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Question

InDesign not honouring layer order when exporting to interactive pdf

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
November 10, 2021
4 replies
3347 views

I made an interactive document with a stack of layers some time ago.
Interactive pdf works like a charm.
Today I needed to make some adjustments in the file, an addition to one of the bottom layers. The InDesign document shows correctly, but when exporting the file to interactive pdf, the layer order is not honoured. The button I added in the bottom layer (while behaving correctly in the InDesign document) is now on top of the stack, and the on-tap/on-release with button visibility is not properly working. Layer is set to be(come) invisible/not show when clicking a certain button, but it shows anyway.

Happens both on Windows and Mac, InDesign 17 x64.

Any pointers on what may be happening? I remember I've had this before in an older version, and I had to cut/paste-in-place all the objects again in the order I wanted/needed them to appear, but this document has grown so large, it would take me days to do that.

A

ArnoEnz0

Participating Frequently

This problem continues to persist.

I haven't written about this in awhile, because I didn't need to update the file, but now I pulled up the file again, and had to make some changes, but it's still notworking properly.
I think back in 2021 I even made a bugfix request, but I never heard anything about it.

It's really annoying. InDesign is ignoring the layer order when writing the interactive pdf. Instead it some how maintains the order of when items were pasted.

The red circled objects are on the bottom layer, and should be UNDER the transparent white overlay, which is the layer above it. But I pasted them on the bottom layer AFTER I made the transparent white overlay layer, and now they appear above the overlay layer.

leo.r

Community Expert

It's really annoying. InDesign is ignoring the layer order when writing the interactive pdf.
By @ArnoEnz0

Can you post a screenshot that demonstrates the difference between the InDesign document and PDF?

Also, what are your InDesign and operating system versions?

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

And a consequential annoying thing, is that InDesign renames or adds a sequential number to all the button names when you copy them, either in the document or to another document.
In the above example, the pieces of text I call into action are named with, for example, 2014-2017 (corresponding the years I worked in a position). When I copy the frame / object to another document, it changes to 2014-2018. If I copy it twice, it becomes 2014-2019. And so on.

Hi @ArnoEnz0,

Thanks for sharing the details. Could you please confirm if you're using InDesign 2025 (version 20.5) and also share the details of your operating system? It would also help to know if this issue occurs only with this specific document or with other interactive files as well.

If possible, please share a affected sample file for testing. If the content is confidential, you can send it via DM on the community. You can package the document and then upload the zipped package to any public cloud sharing service such as Google Drive or Dropbox, and share the link. Ref: https://adobe.ly/3KJbfgg.

Additionally, if you can, please share a short screen recording showing your export workflow and the difference between how the file appears in InDesign and in the exported PDF. This will help us test it more accurately.

Looking forward to your update.
Abhishek

L

Laubender

Community Expert

@Sarah25895631rw4t said:

"Did you ever figure out why Indesign wasn't honoring your layers? I'm having a very similar issue. I have simple buttons with a rollover effect. I just added a layer ON TOP of the buttons with a simple icon, which needs to show on top of the button, regardless of what the button is doing. Once it's exported to an interactive PDF, that icon layer hides under the button. Screen shots are attached. Any ideas?"

Hi Sarah,

if you want a simple icon on top of all other interactive elements it must be an interactive element on itself and positioned on top of all other interactive elements. Imagine all interactive elements as a special "layer" on top of all other non-interactive elements with an interactive PDF. That's the reason why you can exchange PDF contents of a page that is not interactive in Acrobat Pro with other PDF non-interactive contents of another page where all the interactive elements of the target page remain.

Practically you convert the icon to a non-functional button that when clicked in the exported interactive PDF leads to no action at all.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Expert )

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Regarding buttons in an Interactive PDF, you can have a word or words or an image (such as a button shape) as a document hyperlink to say 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

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Rule 1 with interactive elements like buttons :

They are always on top of the visible stack of elements when the PDF is opened with e.g. Acrobat Pro or Adobe Reader.

Can you share a screenshot of your page in InDesign with the Layers panel open and the button visible there and also a screenshot of the PDF open in Adobe Reader?

FWIW: If you want to obscure parts of your button you need another button without any functionality stacked above it.

Well, I hope you know, that the active area of a button is always a rectangular area. It does not matter what the shape of the object in a state is. If you want a different active area you have to work around it with tiny buttons where all rectangular areas of all the tiny buttons shape a non-rectangular area.

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

A

arnoenzo17628449Author

Known Participant

Hi Uwe,
I'm at a different computer right now, will send screenshots later today to illustrate the problem.

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