Section 90. Creating Hyperlinks

#90. Creating Hyperlinks

Because PDF documents can be opened and viewed onscreen, printed, or embedded into Web pages, they're somewhat of a hybrid. If you need to create a PDF that's intended primarily for onscreen display, you have the option of including hyperlinks that viewers can click to jump to other places within the document, other PDF documents, or Web sites.

To create a hyperlink, you have to specify two components: the source, which is the object or text that will act as the jumping-off point; and the destination to which the source points. The destination can be a page or a range of text within the document or another PDF document or a Web site.

To create a hyperlink destination to a page within an InDesign document you intend to export as PDF:

1.	Choose Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks to open the Hyperlinks palette.
2.	Choose New Hyperlink Destination from the palette menu.
3.	In the New Hyperlink Destination dialog box (Figure 90a), choose Page from the Type menu. Other controls let you specify a name, choose a page, and select the Zoom Setting to display the destination page.

Figure 90a. When you create a hyperlink destination, you can choose Page, Text Anchor, or URL from the Type menu. The controls displayed depend on the choice you make. Here you see the controls available for a Page destination.

To create a hyperlink that jumps to a range of text within a page, you must first create a text anchor to use as the hyperlink destination. To create a text anchor, click within text or select a range of text, and then choose New Hyperlink Destination from the Hyperlinks palette menu. You can use the default name in the Name field or assign a different name.

Creating Bookmarks

In addition to adding hyperlinks to InDesign documents that you intend to export as PDF, you can also include bookmarks. Bookmarks are links that help Acrobat and Reader viewers navigate PDF documents. The bookmarks you create in InDesign are displayed in the Bookmarks tab of Acrobat and Reader, and each bookmark jumps to a page, text, or object in the document, much like a hyperlink.

After you create hyperlink destinations, you're ready to create the source hyperlinks that jump to them. To create a new hyperlink:

1.	Select an object or highlight a range of text, and then choose New Hyperlink from the Hyperlinks palette menu.
2.	In the New Hyperlink dialog box (Figure 90b), use the default name in the Name field or change it. Figure 90b. When you create a new hyperlink, the New Hyperlink dialog box lets you choose the destination and control the appearance of the hyperlink in the exported PDF document.
3.	If you want to link to another PDF document, select it from the Document menu, which displays the names of open documents. You can choose Browse to select a document that's not open.
4.	Choose Page, Anchor, or URL from the Type menu. The choice you make determines the controls that are displayed. If you choose Page, choose a page destination from the Name menu or specify a number in the Page field and choose a Zoom Setting. If you choose Text Anchor, choose a text anchor from the Name menu. If you choose URL, enter the URL in the URL field.
5.	Use the controls in the Appearance area to specify how the hyperlink is displayed in the exported PDF document.

You can test a hyperlink by selecting it in the Hyperlinks palette, and then choosing Go To Destination from the palette menu.

If you've included hyperlinks in an InDesign document, make sure you check Include Hyperlinks in the General panel of the Export Adobe PDF dialog box when you export the document as PDF. For information about exporting InDesign documents as PDF, see #95.