InDesign to PDF interactivity

[Ben23780157qlbd]

'Go to Page' buttons do not work when exported ot PDF. 'Go to First/Last' always works I just cannot set it to  specific page, really annoying when trying to create and interactive contents page.

[Jane Dot]

I have the same problem, and I don't understand why there is not a clear statement within adobe. Here are the functions for interactive pdf and here a the ones for epub.

[Willi Adelberger]

What else should Adobe do than describe it in the manual?

[Willi Adelberger]

Instead of using a button, use a link to a page or an anchor.

[BobLevine]

Which part of this is unclear? Seriously...it's right there in the button action you chose that it's for EPUB or Publish Online only. 

[Jane Dot]

Ok, thanks for your advises. For me, it's still too many differnt ways/windows to actually do what I want to do. There Objectstatus and buttons and forms, hyperlinks and…  So I'd like to be able to set an icon for "go to content" in a book, I need to use a hyperlink/text anchor instead of a button, the button doesn't work an interactive pdf-file. I'm sorry that I have a different way of working and don't find the things I want to add to my knowledge are over organized. Some functions have worked and but haven't survived the software evolution. I have a different understanding for interactive pdf files, that is more than filling words into a form. I am finding work arounds, but it is time consumming. Why can't one click pictures with the same editing for an epub in a so called interactive pdf?

[BobLevine]

The best advice I can give you is to get some training. Interactive PDF is a deadend and has been for years. I wrote this blog post SEVEN YEARS AGO: It's okay to say no to interactive PDF (boblevine.us)

It's just gotten worse. I can't even recommend using it for forms anymore.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

I think there's a misunderstanding in this thread about the differences between interactive PDFs and EPUBs. Just because InDesign can be used to create both types of end-files, they are very different types of files with vastly different encoding — the stuff that's under the hood that we can't see.

The button functions in InDesign are really meant for EPUBs and they mostly fail in an interactive PDF because the PDF file format wasn't really designed to handle "buttons" at all.

But hyperlinks work fine in both PDFs and EPUBs, so the text "Go To Content" can be hyperlinked to any place in the file where you have designated an anchored destination. Adobe's Help on this topic is very good: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/hyperlinks.html

Other options for letting the user easily navigate the PDF are:

• The PDF Bookmarks Panel which you can set to automatically open along with the PDF file itself; this acts like a digital table of contents.
• A visible table of contents which can hyperlink to the destination; https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.html
• Hyperlinked Cross references, such as "See About Us on page 10".  You can use either an easy hyperlink/destination to do this or use the formal cross-reference utility.

Why can't one click pictures with the same editing for an epub in a so called interactive pdf?

By @Jane Dot

Because PDFs and EPUBs are very different types of files. PDFs are based on page layout programming languages such as Adobe PostScript, which precisely replicates the exact location, size, and appearance of everything you design.  EPUBs on the other hand, are based on HTML which is fluid. And EPUB will look different on every device it's view on because the user controls the fonts and sizes. Very similar to when we visit a website using a desktop computer with a wide screen versus viewing the same website on a small vertical smartphone. That's what HTML does: it responds to the user's device.  PDF can't do that.