InDesign

Making buttons interactive

You can create, edit, and manage interactive effects in InDesign. When the document is exported to Adobe PDF, these interactive behaviors are active in the PDF document. For example, suppose you want to create a button that causes a sound to play. You can place the sound file in an InDesign document, and then create a button that causes the sound to play when you click the button in the PDF document.

In this example, clicking the mouse button is the event, and playing the sound is the behavior.

This button is set to play a sound when the mouse button is released.

Create interactive button behaviors

You can assign behaviors to different events. For example, you can specify a sound to play when the mouse pointer enters the button area, and a movie to play when the mouse button is clicked and released. You can also assign multiple behaviors to the same event. For example, you can create a behavior that plays a movie and sets the view zoom to Actual Size.

  1. Create a button.
  2. Use the Selection tool  to select the button, choose Object > Interactive > Button Options, and then click the Behaviors tab.
  3. Choose an event, such as Mouse Up, that determines how behaviors are activated.
  4. Choose a behavior for when the event is activated, and specify the characteristics of the behavior.
  5. Click Add. The behavior appears under the event in the list box in the Button Options dialog box.
  6. Continue to add as many events and behaviors as needed. When you’re done, click OK.
To test the behaviors you add, make sure that the Interactive Elements option is selected when you export the document to PDF, and then open the PDF document in Acrobat 6, or Adobe Reader 6.
Note: When creating behaviors, remember to click the Add button. If you just click OK to close the dialog box, the event and behavior are not added.

Edit or delete a button behavior

  1. Use the Selection tool  to select the button, choose Object > Interactive > Button Options, and then click the Behaviors tab.
  2. Do any of the following, and then click OK:

    • To expand or collapse events in the list box, click the triangle icons.

    • To deactivate behaviors and events, deselect the check box next to the item. Deactivating events and behaviors can be useful for testing purposes.

    • To change the order, drag and drop behaviors and events. You can drag a behavior from one event to another.

    • To delete a behavior, select the behavior in the list box, and click Delete.

    • To edit a behavior, select the behavior in the list box, change the settings, and then click Update. If you need to replace a behavior for an existing event, delete the behavior, and then add the new behavior to the event.

Event types

Events determine how behaviors are activated in buttons when the document is exported to Adobe PDF. (In Acrobat, events are called triggers.)

Mouse Up
When the mouse button is released after a click. This is the most commonly used event, because it gives the user one last chance to drag the cursor off the button and not activate the behavior.

Mouse Down
When the mouse button is clicked (without being released). Unless you have a specific reason for using Mouse Down, it’s preferable to use Mouse Up so that users have a chance to cancel the behavior.

Mouse Enter
When the mouse pointer enters the button area defined by the button’s bounding box.

Mouse Exit
When the mouse pointer exits the button area.

On Focus
When the button receives focus, either through a mouse action or pressing the Tab key.

On Blur
When the focus moves to a different button or form field.

Behavior types

When you create a behavior, you specify the event that causes the behavior. (In Acrobat, behaviors are called actions.) You can assign the following behaviors to occur when the event type is activated:

Close
Closes the PDF document.

Exit
Exits the application, such as Adobe Reader, in which the PDF document is open.

Go To Anchor
Jumps to the specified bookmark or hyperlink anchor in the InDesign document you specify.

Go To [page]
Jumps to the first, last, previous, or next page in the PDF document. Select an option from the Zoom menu to determine how the page is displayed.

Go To Previous View
Jumps to the most recently viewed page in the PDF document, or returns to the last used zoom size.

Go To Next View
Jumps to a page after going to the previous view. In the same way that a Forward button is available in a web browser only after someone clicks the Back button, this option is available only if the user has jumped to a previous view.

Go To URL
Opens the web page of the specified URL.

Movie
Lets you play, pause, stop, or resume the selected movie. Only movies that have been added to the document appear in the Movie menu.

Open File
Launches and opens the file that you specify. If you specify a file that is not PDF, the reader needs the native application to open it successfully. Specify an absolute pathname (such as C:\docs\sample.pdf).

Show/Hide Fields
Toggles between showing and hiding a field in a PDF document.

Sound
Lets you play, pause, stop, or resume the selected sound clip. Only sound clips that have been added to the document appear in the Sound menu.

View Zoom
Displays the page according to the zoom option you specify. You can change the page zoom level (such as Actual Size), the page layout (such as Continuous - Facing), or the rotation orientation.