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Question

Indesign Interactive PDF - Where do i find the button attribute to be able to select a button to sho

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 8, 2021
5 replies
951 views

I want to be able to have my button tabs (that jump to other pages within my document) to show in the interactive pdf, but when aren't visible when the user hits the print button. I've tried several ways, but not getting it to work.. any suggestions would be appreciated!

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JR Boulay

Community Expert

" "interactive PDF" was something that never worked 100%, and never will. "

It is exactly as if you said that the PSD format does not work correctly because software other than Photoshop does not interpret this format correctly (although nothing prevents them).

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

John Mensinger

Community Expert

It is exactly as if you said that the PSD format does not work correctly because software other than Photoshop does not interpret this format correctly . . .

Well not exactly, but fair enough. I'll clarify:

I've authored many interactive PDF's over the years, and I've had almost as many experiences in which one feature or another didn't work...in Acrobat/Reader. This is especially true of features that were initiated in InDesign pre-export. For software users, the presence of a feature or capability strongly implies that a realistically predictable result is not only possible, but reliable. However you'll find InDesign forum threads on the subject littered heavily with "it depends" or "MSO's aren't supported" and "you can only do that in Acrobat, post-export".

If you were to investigate, you'd find I've posted quite a few replies here in defense of Interactive PDF. That's because most of the interactive forms I designed are still out in the world working just fine. But I'd say that's mostly because they were all authored only without any InDesign-born interactivity and deployed into closed-loop applications where proper Reader utilization is reasonably assured.

Most problems with Interactive PDF arise when it's implied capabilities foster notions of a viable broadcast-delivery format for "rich media," and non-linear interactivity, which it surely isn't.

My replies in this thread were specific to the OP's application, and in that context I stand by the characterization I offered.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

"now my question is how do I get the purple tab not to print"

Turn them into non-printable buttons

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Diane Burns

Inspiring

Do you really have to use PDF? It has SO many problems with buttons and the like, with any kind of interactivity. Any chance you could use Publish Online instead? Document can be read in any browser and all of ID's interactive features are supported. Here are several sample docs: http://bit.ly/PubOnCollection

Maz67Author

Participating Frequently

Thanks Diane appreciate your comments and for the link (they all look amazing)... I had run this idea of publish online with my client, but they prefer to have the interactive PDF option at this time. They want to be able to print their documents as well as view them interactively online.

Any thoughts about how I can combine a two buttons that can be visable in the interactive PDF, but not visible to print?

Maz67Author

Participating Frequently

Previously, I created two documents... one as an interactive PDF, the other as a printable PDF (where I would hide my interactive layers so it would be printable at all). I was hoping to get away from the cumbersomeness of having to create two different documents (one for viewing and one for printing), but just having my interactivity be not visible when the user clicks the 'print' button. I will go back to this though, If i cant solve this problem

John Mensinger

Community Expert

I've tried several ways, but not getting it to work..

If I understand the problem, it's not surprising, but you haven't provided much detail. In what way does it not work?

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

Here is my guess on OP's situation:

Interactive PDF that has a hidden element. A button (when clicked) will show the hidden element, and allow the user to print. The PDF works as expected in Acrobat/Reader, but when PDF is viewed in a browser, the button does not trigger and show hidden element.

John Mensinger

Community Expert

Hmmm...I read it as "I want buttons visible in PDF, but hidden when printed."

Derek Cross

Community Expert

You can have a word or words or an image (such as a button shape) as a document hyperlink to another page in the document, or to an external website.

Some devices, for example, iPads, don't have rollover capability – only click – you should avoid multi-action buttons like On Click, On Roll Over, etc. Multi-state objects (MSO) don’t work at all in Interactive PDFs.

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