InDesign hyperlink or button that opens a separate locally saved PDF on a specific page

[mikefwd]

Hi all

I'm creating an interactive PDF that contains many links that need to link to specific pages of external PDFs. Is there any way of doing this via hyperlinks or buttons?

The document is a kit of parts catalogue containing hundreds of products. On the pages that list the kit of parts product numbers, each product will have a link beside the product code that links to that products' technical drawings.

I would like this to function like so:

Clicking on link adjacent a product code within the kit of parts document will open a specific PDF drawing package at the specific page that shows the technical drawing for that product, in a separate window to the main kit of parts document PDF.

Any solutions to this would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Mike

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop">

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'd consider doing this with HTML pages rather than PDFs. In trading away the simple rigidity of PDF, you would get fluid documents that could be easily viewed on any device and far superior linking and cross-indexing features. Consider also that well-designed 'web' pages can be more consistent and stable than anything but vanilla PDF across a variety of platforms and readers... and that most PDF readers insist on opening a new pane for each new document, whereas a browser can make a choice to load in same/new tab.

Also: not sure there are reliable means to link to other PDFs, again, across differing readers.

[Jeffrey_Smith · Accepted solution]

When you say external PDF, I assume these PDFs are accessible online.

If yes, you can create a link with an URL like this: http://www.yoursite.com/yourfile.pdf#page=X

#page=X follows the url, and x is the page that you will go to.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Technically correct, yes... but relative links can be unreliable and not all third-party readers 'open to page' properly. If the content will live on one and only one web/intranet location (making hard links acceptable), and readers will follow a suggestion to use Acrobat and not browser or third-party readers, then this is probably the 'correctest' answer. But if any portability is desired and the tendency of users will be to use their default PDF readers... there will be headaches.

I'd just suggest the OP experiment with a fairly limited time investment before committing to building a huge library of cross-linked PDFs. The moreso since PDF links can't (easily) be edited after export. (But HTML links can... just sayin'. 🙂 )

[Jeffrey_Smith]

The example I gave is an absolute link, not a relative link.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I know. Which means all the PDFs so created will work from one (1) location. This might not be a good idea for several reasons, or if the doc suite is meant to be used "locally" as the OP puts it.

I suggest that hard or absolute links across dozens or hundreds of PDFs might be a poor choice, and note that relative links can be unreliable under network or cloud storage (and sometimes just on a local drive). I would both think through such a project and test all scenarios before committing to building/exporting such a large doc set.