obviously I need it to link to its equivalent PDF file.

Then there is the issue of merging them and what will happen to the links then.

Can anybody suggest a good way forward here please? I somehow need to retain the linking between the docs when they're PDF'd and merged.

The only ways I can think of (which may show the limits of my imagination) are:

1. Use Adobe Acrobat and modify the links in your end product.
2. Prior to conversion, combine all of your documents in Word and modify the external links to internal ones. Then save as PDF.

Neither of these will be easy.