Inspiring

Answered

Why don't the 'go to next page' buttons not work anymore when I export my Indesign file to an interactive pdf?

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After updating to Indesign 21.6 the ‘go to next page’ and ‘go to previous page’ buttons stopped working when I export my file to an interactive pdf. I have tried everything, even saving my file to .idml.

It has always worked fine and I have used it for years, but suddenly it doesn’t function anymore. Which really dissappointed one of my biggest clients.

I assume it is a bug, can you please fix this?

Mirjam

Fortunato CreativoCorrect answer

Inspiring

@Abhishek Rao You won’t believe it but I think I solved the problem, thanks to your question of sending a package of the document.

That question made me realise that the problem did not only occur in this document, but in all the documents I made with these buttons. So I uninstalled the Acrobat app and reinstalled it. Low and behold: everything is working again!

Thank you (all) so much for your help and support.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello everyone,

Could you please try exporting the document to IDML and then using the IDML to export to Interactive PDF to see if it helps resolve the issue?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

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Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

I have tried this, but it doesn’t work

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J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

Does the action make it through to PDF? In Acrobat, you can check the Button Properties > Actions and see if the action is View > Page Navigation > Next/Previous.

Are there any new elements added to document that might coverup the Next/Previous buttons?

Are there additional actions added to the buttons?

Can you share PDF?

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Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

I am not able to find the button properties in Acrobat you mentioned.

Link to document: https://assets.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:082218c4-335b-4800-8ba2-7d2a2bb7aff9?view=published

As you can see all the navigation works, the button bottom right is linked to content page. Everything works except go to next (or previous) page.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

Select the button in Acrobat while in edit mode.

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Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Just to check on small differences, you don’t have the “Appearance Only” ticked on?

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Mike Witherell

leo.r

Community Expert

After updating to Indesign 21.6

If you revert to InDesign 21.5, does the problem go away? Creative Cloud app > InDesign > 3-dot menu > Other Versions

I also think @BobLevine gives you sound advice to abandon buttons in PDF altogether. However, you mentioned that this functionality is in use by one of your biggest clients, so this case is different. The client couldn’t care less about best practices if that’s what works for them.

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BobLevine

Community Expert

My $0.02 and you can take it for whatever it’s worth:

Stop using buttons in PDFs. They’ve never really been reliable and the more you have the less reliable they are. Additionally, they are not supported at all on many third party PDF readers. Hyperlins are far better.

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Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Bob. I agree with your argument of not using too many buttons. The page forward an page back buttons I have made always worked fine. One of my biggest clients have been used to it for years. I am just annoyed that even the standard provided buttons from Indesign do not seem to work.

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justlearn

Community Expert

@Fortunato Creativo I created a very simple 5-page document. On the first page is my table of contents, and page 1-5, if you click on it, it will take you to their respective pages. I do my ‘hyperlinks’ a little different, as I change from a URL to the Page instead. This is how I always create interactive links.

I do export as a in Interactive PDF, I believe I keep it as the default settings

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m

test.pdf

Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

@creative explorer It is not about hyperlinks, they work fine. Same as the bookmarks I use on the content page.
The issue is with the buttons I use to go to next or previous page. You can choose standard arrows (buttons) from the interactive menu or make your own.

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

What operating system are you using? Make sure that it is completely up to date and see if that helps. If the problem persists you might want to report it as a bug at https://indesign.uservoice.com.

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Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Bill. Thanks for the tip and link. I still have to update to the latest system update. I will do so and get back to you if that resolves the issue.

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Fortunato CreativoAuthor

Inspiring

I updated my system to Mac OS27, but still no interactive buttons. I read in the link you mentioned reporting bugs, more people are having this problem. It has been tested by the Adobe Indesign team and they were able to reproduce the problem and are investigating.

[ID-4272075] Interactive PDF Buttons: Button bounding area expands after file conversion from older version to 21.0

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[ID-4272075] Interactive PDF Buttons: Button bounding area expands after file conversion from older version to 21.0

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