How to show/hide layers via buttons?

[Inélsòre]

To (finally) complete this massive musical publication, I would like to offer something different: an interactive PDF where, at the press of a button, the user can see a different version of the same page.

In specific, this is a collection of exercises for two cellos, where two editors added playing suggestions. My idea is that the user will press the button in the page they are studying and be able to cycle through the different options. 

I thought I could do this quite handily by "simply" storing each version in a separate layer and have a button show layer 1 and hide layer 2, and another button hide layer 1 and show layer 2. After my initial investigation, though, this seems not possible. 

I have looked on the web for similar question and it seems this would not be possible in InDesign but that I would need Acrobat. Is this true? If not, how can I achieve this in InDesign? If yes, how can I achieve this in Acrobat?

Thank you!

PS: if you think there may be a better workflow for this kind of result from within InDesign, you are welcome to propose it! 

[BobLevine]

I'll give you my standard advice: Forget it!

Unless you can force everyone to use Acrobat or Reader on a desktop, your project is doomed. Additionally, the use of buttons for this, even with Acrobat is nothing short of wonky. And yes, you must do this in Acrobat so pop on over to the Acrobat forum if you still insist on trying.

[Inélsòre]

Thank you for your sincere advice! 

I will keep trying, but this is an experiment so I am prepared for failure without frustration! 

The end user should use this on an iPad or another tablet. Does this still makes it undesirable? 

If I look at apps like Henle Library, they have a dropdown menu on many scores where they can change the suggestions on the fly. How could I do something like that? 

[Derek Cross]

Try InDesign's Publish Online, it's HTML5 so anyone on a  PC, Mac, Tablet or Smart phone, with a compatible browser, can access the document, which can be interactive and include multimedia content. The downside is that users have to be online to access the document and you can't monetise it.

Here are some examples curated by Diane Burns: http://bit.ly/PubOnCollection. 

[Inélsòre]

Thank you @Derek Cross , that would certainly be an option, but do you confirm that to achieve layer visibility changes I would need to use Acrobat, and that this is not possible in InDesign?

Now that I think of it I could "place" all alternative parts outside of the spread, then make them animate and end up inside the spread with a button (if that is possible), or toggle opacity of images. 

I think that would require way too much work for 60+ images like this (so 120+)

[Derek Cross]

The Publish Online format is not PDF, as I mentioned, it's HTML5 – though you can enable the reader to download a (static) PDF version of the document.

(You definately won't be able to do what you describe with an Interactive PDF.)

[Derek Cross]

If you want to learn how to use InDesign's Publish Online (and if you know how to create InDesign documents, it's not difficult to include animations) I suggest you take Diane Burns excellent Linkedin Learning video tutorial – you can get 30-days free access: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-publish-online-2/share-your-document-on-facebook?autoplay...

[BobLevine]

I would never even bother with this using any mobile device. There are too many PDF reader apps to make sure it will work.