How to Import a Hyperlinked Planner into GoodNotes (So the Links Actually Work)

You've bought a hyperlinked digital planner. You open it on your iPad, tap a month expecting to jump to it, and… nothing. The page doesn't move.

The planner isn't broken. It almost certainly got opened rather than imported, and those are two different things that look identical until you tap something.

Why this happens

A hyperlinked planner is a normal PDF with internal link annotations — invisible rectangles sitting over the page, each pointing at another page in the same file. Tap one, the app jumps you there. That's the entire mechanism.

The catch is that not every way of opening a PDF preserves those annotations.

Quick-preview modes — iOS Quick Look, some cloud-drive viewers, "open a copy" in certain apps — render the visible page and drop the interactive layer. You get a picture of the planner rather than the planner. Everything looks perfect and nothing responds.

Importing brings the file in whole, links included.

GoodNotes

1. Save the PDF somewhere real first — the Files app, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox. Not left sitting in an email attachment.
2. Open GoodNotes and go to your Documents tab.
3. Tap + then Import.
4. Find the PDF and select it.
5. If GoodNotes offers a choice, choose to import as a document, not as an image or a template.

Then test it: tap a month, tap a week, tap back. Three taps tells you everything.

One GoodNotes-specific gotcha — if you're in an editing mode with a pen or highlighter selected, taps get treated as attempts to draw rather than attempts to navigate. Switch to the hand or pointer tool and try again. This catches a lot of people who assume the links are dead.

Notability

1. Open Notability and tap Import (or drag the PDF straight into the app).
2. Choose Import as a note.
3. Wait for it to finish — a long planner takes a moment.

Same test afterwards. Same tool caveat: if you're in a drawing tool, switch out of it before deciding the links don't work.

Other apps

Noteshelf, CollaNote, Xodo, Samsung Notes, Penbook all handle PDF link annotations. The wording differs — Import, Add Document, Open PDF — but the principle holds: bring the file into the app rather than previewing it from outside.

On a laptop or desktop, most PDF readers handle internal links without any setup. Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on a Mac, Edge and Chrome's built-in viewers all work fine.

Still not working? Run through this

• Are you in a drawing tool? Genuinely the most common cause. Switch to the hand or selection tool.
• Did you import, or open? If you're unsure, you opened it. Delete it from the app and import again properly.
• Is it the whole file? A partial download — interrupted on patchy wifi — can produce a file that renders but has broken references. Re-download it and check the file size looks right.
• Did it go through a converter? Anything that flattens, compresses, splits or "optimises" a PDF will usually strip the link layer. Use the original file.
• Is it a screenshot? Sounds obvious, but people do save a screenshot of the cover and wonder why it isn't interactive.

Once it works

Keep the original file somewhere safe. Any time you want a clean copy — new year, fresh start, you've scribbled over March — duplicate the original rather than trying to erase your way back. That's the real advantage of a digital planner over paper: it's the only notebook you can un-ruin.

It's also worth knowing that duplicating within GoodNotes preserves the links, so a fresh copy is a few seconds' work.

Our planners

The 2026–2027 Digital Weekly Planner has footer navigation on every single page — Prev Week, Month, Year, Next Week — always in the same spot, so once your thumb learns where it is you stop looking.

The Meal Planner works the same way, with a tappable contents page and a link back to it from everywhere.

Both are built and tested for GoodNotes and Notability, and every link is checked before the file ships.

If you've imported correctly and something still won't work, message us. We'll sort it the same day — and if we can't, you shouldn't be out of pocket for a file that doesn't do what it says.