How to make a group of objects appear, disappear and then reappear using buttons in inDesign

[twa1993]

I'm trying to work through this but I'm running out of ideas so hopefully somebody can help.

I have a page with displaying multiple products on it, and buttons made for each product with the so that when you click on it, a group images, text and buttons relating to that product will 'appear'. This group also includes a 'close' button, so that when you click it, the original animation will be reversed, and the group will disappear. This works fine for me so far.

The problem is that, once the page is published online and you click the 'close' button,  the original button to bring forward the product information doesn't work. I thought that I could use the 'show/hide buttons or forms' button function, but you don't seem ot be able to convert a group of objects into a single button to help with this.

Any ideas or recommendations would be really very much appreciated. The file is published online at this link in its current form, and the animations and buttons are active only for the blue book in the middle - https://indd.adobe.com/view/c784c63d-c07e-4e75-b5ca-cbfa415ce7f9

Thanks and all best!

T

{Renamed by MOD}

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi twa1993,

You could work with a Multistate Object (MSO) with several additional states.

Every state but the first one is for a distinct book on the shelf.

The first state has some buttons. One button for every book. That leads to the state of a book.

Inside the state of a book is an additional MSO, the inner MSO, that is controlled with two buttons where you can go back and forth inside the inner MSO. And a third button, the close button, that leads back to the outer MSO's first state.

See this Publish Online document I did with the concept above:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/b3358eea-d44f-4cf2-af2c-ff88f8beaf99

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

EDITED: Added something for clarity:

"And a third button, the close button, that leads back to the outer MSO's first state."

[twa1993]

Thank you so much for your help with this. I'm new to using MSOs, so it took me a while to implement this fully, but I now have exactly what I was looking for. It is very much appreciated.

Tom

[twa1993]

Hi Uwe,

Just wanted to chime back in to thank you again for your help getting this one off the ground. I thought you might like to see how the project turned out using MSOs as you suggested:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/dfe599c9-e960-49e0-87cb-fe0627d0027f

All best,

Tom

[Laubender]

Hi Tom,

that's really great!

Thank you very much for the link.

Best,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Diane Burns]

I personally find Show/Hide buttons easier than setting up this kind of thing with an MSO. That's just a personal preference. You can convert groups of objects into a single object, but you do have to group them all first. Otherwise it creates separate buttons. Hope that makes sense. Be happy to look at the file directly if you like.

[Diane Burns]

p.s. Though just to clarify, Uwe's solution works fine as well. 

[Laubender]

Hi Diane,

I find MSOs easier to work with and easier to control with buttons that sit inside the states ( or outside, doesn't matter much ).

In opposite of using that tiny part of the Button panel where you can turn off and on the view of buttons. Its also easier to add selected objects to MSO states. There is a button for this in the MSO Panel. Not so with buttons. You have to drag things inside button states using the Layers panel.

FWIW: twa1993 perhaps wonders how a MSO inside a state of an MSO is done:

[1] Add a text frame to a state.

[2] Anchor a pre-defined MSO to the text frame's first insertion point.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

Hi twa1993,

to give you an idea how my MSO is working I packaged my document and made it available for download on my Dropbox account:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4o616dwtkqjokfx/BookRack-2020-Package.zip?dl=1

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

Hi Tom,

if you do this very often and perhaps with more complexity regarding states and "inner" MSOs you may find the script below very handy. ( Did not test it with InDesign 2020 yet… )

Object States Assistant 1.0
for Adobe InDesign 2019 and later (Free)

https://www.automatication.com/index.php?id=25

Object States Assistant 1.0 manual:

https://automatication.com/manuals/agora/ObjectStatesAssistantFree.pdf

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[BobLevine]

I tested it extensively before Martinho re-released it. Works perfectly and removes most of the pain from working with MSOs.