TOC links in generated interactive PDFs don't anchor to the paragraph. Go to top of page instead.

[Maira5E60]

I just created a TOC with 2 levels of paragraph styles - a heading and subheading. When I export out an Interactive PDF and click a link, it always takes me to the top of the page instead of scrolling to the actual paragraph. I am not sure what I am missing. In the Table of Content options I have "Make text anchor in source paragraph selected".  

I tried creating just Text Anchors instead of TOC and those don't work either so I'm wondering if this is a problem with the PDF export and I need to have something specific in the settings for that? If I do the same thing with a PDF exported from word, it works just fine.

I tried this on the trial for Adobe 16 but I get the same issue on Adobe CC too.

Any help will be appreciated. This is driving me crazy!

[Maira5E60]

Can't seem to edit my post but just wanted to add that I am on a mac running Mojave and I've tried opening the PDF in both Acrobat and Preview. It's the same issue.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi Maira,

as far as I know a "link" that automatically is created with InDesign's TOC feature and then exported to PDF will only address pages of the document or external pages in case a TOC addresses other documents in an InDesign Book file. It will not address text anchors. This feature is tied to InDesign's Bookmark feature as you already know.

See the InDesign help pages:

"Table of contents entries can be automatically added to the Bookmarks panel for use in documents exported as Adobe PDF." Source: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/user-guide.html/indesign/using/creating-table-contents.ug.html

If you updated your TOC all the bookmarks are visible in the Bookmarks Panel of your document that contains the TOC.

So check your Bookmarks panel and you'll see only bookmarks with Page or External Page targets.

If you want bookmarks with text anchors you have to add them yourself to the Bookmarks panel.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

Bu no, you do not want bookmarks, you want hyperlinks that when clicked in your TOC go to text anchors.

I fear there is no automatic way in InDesign's graphical user interface to do that. You have to create them one by one on top of your TOC using the Hyperlinks panel.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi @Maira5E60:

@Laubender is correct. InDesign adds page links to the TOC (and bookmarks). Here is what an InDesign TOC link looks like in Acrobat.

You can edit the link view for each TOC entry in Adobe Acrobat after you generate a PDF (and how the bookmarks link as well). But you would have to do this each time you re-export the PDF, so that would not be a recommended workflow, unless jumping to the actual head and not the page with the head is required. 

~Barb 

[Lisa26965792664g]

I am having the same issue. When testing my PDF with PAC2024, I get the message that my "TOCI element links to an incorrect destination." I've read through. these answers and I understand the problem, (Indesign builds TOC links to pages not heading), and I see that you say I would need to edit the link view, but I don't see any steps for doing that. I looked up "editing a link", but I don't see an option for linking to a particlar location on a page or to a heading. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Maira5E60]

Thank you for confirming the bookmarks anchor to pages and not to text. I did try creating a Text Anchor hyperlink destination and a hyperlink for it in the TOC but it still behaves the same way in the TOC by going to the top of the page. 

[Maira5E60]

Actually, I just tried it again and it worked!!!