Making InDesign Buttons with Hyperlinks
Jennifer wrote:
I am trying to make an interactive PDF using buttons and rollovers. I set up the rollover (which works just fine). However in the rollover state, I have text that I would like to use as a hyperlink to navigate to a specific page, and the hyperlinks are not working!
This is an interesting problem, because InDesign’s interface doesn’t always make it clear how to create certain interactive features. In this case, it sounds as though you assigned a hyperlink to the text with the Hyperlinks panel. That may be logical, but it’s doomed to failure because the hyperlink is being lost inside the button object. That is, when you export a PDF, InDesign is creating two objects: The one with the hyperlink and the one with the button. The button sits on top of the hyperlink, so the person viewing it can never “click through” to the hyperlink. Frustrating!
Instead, if you want to make a button that triggers a hyperlink to a Web page, it’s better to assign that action using the Button Options dialog box.
Here’s how you do it in CS2 or CS3: After making the button (either by choosing Object > Interactive > Convert to Button or using the Button tool), double-click on the edge of the button object to open the Button Options dialog box (or choose object > interactive > button options). Then click on the Behaviors tab and choose Go to URL from the Behavior pop-up menu. Type in the URL, click the Add button, then click OK.
Now the button itself will trigger the hyperlink, and you don’t need to use the Hyperlinks panel at all. Also, don’t forget to turn on the Interactive Elements checkbox in the Export PDF dialog box! Without that, the buttons don’t work at all.
Dave, as far as I have experienced you will have to create hyperlink destinations in the Hyperlink panel if you want to jump to specific pages using the “go to anchor” option in the Button Option dialog box.
(However - I cannot check it out at the moment.)
Jennifer wants to go to specific pages.
Best regards
Nina Storm
Interesting thought, Nina. I read it differently. But you make a very good point: You do need a text anchor in order to go to a specific page in a PDF. This appears to be a technical limitation for PDFs, which I’ve never understood. But whatever the case, here’s how you do that:
1. Go to the page you want to target, place the text cursor inside any text frame (even a new empty one), and choose New Hyperlink Destination from the Hyperlinks panel menu.
2. Choose Text Anchor from the Type pop-up menu, then give the anchor a name.
3. Go back and select the button, then open Button Options. Instead of the Go to URL behavior, choose Go to Anchor. (If you’ve already used Go to URL, you’ll need to select it in the list of actions on the left and delete it.)
4. Choose the anchor you just created, click Add, click OK, and you should be good to go.
Thanks, David. But now that the CS4 is out of the bag, could you illuminate us on whether there are improvements in the Hyperlink mechanism (which I’ think has pretty much sucked so far)? I particularly have in mind the updating speed of the Hyperlinks panel when there are many, many (several thousand!) hyperlinks in the document.
There are significant improvements in the UI, though I’m still not satisfied, and I hope they streamline things more in CS5. I don’t know if they’ve done any work on speeding things up when there are thousands of hyperlinks. Sorry. You’ll have to try it and let us know when you get a chance.
One of the changes in CS4’s UI is elimination of the button tool. To create a button, you must use the convert to button function.
The overhaul that this has gotten is very much improved. I always had problems getting states to work the way I want them to. It was just very clunky.
In CS4 it just seem far more intuitive. But like David I have no idea how well it works with oodles and oodles of hyperlinks.
I read the problem above differently and I am having a similar problem of my own. I believe that InDesign doesn’t currently have the capability to do this, but please enlighten me…
I created a rollover tool bar; within this toolbar, I placed other buttons (i.e. next pg, previous pg, close, etc.) However, after exporting to pdf, the rollover toolbar seems to be ‘arranged’ above the other buttons, therefore, when mousing over it, the rollover works perfectly, but the other button within it don’t work. Is there a solution?
I also have a button- problem: I make the buttons as said by Jennifer, but when exported to pdf the buttons disappear, they are not visible or clickable. Could this be a bug in Indesign?
@Barbara: Make sure you read the last paragraph in the post above… if you don’t turn on Interactive Elements, the buttons disappear.
@Mariano: No, PDF’s buttons aren’t really very robust for making things like drop down menus and buttons that overlap other buttons, etc.
@ david: stupid me.. thanks!
@ Mariano / David:
Same here: in the exported pdf, all my buttons are being ‘arranged’ above all other elements, completely ignoring the initial stacking order of layers.
hi there.
I’ve got an issue with the buttons. I’ve got hundreds of the same button to copy and paste with the same exit and enter mouse over states. However when I copy and paste it from one page to another, the states dont copy over and I’ve got to set them one by one. HELP!? anyone?
tallulah
@tallulah: Are you in CS3 or CS4? Do you really need to copy the buttons? Why not put them on a master page? I don’t know why the states aren’t coming along for the ride… make sure you select with the Selection tool.
@David: In CS3 but checked on CS4 also no joy. unfortunately. Tried using the library but i’m tryin to keep the file size down so would like to use only 1 item instead of multiples copies of the same file especially if the client has a minor change! omg!
Cant really put them on the master page as the buttons live in different places on different pages. Yes triple checked that I’m using the selection tool.
I’m still reading through other forums but seems like no one else has this issue.
I’m using ID CS3 and I’m having 2 specific issues with buttons and rollovers that I can’t seem to figure out:
I created a catalog for print that turned out great, and I want to create a nice interactive pdf version for the web.
1)I want all of my buttons to be invisible in the up state to preserve the appearance of the original layout, and then have a very light fill, but on rollover/down state only.
I’ve tried creating a button frame, adding a down state and then adding a fill to that state, but the fill always shows up in the up state as well, and if I delete it there, then it is gone from the down state. It all seems very counter-intuitive!
2) I want some buttons to take the user to a specific page in the catalog, but in the behaviors panel I don’t see that option, just options for next, previous, etc.
Any help on these 2 issues would be very much appreciated!
Would anyone be able to tell me how to add mailto: hyperlinks to text when exporting from indesign to swf format.
My standard links are all fine but the mailto: links don’t open an email window.
Thanks in advance.
T
@Tim: I’m a bit blurry this morning, but if I’m not mistaken that was a bug that was fixed in the free CS4 6.01 update.
David Blatner - Thankyou.
If you are ever anywhere near Tower Bridge in London I will buy you a beer.
Cheers guvner.
T
Hi All,
I have been searching and searching for a solution regarding pdf’s and hyperlinks an thought one of you might be able to answer it for me.
I am trying to import a pdf that contains hyperlinks to an InDesign file. When the pdf (which is a graphic) is placed in the InDesign file, I lose the hyperlinks that exist in the pdf. Is there a way to preserve these hyperlinks so that they can be accessed in the InDesign file and eventually the exported pdf of this entire document?
Thanks in advance for any insight!
@Jenna: Sorry, but InDesign cannot “see” any interactive features inside a placed PDF. This has been a source of longstanding frustration for me!
The only “solution” is to insert the PDF using Acrobat after your ID PDF is exported.
InDesign CS3: have created named destinations for my document, however the link is going to the wrong page. Have checked the URL in the Hyperlink Named desitination and it is correct, but when I export to PDF it still goes to the incorrect page.
For example
link text to: http://www.blahblahblah.com/19
using named destination “sandwiches”
but when i click on link in pdf it goes to
http://www.blahblahblah.com/29
which is really “dessert”
Have multiple versions of same documents; all but 2 are having this problem. Created links independently in each document, did not cut & paste.
Ok, hopefully someone will be able to help me out on this one.
I’m making some buttons in CS4 for an online pdf version of our quarterly publication. I’m setting up the default view to 2-up continuous cover page. There’s a “home” button on the bottom of each page that goes to the TOC page (pg. 2) via an anchored object like specified above. Then there are back and forward buttons right next to the home buttons on the left and right pages, respectively.
The buttons are working great. However, the home button’s clickable area overlaps with that of the forward and back buttons. Is there a way to adjust the clickable area so that it stays tight to the object?
I need help! I have a 43 page document with an index. I have created buttons that allow the user to click on the word in the index and “jump” to the section in the PDF document. My problem is that when I want to add another item to my index in Indesign the text moves but the buttons don’t. Is there a way to attach the buttons to their corresponding text? thanks
I’m trying to use a hyperlink on a master page that has then been imported as a master page in a series of documents which are then exported to PDF. So far, no luck. InDesign CS3 (PC)
FWIW, my brother’s used InDesign for quite a while now as he continuously adds to and revises a huge bicycle mechanics manual. After a week or so on the phone with Adobe he gave up the entire idea of bothering with hyperlinks in InDesign because of how they change when exported to PDF. He does as much as he can on master pages, but when it comes to serious linking among the myriad chapters of his ever evolving manual, he swears by Acrobat for reliable results. There’s most likely a trade-off in terms of how sexy your design can be when working the way he does (hey, it’s just a huge manual), but if you want reliable consistent responses from hyperlinks, especially when you have tons of them as he does, try that stage in Acrobat and see if you aren’t less frustrated. My .02