Scripting navigation for hyperlinks and buttons

[Indie767]

Does anybody know where you write the code to create hyperlinks and buttons?

[Colin Flashman]

The basic level is from the window menu and the hyperlinks and buttons and forms panels.

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/indesign/using/forms.html 

[Indie767]

Thanks for the reference. I've coded websites from the ground up using Dreamweaver so, I understand hyperlinks. What I didn't know is that Indesign does not allow page navigation in a document. The app only allows you to create page link in the first or home page but new page links in subsequent pages are not functional. I reported this bug, which is a huge one that Adobe should have caught. I'm hoping they add page to page navigation soon.

DC

[Pickory]

You can create a button that can go to the next page.

[Laubender]

Hi Indie767,

see into ExtendScript DOM documentation for Hyperlink objects. There we have property destination:

https://www.indesignjs.de/extendscriptAPI/indesign-latest/#Hyperlink.html

So principally you can create destinations to pages, external pages, texts and URLs.

( The listed enumerator for paragraphs is for cross references. )

See my code example to create a hyperlink with a text source and a URL destination:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/writing-a-script-to-change-all-isbn-text-to-hyperlinks-with-...

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Indie767]

HI,

I did try the button. I can go to the next page but I cannot return to previous page. What version of Indesign are you using?

DC

[JonathanArias]

instead of going ot previous page, try this setting:

 

[Laubender]

Hi Indie767,

what format did you exactly export where you test the button with?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Indie767]

Thanks for the info but the idea of exporting to a PDF everytime I want to verify navigation is not appealing. Too many hoops to jump through. I was hoping navigation can tested in preview mode. Maybe someday, Adone will add this feature. 

I can use MS Word and Adobe Acrobat to create interactive PDF's so, I really don't see why anyone would use Indesign to do so. Indesign is really suited for static layouts and documents, not for interactive.

I appreciate the help.

[Laubender]

Hi Indie767,

don't know if MS Word is scriptable in regards to buttons and hyperlinks.

InDesign definitely is. So if you have a huge amount of buttons and hyperlinks to do I would stick with InDesign when it comes to scripting. And yes, testing when the output is PDF is with Adobe Reader on Mac OS X and Windows. All other devices and readers for PDFs will or will not support the one or the other feature.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )