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Question

Interactive PDF Back and Next Buttons Skipping Pages in Adobe InDesign 21.2

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
March 2, 2026
4 replies
84 views

I designed a guidebook using facing pages. I am now designing an ebook version using single (not facing) pages. I cleared the Facing Pages check box in the Document Setup window and saved the file. The Pages panel shows only one page spreads, both for the parent pages and for the body pages. The body pages also appear only as one page spreads.

I created a Back button and a Next button in the footer of the parent page. I added Go to previous page actions to the Back button (on release or tap and on click) and Go to next page actions to the Next button. I exported to an interactive PDF. When I click the Back button, it goes back two pages rather than one. When I click the Next button, it goes forward two pages rather than one. What am I doing wrong?

I am using Adobe InDesign 21.2 x64

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Not your mistake, per se, but…

Hyperlinks and javascripted hyperlinks in InDesign are fragile.

The thing that likely broke it (or confused it) was re-doing the page structure. Another thing that can breaks hyperlinks/bookmarks is copy-and-pasting into another document.

In other words, make the Go to Next Page and Previous Page navigation as the late-stage work at a time when the rest of the document content has settled down (certainly something as elemental as document setup decisions).

Mike Witherell

Jonathan BloemkerAuthor

Participating Frequently

I see your point. Thanks. However, in this case I had already created a print version of the document and was adding interactive features for the ebook version. I suppose I could start the whole thing from scratch, but I’m not sure the extra work would be worth my time. I will try testing it with the EPUB feature. If it works that way, I’ll be OK with it. Thanks again.

Luke Jennings3

Community Expert

Are you testing your pdf in Acrobat or Reader? Are the page numbers indicated in Acrobat or Reader correct?

Jonathan BloemkerAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks. Testing in Acrobat. Does it make a difference?

BobLevine

Community Expert

Standard advice: Stop using buttons in PDF. They are not at all reliable in most PDF readers.

But if you insist, I would remove the buttons, export to IDML, and then open that and try again.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Jonathan Bloemker,

Thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear that you experience this. I tested this on my end in InDesign 21.2 by creating an interactive PDF with Back and Next buttons using the respective actions, and it worked as expected. The navigation moved one page at a time.

To begin, please try resetting your InDesign preferences manually by following the video at the bottom of this HelpX article, then test the behavior again:
https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

After resetting, export the interactive PDF again and check whether the buttons still skip two pages.

If the issue continues, please create a brand-new document and test the same setup there to confirm whether this is document specific.

Also, could you please confirm your operating system version?

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

Jonathan BloemkerAuthor

Participating Frequently

My OS is the latest version of Windows (I don’t know what they call it). I’ve noticed there are some oddities running Adobe applications on this OS, but never noticed anything like this before, so I don’t think it’s related. Thanks for your response. I will try what you suggest and let you know.

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