How to create a "mouseover" for a word in text

[Agnes Sellgren]

I´m trying to create a mouseover when hovering over a word in InDesign. I only find articles about objects etc but this is a word I want to show a short text when hovering over it. 

Please help

[BobLevine]

What format do you intend this to work with? PDF? EPUB? Publish Online?

In theory it can be created using show/hide buttons but it won't work on mobile devices and is nothing short of a crapshoot in PDF.

[Agnes Sellgren]

I want this for an interactive PDF 

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

You can't achieve that in InDesign, but it's possible in Acrobat by placing a (transparent) "button" over the word and assigning an action triggerd on Mouse Enter.

BUT...

...it will only work reliably...

IF...

...this interactive PDF is only to be distributed within a relatively small group of recipients (as opposed to broadcast to the world-at-large)

AND...

...you can assure that every user in that small group will only view the PDF in Adobe's desktop Acrobat or Reader (as oppposed to 3rd-party readers, browser plug-in's, or on any mobile device)

[Agnes Sellgren]

Thanks so much for clarification. So if adding a PDF to a webiste and to maybe being open and read in a browser this won´t work? 

[BobLevine]

Not at all likely.

[Bill Silbert]

If you're trying to make this happen in the InDesign file itself then it is not possible to do so. In order to show any kind of interactive effect like what you're after it will only be possible by exporting to one of the available formats that Bob has already suggested.

[Luke Jennings3 · Accepted solution]

If you want to do this on an interactive pdf, create a button over the word (the button can be invisible), export to an interactive pdf, open the pdf in Acrobat and go to Tools> Prepare form, right click on the button to edit the button properties, add the wanted text in the Tooltip section, save. The user would need to view the pdf in Acrobat or Reader and not on a phone or tablet.

[Agnes Sellgren]

Thank you, this is very helpful! Thank you all 🙂

[Pickory · Accepted solution]

There is a script to do this.

http://blog.gilbertconsulting.com/2010/01/tooltip-script-for-indesign.html

There are others, search for InDesign pdf tooltip