Indesign > Interactive pdf: adding 'open a file' links that work when sent to clients

[Brandman33]

Hi, unsure whether this is an InDesign issue or Acrobat.

I have a document i've created in InDesign, button hyperlinking all works fine. I output to pdf, then add some 'open a file' links to some text in Acrobat. The files I link to are in the same folder as the interactive pdf. I save it down and it all works fine.

I then send that folder to the client and everythign works except the 'open a file' links I added in Acrobat. Nothing happens. The files they link to are still within the folder, but notjhing works. If I try sending it all on a Dropbox link, same again.

There'll be alot of these used within the final version and ultimately intend this to be all in one folder and placed on multiple team computers as a reference tool so need to get it sussed.

Any ideas? 

[Derek Cross]

You can have a word or words or an image (such as a button shape) as a document hyperlink to say another page in the document, or to an external website.
Some devices, for example, iPads, don't have rollover capability – only click – you should avoid multi-action buttons  like On Click, On Roll Over, etc.  Multi-state object (MSO) don’t work at all in an Interactive PDFs.

[Brandman33]

These are just words, underlined – link added in Acrobat. They just need to open the file (in a new window) as they do on my machine, it's only when they're leave mine and are opened up remotely that they don't open the link.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

I found the best way is to keep your linked PDFs in a separate folder within your main folder, rather than keeps all pdfs in the same one. It seems to have less problems when moving to another location.

[Brandman33]

I'll give that a try.

Tried it on another laptop which only has Preview as a pdf viewer and get a 'You don't have permission to view...' message. 

[Derek Cross]

That's the problem, so many PDF viewers, Mac Preview isn't a particlar good one, but the Mac Books reader is.

[Brandman33]

I'm going to stipulate Acrobat Reader to give us a fighting chance.

It works seamlessly here, on my laptop (by email, zipped) and on my wife's laptop. Both Mac Pro's.

These are going to Windows machine's tho, only one of which uses Acrobat Reader.

I'm wondering if their firewalls may be causing an issue or changing file names etc.

Have sent another test tonight which i'll hear back on in the morning.

If anyone has come across these hurdles in the past it woudl be worth hearing any solutions!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Could it be the filenames e.g. having Mac-specific characaters in them that Windows may not like?

[Brandman33]

I did think that and so tried using Dropbox, they sent me a screenshot of how they appear their end and no anomalies. I'm sure it's a simple fix, I need to get a handle on it tho as it's going across a dozen or so laptops in the end, they'll inevitably all throw up some sort of issue. 

Thanks for responses.