Indesign Interactive Linking to an Excel page and not showing up.

Question

Hello All,I'm making an interactive pdf with a button that links to open an Excel spreadsheet. This all works on my end. I've packaged it with the pdf and it has the correct location linked so everything is fine and working as it should. Our client however is having issues when opening it. I'm not sure what operating system he is using but it's most likely windows and is a shelf model more than likely. What he tells us is happening is when he clicks the button in the pdf it doesn't open up the file that I linked. Instead it shows the most recent file that he's been working on in Excel. I've tested this on my end and I've noticed that when having a document open in Excel at the same time that I click the button in my pdf that it will go to that recent file first but shortly after will load the correct file. If I don't have Excel open at all it works how it should. He said that he waited for 10 minutes and nothing ever popped up. I imagine that it is more of an operating system / Excel problem than Indesign but am curious if anyone has experienced this problem before. If so, what did you do to fix this? If anyone has a better way to link an Excel file to Indesign Interactive PDF feel free to share. We use only Indesign, not Acrobat.My thought is if his Excel is outdated it could be causing issues or if his operating system isn't updated. His computer could be 10 years old for all I know. Regardless I need to try and solve this issue for him one way or another. Thanks for your time-Jay

JayOdom · Accepted Answer

JayOdom wroteWe used to use Acrobat before I started working where I'm at and the pdfs were horrible honestly. They kept opening up a new pdf each time a button would be pressed and nothing looked professional at all. Since making this in indesign everything has gotten better. Quality is there. It's smooth navigation. Just better experience in general.Well just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting you abandon the InDesign workflow in favor of Acrobat; only noting that the Interactive PDF features available in an InDesign-only workflow are quite limited compared to the additional control and features offered when Acrobat is available, post-export from InDesign. Actually, your one-or-the-other comparison is a bit puzzling.UPDATE: I finally talked to our client and he was using Excel 2007. We are using the latest version. That's why it's not working right. Problem solved.

John Mensinger · Answer

JayOdom wrote...it's most likely windows and is a shelf model more than likely.Can't help wondering what that means.We use only Indesign, not Acrobat.This may come off a bit harsh, but in that case, you really aren't equipped to deliver well-appointed Interactive PDF's.The best way to do this would be with a PDF attachment. The Excel file lives alongside the PDF from within. A link to the attachment works very much like a link to another page in the PDF, except it opens in Excel. You deliver one tidy PDF file with a link that works on any Excel-equipped system. For this, and proper control over a hundred other Interactive PDF features, you need Acrobat.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded