How to create a downloadable pdf in indesign

If so, this article is for you! An interactive PDF is a PDF that allows you to click links and buttons, fill out text boxes, select bookmarks, check-off or select lists of items, and sign documents — all electronically.

I use interactive PDFs for any freebies I send out to my email list. Interactive PDFs are not only super helpful for your audience, but they're actually not that difficult to make! In order to create an interactive PDF in InDesign, your InDesign document needs to be finished or mostly finished before you start adding interactive elements to it.

Essentially just design as usual. That drop down menu in-between the publish button and the search bar is what you're looking for. Click that drop down menu and select "Interactive PDF". Once selected, the panels on the right side of your screen will change to look more like this:. Adding hyperlinks to your document will allow you to add clickable text, frames, or graphics that will link to somewhere or something else.

Text anchor this can move you to another part of the page or document after clicking on it. Shared destination a destination from any other InDesign document. I also turn off the highlight option for the same reasons of avoiding fugliness. If you turn any text into a hyperlink, you can change the appearance of this text by going to the Character Styles menu and double-clicking on the Hyperlink character style from the list. A window will appear where you can change the font, color, weight, etc.

To add a button to your InDesign document, first select the graphic that you want to convert into a button. This will convert the selected graphic into a button.

Next, change the event — or action needs to happen in order to activate the button. In order for the button to do anything, you need to add an action.

Do this by clicking on the plus sign on the buttons panel and choose what you want your button to do. Once your button has an action, you can now either leave the button as is, or you can add a rollover appearance and a click appearance. With Rollover selected, change the appearance of your the actual graphic by editing it on your InDesign page. Toggle these options on and off by clicking the eyes next to them. Adding an interactive checkbox to your InDesign doc is super easy.

Select the box you want to be transformed into a combo box with the Buttons and Forms panel open. If you want, you can change the font size of the list items at the bottom of the window. A list box is a different layout of the combo box, where instead of a drop down menu, the list is visible in a scrollable box.

From here, users can just highlight the option they want to be selected from the list displayed. You set these up in the exact same way you set up a Combo Box above. Radio buttons are typically used when multiple items may need to be selected from a question or category. This button is set up much in the same way that a check box is, in which you would need to place the actual button next to information that is already typed out in your InDesign document rather than adding them in the button panel like you do with the list and combo box.

These are set up exactly the same as the check boxes above. This field is a place for users to electronically draw their signature into the document. All you need to do to set this up is to select the box you want to be converted, open the Buttons and Forms field and select Signature Field. Learn more InDesign allows you to create newsletters, brochures and flyers, but sharing those creations can be a problem.

Most business users don't have Adobe's InDesign software installed on their computers and, therefore, won't be able to read the documents. Need help creating, merging, or converting PDF files?

Try wikiHow's PDF Toolkit , a free and easy-to-use custom tool to help you be more productive with your documents. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great.

By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article Steps. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Author Info Last Updated: November 1, The smallest file size will be easiest to email or upload to the web or a network location.

The Press Quality setting makes the image quality the highest priority and is for documents that will be going to a professional printer. The High Quality Print setting will create a PDF file that is compatible with all versions of Adobe Reader, but will result in a much larger file size. Accept the "All" preset under the Pages section or select only those pages to be exported. All pages selected will export into one multi-page PDF file.

Repeat the printing process to make a separate export PDF file for each page and select a different single page each time.