Creating Interactive Documents in Adobe InDesign

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March 15, 2009

by Carol Alexander

As we move away from the days when the printed version of a document was always the definitive one, Adobe’s PDF format becomes more and more important. InDesign allows you to create PDF documents; you don’t need a separate copy of Acrobat for this purpose. In addition to creating the PDF, InDesign also allows you to make it interactive, thus enhancing the user experience of anyone who opens it. To ensure that the various interactive features are included in the PDF, you must activate the “Interactive Elements” option in the Export PDF dialog box.

There are five main types of interactivity which InDesign allows you to add to your PDFs: bookmarks, links, buttons, video and transitions. When viewing a PDF file in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, bookmarks are normally displayed in a panel on the left of your screen; clicking a bookmark takes you to the page to which the bookmark relates. Links and buttons are hotspots which, when clicked, instigate an action of some sort, such as opening a web URL. QuickTime video can now be embedded in a PDF file and transitions are useful when you want to create PDFs that can be viewed in a similar way to PowerPoint presentations.

Bookmarks are typically generated automatically in InDesign and are linked to the table of contents feature. The table of contents definition window contains an option for creating bookmarks. If this is activated, InDesign will automatically generate a bookmark corresponding to each item in the table of contents pointing to the appropriate page.

Links can also be created from the table of contents in much the same way. Each table of contents entry will automatically become a clickable link which will take the user to the related page. In addition, InDesign has a button tool which allows users to create an invisible button superimposed on any part of a page. Using the Button Options command, you can then specify what will happen when the button is clicked. Thus, for example, you could create a button over your company logo and specify that, if it is clicked, it will take the user to your company’s home page.

Video is imported into InDesign using the Place command in the File menu. The only recognised format is QuickTime. Once the video clip has been placed, you can right-click it and choose Movie Options. Here, you can choose when the movie plays, whether it is embedded in the PDF file or referenced externally and whether the QuickTime controller will be visible.

The Transitions panel is a new addition to InDesign CS4 and allows you to associate transitions with all pages or selected pages within the document. Simply highlight a series of pages and then choose the required transition. To apply the selected transition to all pages in a document, choose the option Apply To All Spreads.

About the Author:

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with Macresource Computer Solutions, an independent computer training company offering Adobe InDesign Classes at their central London training centre.

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