44. Create a Bookmark to a Different Document Before You Begin  42 Create a Bookmark
Bookmarks are not limited to use only as navigational tools within a single document. A bookmark can point to a specific location in any document to which you (and whoever will eventually be viewing the files) has access. Creating cross-document bookmarks isn't as simple or as intuitive as creating regular bookmarks, but if you follow the steps in this task, you'll see that it's a relatively quick and painless process. One thing to keep in mind with cross-document bookmarks is that the viewer might not have any idea that the bookmark has taken him to another document. The only indication Acrobat provides is the document name in the application window title bar. It's always a good idea to let the viewer know he is in another document and to provide a way for him to get back to the original document, such as a Return to Main Menu bookmark in each destination document. TIP  | Planning a multiple-document PDF presentation is a lot like planning a website. You need to use good design to let the viewer know where he is in the presentation. This can be done with titles or sidebar text, or graphically using different background colors, logos, or other visual cues. |
Another important consideration is that the viewer must have access to all the documents and that the organization structure of the documents must remain intact. For example, you might create a folder called Product Demo and in that folder put the main document (called Start Here or something similar), as well as subfolders for different PDFs used in the demo (called At Work, At School , and At Play , for example). For someone else to go through the demo and access all the files, you need to give them the entire Product Demo folder with all its files and subfolders intact. This is how many tech support documentation CDs are arranged. Having one big PDF file with all the pages in it is definitely easier, but breaking the information into separate files lets you replace parts of the presentation without affecting everything else. | 1. | Create a New Bookmark
Click the New Bookmark icon at the top of the Bookmarks tab.
It doesn't matter what is displayed in the document window because you'll be changing this bookmark's destination in the next steps.
| | 2. | View the Bookmark's Action Properties Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl -click (Mac OS) the bookmark and select Properties from the drop-down menu; then click the Actions tab in the Properties dialog box.   | | 3. | Delete the Current Action
The default action for all bookmarks is a Go to a Page in This Document action that points to whatever was displayed in the document pane at the time the bookmark was created. You need to delete this action so you can replace it with an action that points to a location in a different document. Furthermore, you cannot simply reset the bookmark's destination (as described in 43 Change a Bookmark's Destination ) because that command doesn't give you the opportunity to specify a different document as the destination.
Select Go to a Page in This Document in the Actions list, and click the Delete button.
| | 4. | Add a New Action From the Select Action drop-down list, select Go to a Page View and click the Add button. After you add the Go to a Page View action, Acrobat allows you to set the destination by navigating to the page to which you want the action to take you. This is the key to creating a link to another document. You are not limited to choosing a page from the current document. Until you click the Set Link button in the Create Go to View dialog box, you can open , close, and navigate in as many different documents as you need to until you find the exact page you are looking for. TIP | | Even though bookmarks are created, displayed, and used in a separate panel, they are basically just another type of link. As such, a bookmark can perform any action you would normally associate with a link, such as playing sounds, performing menu commands, or displaying or resetting forms or fields. Keep in mind that most viewers of PDF documents have an expectation of what will happen when they click a bookmark, so be sure to exercise discretion when using bookmarks to perform non-navigation actions. | | | 5. | Navigate to a New Destination
With the Create Go to View dialog box onscreen, open another PDF file and navigate to the desired page, magnification, and location.
Remember that, for the viewer to be able to use this link, he needs both the main document and any destination documentsand these documents need to be kept in the same hierarchical folder structure relative to each other that they were in when the link was created.
| | 6. | Create the Link
Click the Set Link button in the Create Go to View dialog box. The bookmark in the original document is now linked to the second document you specified in step 5.
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