Problem making interactive pdf

[jennieg95225292]

Hi!

I have a problem making interactive pdf's. 
My colleagues can do it, I can't. I wonder if there is something wrong with my export-presets or something. 

(mac, Indesign 18.2.1, swedish) I have read adobes instructions, and watch a lot of tutorials.

I have some pages, makes buttons by making a rectangular around a object and transformed it into a button and made the right choices. Make bookmarks by double clicking pages and make bookmark, and named it. Select the button to go to the bookmark. Select Export, and interactive pdf. 

I get a "hand" while I hoover over the button I have made, but when I click and release, nothing happens.

My colleagues does this to but it works. Have I unclicked/clicked some kind of magic button? Can I make interactive pdf's by some other preset instead of the default, and which settings should I use in that case?

//best regards, Jennie

[BobLevine]

You say you made the right choices but you don't tell us what they are. Buttons are a very unreliable feature in interactive PDF. They're only semi-reliable in Acrobat or Reader on a desktop. How are you checking this PDF?

[jennieg95225292]

Hi again!

Sorry for not including enough information. 
The interactive pdf is to be used on a computer. I check it in Acrobat. The thing is I do exactly the same as my colleagues but for me it doesn't work, which makes me wonder about the Export/save interactive pdf -option, if there is anything wrong with the presets. My other colleague have the exact same problem as me and tried to uninstall indesign and installed it again but the problem remains. 

[Derek Cross]

Make sure your link "buttons" are simple shapes, word(s) or an image. Do not use multi-state buttons, they won't work reliably on some PDF Readers and not at all on Tablets, such as an iPad and on Smartphones.

[BobLevine]

And you still haven't told us what all of those settings are. Until you share some relevant details, there's nothing we can do except guess.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Lets start with export: you say export-presets, but for Interactive PDF there are no presets (print only), choose: File/Export/   then in the options below the file dialog be sure to choose 'Interactive PDF';

Secondly: most 'interactive' stuff like Object States, animations,  and buttons that require an action other than hide/show other buttons (with the eye symbol) will not work in PDF, only the 'hyperlink kind', and if i t works at all mostly only in Acrobat (Reader or Pro), not in Apple Preview and never in a browser.

You can check out Publish Online options however instead of a PDF. Personally I would give up on 'interactive PDF' as Bob Levine would no doubt agree with me 😉 

[BobLevine]

I do indeed. Beyond some very niche purposes, I wouldn't touch it.

[jennieg95225292]

Hi! 
Thanks for the input! 
Unfortunately it's not my own choice regarding interactive pdf 🙂 my client have set the rules. It is a 90pages document that is going to be interactive with buttons on the table of content. The buttons will use Go to destination (and a chosen bookmark), to be able to jump to a specific page. Before they have made that with bookmarks, set on each page. 

I have read in multiply places that hyperlinks seems more reliable to use instead of bookmarks. Maybe I should try to talk them in to using that instead. Are there any other functionality with Bookmarks that I will loose if I use hyperlinks instead? 

The pdf is to be used on a computer or an ipad, not in a browser.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

On an iPad? Then you can forget about interactivity, just will not work except for hyperlinks (like a TOC, use that).

[BobLevine]

It's your job to educate the client and if you already told them you could do this, I feel bad for you, because you're in for a world of pain.

[jennieg95225292]

Haha yes I know, I'm in a lot of pain 🙂 but since they are using this method and they think it works ok, then I just have to do it. And for now my problem is that the bookmarks doesn't work. I will keep searching for ideas on how to solve the problem.