Creating Tabs in PDFs

Question

I designed a book in InDesign and want to make TABS in the PDF that jump to select pages of the book. For example, if a person clicked "John Smith" in the Table of Contents, the tab would jump to page 82 where John Smith is talked about.

Is this something I do within InDesign -- or should that be done in Acrobat PDF? How do I do it?

Thank you.

Barb Binder · Answer

The links are added automatically when you generate a table of contents in InDesign, and will work in Acrobat/Reader.

Here is the process:

Use paragraph styles to format your headings. For example, create and assign Head2 to John Smith.
Generate a table of contents (TOC) using Layout > Create Table of Contents:
• Add Head2 to the Include Paragraph Styles List;
• Enable the checkbox for Enable PDF bookmarks in the same dialog box; and
• OK to generate the TOC.
Export to PDF and be sure to enable the checkbox for Include Adobe PDF Bookmarks if choosing PDF (Print). Adobe PDF (Interactive) does automatically.
Open the PDF and click on John Smith in the TOC—Acrobat/Reader will hyperlink you to the page with John's name.

More details on how to create (and format) a TOC here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html.

~Barb

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