Using Hyperlinks in PDF and eBook Files

The most common attribute you'll add to a print document to make it more useful when distributed electronically is the inclusion of hyperlinks. Just like Web pages, PDF files can include these "hot spots" that, when clicked, direct a browser to open a new file or page. It's a whole new way to deliver related contents through an active cross-reference.

InDesign uses its Hyperlinks pane (Window ‚ Interactive ‚ Hyperlinks) to add, edit, and delete hyperlinks. In a sense, a hyperlink is a character attribute ‚ it's applied to selected text. Figure 33-1 shows the Hyperlinks pane.

Figure 33-1: The Hyperlinks pane.

Creating hyperlinks

Although the process is straightforward, InDesign's terminology can make it a bit confusing on how to start. You first create a hyperlink destination ‚ the place a hyperlinks goes to, or its target ‚ by choosing New Hyperlink Destination from the Hyperlinks pane's palette menu. You give the destination a name in the Name field and then choose from one of the three options in the Type menu:

Page, which lets you specify a specific page in a selected document. If you select this option, InDesign provides a Page field in which you specify the page number to open in the selected document, as well as the Zoom Setting pop-up menu, which lets you select how the page will be displayed. (Options are Fixed, meaning at the default size in Acrobat Reader; Fit View; Fit in Window; Fit Width; Fit Height; Fit Visible; and Inherit Zoom, which uses the current zoom setting in Acrobat.)
Text Anchor, which lets you specify a specific piece of text in the selected document. This would be the selected text.
URL, a Web page address (the official name is Uniform Resource Locator), as shown in the dialog box. If you select this option, InDesign will display the URL field in which you enter the Web address.

With the destinations defined, you can now create the hyperlinks to them (the hyperlink sources ).

Note ‚

To create a hyperlink to another PDF file, you can't use the New Hyperlink Destination method. You must use the New Hyperlink method described next .

To create a hyperlink source:

Select the text or frame you want to be a hyperlink's source, then choose New Hyperlink from the Hyperlinks pane's palette menu.

That opens the New Hyperlink dialog box, as shown in Figure 33-2.

Figure 33-2: The New Hyperlink dialog box.
Enter a name for the hyperlink source.

This lets you apply the same link to more than one location in your document ‚ sort of a character style sheet for hyperlinks.
If the hyperlink is to another InDesign document, you can select that document by choosing Browse from the Document pop-up menu.

Use the Type pop-up menu to determine what you're hyperlinking to:

Page, which lets you specify a specific page in a selected document. If you select this option, InDesign provides a Page field in which you specify the page number to open in the selected document, as well as the Zoom Setting pop-up menu, which lets you select how the page will be displayed. (Options are Fixed, meaning at the default size in Acrobat Reader; Fit View; Fit in Window; Fit Width; Fit Height; Fit Visible; and Inherit Zoom, which uses the current zoom setting in Acrobat.)

Note ‚

If you want to create a hyperlink to another document, you must do so here, using the Page option. You cannot first create a destination hyperlink. Also, unintuitively, you must browse for the actual InDesign file you want to link to. But the link will be to the PDF version of that file, which means you must be sure to create the PDF of that other document and use the same filename, except for the filename extension. For example, if you link to ITWForm.indd, the link will actually be to ITWForm.pdf. This approach requires that you have all the target files in InDesign format ‚ you cannot link to a specific PDF file created in another program or by someone whose source files you don't have access to.

Text Anchor, which lets you specify a specific piece of text in the selected document.
URL, a Web page address (the official name is Uniform Resource Locator), as shown in the dialog box. (You can also use mailto, ftp, and other standard URLs.) If you select this option, InDesign will display the URL field in which you enter the Web address.
All Types, which displays previously defined hyperlinks in the document.

Use the Name pop-up menu to select a previously defined hyperlink destination (target) or an anchor.

You can also create a hyperlink to an Unnamed destination by leaving the Name pop-up menu set to [None]. I advise against this, however, since that hyperlink destination won't appear in the menu for future hyperlink sources, making it hard to modify later.

In the Appearance section, you can control how the hyperlink appears on-screen:

Use the Type pop-up menu to choose Invisible Rectangle or Visible Rectangle. The Invisible Rectangle option gives no visual indication that the text contains a hyperlink, except that the mouse pointer would turn to a hand icon when the reader maneuvers through the document. (You would typically pick this option when you've used blue underline as a character attribute for the hyperlink text to mirror the standard Web way of indicating a hyperlink.) The Visible Rectangle puts a box around the text using the four settings below (they are grayed out if Invisible Rectangle is selected).
The Highlight pop-up menu lets you choose how the source text or frame is highlighted: None, Invert (reserve the foreground and background colors), Outline (places a line around the source), and Inset (places a line around the source, but inside any frame stroke; for text, it's the same as Outline).
The Color pop-up menu displays Web-safe colors, as well as any colors you defined in the document.
The Width pop-up menu lets you choose the thickness of the line used in the Outline and Inset options from the Highlight pop-up menu. The choices are Thin, Medium, and Think.
You can choose the type of line in the Style pop-up menu: Solid or Dashed.

Tip ‚

If your text includes a valid hyperlink, such as www.INDDcentral.com , you can select it and create a URL hyperlink automatically by choosing New Hyperlink from URL in the Hyperlinks pane's palette menu.

Once your hyperlink sources are defined, you can easily apply them by selecting text and clicking an existing hyperlink source from the Hyperlinks pane.

Modifying and deleting hyperlinks

It's also easy to modify hyperlinks: Choose Hyperlink Options from the Hyperlinks pane's palette menu, which has the same options as the New Hyperlinks dialog box, to modify the source. Choose Modify Destination Options from the palette menu, then select the target from the Name pop-up menu. You can change the source text or frame by selecting it, then clicking the hyperlink name in the Hyperlinks pane, and finally choosing Reset Hyperlink from the pane's palette menu. To change the target for a hyperlink to an InDesign document, choose Update Hyperlink from the palette menu (hold Option or Alt to select a file that is not open).

To delete a hyperlink target, choose it in the Hyperlink Destination Options dialog box, then click the Delete button. (Click Delete All to delete all targets defined in the document.) To delete a hypertext source, select it in the Hyperlinks pane and then choose Delete Hyperlink from the palette menu.

Note ‚

When you export your InDesign files to PDF files (as described in Chapter 32), be sure to check the Hyperlinks option in the Include section of the General pane in the Export PDF dialog box (File ‚ Export, or z +E or Ctrl+E), then choose Adobe PDF in the Format pop-up menu.

What are eBooks?

InDesign lets you create eBook files. An eBook is a form of PDF meant for digital book readers, electronic devices that you can download book files to and read on-screen. Think of it as a read-only computer, or as a browser that only displays PDF files.

The big difference between a PDF file and an eBook file is that an eBook file includes a bunch of tags to help the reader device display it properly no matter what the screen dimensions are. These tags are added automatically by InDesign when you export to a PDF file, as long as you select the eBook Tags option in the General page of the Export PDF dialog box. Chapter 32 covers PDF export in detail.