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K
KC_xo
Known Participant
July 19, 2023
Question

Interactive Buttons & Text

  • July 19, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 1775 views

Hi Lovely Community I hope you are well.

I was hoping to get your advice and help. I have created a postcard design to be pasted into an email and sent to our clients. This design, im hoping to have interactive, clickable buttons and text.

Now when I created it in Indesign the text that I want clickable, I made the text hyperlink to a URL or Email and that works fine when I exported the file to PDF, but once I saved the file to PNG or an image file, as it needs to be that file type for it to be pasted into an email, and to be displayed as a image for the client to see when they open the email, the buttons and clickable text is no longer clickcable or interactive.

How do I get this design to work as I want it to? Is this possible?

For example the button says "Review Us Now" the client is to click on this button and it takes them to our Google page. The other clickcable text is "Unsubscribe" and that opens up an email to send to us and we take them off our database.

I know I could have these things directly in the email as type/text that is hyperlinked and not in the image but it would look silly as its all one part of the image, and wouldn't work and defeat the purpose.

(see attached for example)

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

J
Community Expert
Jeffrey_SmithCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 20, 2023

Here is a suggestion. Create your postcard in Indesign with all interactivity. Use Publish Online to create digital version. Capture url of publish online file, and place in email that will be deployed.

Frans v.d. Geest
Community Expert
Frans v.d. GeestCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 20, 2023

As I already suggested above 😉

    J
    Community Expert
    Jeffrey_SmithCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2023

    Sorry I did not read your post completely.

    Frans v.d. Geest
    Community Expert
    Frans v.d. GeestCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2023

    As you save it as PNG it is a PNG and no PDF!!

    So everything that is a PDF function is gone of course... Ever tried making a screenshot of a website and then expected that all links on that screenshot would still work as if it is a website? Of course not...(!)

    And if you send them the PDF, buttons won't work, only the hyperlink kind anyway.

    Use Publish online and send them the link to that or use MailChimp/HTML.

    Your workflow has no change of ever working...

     

      K
      KC_xoAuthor
      Known Participant
      July 24, 2023

      Thanks for your reply. Oh I compltely get the concept, im not that silly. I was just trying to work out how to complete the task and what program to use to complete it. It is something new I have never work on before.

       

      I am not looking to send a link to our clients that would require them to complete a second step and defeat the purpose of what we are trying to achieve. Im trying to make it as simple as possible so they will 'hopefully' complete the task.

       

      So it needs to be a clickable image/button directly in the email. I believe to do this it needs to be HTML.

      BobLevine
      Community Expert
      BobLevineCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 20, 2023

      If this is to be emailed, then use Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or another service that specializes in this type of thing. InDesign is most definitely the wrong tool for this.

      K
      KC_xoAuthor
      Known Participant
      July 24, 2023

      Thank you for your reply. I agree with you after reading replies from Robert Tkaczyk.

       

      Unfortunatly both Constant Contact and Mail Chimp seem to be paid programs and I dont believe my work is looking to pay for a program to produce this.

      John Mensinger
      Community Expert
      John MensingerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 25, 2023
      quote

      I dont believe my work is looking to pay for a program to produce this.

       

      Then they don't understand how it works. HTML-based email marketing isn't straightforward; it requires a specific flavor of legacy HTML/CSS just to make it work across (the recipients') various email clients. Beyond that, tracking the results is a whole other can of worms you can't do on your own. The closest thing to making it straightforward is paying for one of those services.

        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Legend
        July 19, 2023

        Not sure why are you expecting it to still be interactive and work - when you are flattening everything into a bitmap - bunch of pixels? 

         

        It's the same situation as when you save vector graphics into a bitmap. 

         

        Never done this before - but I think you rather have to export as HTML? 

         

        But if you can't have HTML in your email either - just plain text for security reasons - then there is nothing you can do. 

         

        K
        KC_xoAuthor
        Known Participant
        July 20, 2023

        Thanks for your reply.

        I wasnt 'expecting' anything, I was coming here to ask for help, isn't that what this forum is for?

        I exported my Indesign file as HTML and unfortunately it didn't work, the design went all skewif, it's a bummer as that may have been the answer as I don't believe there would have been a restriction on us using HTML format 😞

        Thanks for the suggeston and idea.

        (see attached example)

        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Robert at ID-Tasker
        Legend
        July 20, 2023

        You should either try a different tool from Adobe - or look for something else entirely. 

         

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