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Keeping original styling when exporting an interactive pdf

Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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I'm in search of a way to get InDesign to keep my original paragraph styling (color, font, justification) once I export my file to an interactive pdf. I know you can change the font and the size, but there is nothing for color or justification. Is there a way to do this in the native program or can it be done in Acrobat? Please help!

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Community Expert , Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

The process is, you create your PDF form in InDesign then open it in AcrobatPro and there you can change the field's font, colour, alignment and more.

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Advisor ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Your PDF should look like your InDesign document. And not sure when in the process you're talking about being able to "change the font and the size, but there is nothing for color or..." Could you provide a little more detail or file samples, please?

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Hi there, thanks for your inquiry.
Basically, when I export my interactive pdf, the only text styling that stays with it is the font and the size. I'm wanting it to export other text styling that I have set up already–alignment, color of my text, so on. I think I might have found a way to fix it in Acrobat, but it's painful to complete. I would send file samples/screenshots, however it's for a client and I do not have permission to release the information in the file.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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As Diane said, export to PDF should almost entirely resemble your ID document as you've laid it out. That's PDF's great strength: it does not impose its own style limitations as does EPUB or HTML.

 

If you're exporting to PDF, and not seeing pretty much what you see in ID, there's something very wrong. The only time it is common for changes to happen is with fairly advanced elements like interactive buttons, live links, embedded video, etc. Text... should be text, exactly as you see it in ID.


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Hi, thank you for your reply!

The pdf I'm working on is an EPUB. I managed to do some editing in Acrobat to change the justification and text color for my text fields in the "Prepare Form" tool bar. 

I'm unsure why this isn't working for me in InDesign, it would make sense to export an interactive pdf and have it capture the same styling that was laid–justification, text color, and default text. I'm glad I was able to find a solution though.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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EPUB and PDF are not the same thing. Completely different formats and structures.

 

EPUB is a very difficult format in which to do much of anything but flowing text with a few headers and some italics. The more control you want over formatting and things like illustrations and tables, the more complex it gets to get an acceptable outcome, much less one exactly like you envision.


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Ah, I see. My mistake. Either way, it's unfortunate when setting up an interactive form pdf in InDesign that it doesn't take all of the styling that was in the original indd file. It's quite cumbersome to have to fix it in Acrobat after it's been exported.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Not sure what further to say if you can't share the document, or one like it without any proprietary info.

 

A PDF export should be very straightforward and very closely resemble your ID layout. If you're not seeing that and have to fix it in Acrobat, it's hard to express how wrong something is here. Until you get into some fairly exotic aspects, exporting to PDF is about as reliable as printing to paper.

 

EPUB is a wholly different format having nothing to do with PDF or Acrobat. (Technically, it's a packaged web page, with all the limitations of HTML and a frustrating lack of standard implementation.)


â•Ÿ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) â•¢

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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On my search for the solution, I saw others using Acrobat for the same issue. I haven't done anything different other than exporting the pdf as interactive, peculiar as to why it doesn't want to cooperate for me. 
Thank you for your information regarding EPUBs! Learned something new today!

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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I want to be able to center align my text fields, I can't seem to figure it out in Acrobat or InDesign.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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PDF or ePub and if ePub, Reflowable or FXL?

Your workflow is not clear, well at least to me!

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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Hi there, thanks for your reply!

I'm working on an interactive pdf invitation to a client so they can re-use the pdf but change the information such as date, time, location, rsvp, etc. I set up my text boxes in the buttons and forms panel and filled the information out accordingly and completely. I noticed that this panel only allows you to select the font and the font size, but not the justification and the color. I wanted InDesign to keep my text field styling (justification, text color) once I export it as an interactive pdf. 
Upon doing some meddling around on the internet and in Acrobat, I figured out that I can change the justification and color of my text fields using the "Prepare Form" tool bar. It was annoying to muck around in, however I was able to fix what needed to be fixed.

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Community Expert ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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The process is, you create your PDF form in InDesign then open it in AcrobatPro and there you can change the field's font, colour, alignment and more.

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 18, 2022 Jan 18, 2022

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That's right! I discovered that in a youtube video and decided to give it a go. Thank you for your help, Derek!

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