Add actions to buttons – Adobe InDesign CS4 User Manual

Page 555

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547

USING INDESIGN CS4

Dynamic documents

For example, suppose you want to create a button that causes a sound to play in a PDF document. 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 action.

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

Note: While most of the actions are supported in an exported PDF file, only a few of the actions are supported in a SWF
file. Close, Exit, Go To Next View, Go To Previous View, Movie, Open File, Sound, and View Zoom have no effect in SWF
files.

Add actions to buttons

You can assign actions to different events. For example, in an exported PDF file, 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 actions to the same event. For example, you can create an action that plays a movie and sets the
view zoom to Actual Size.

1 Use the Selection tool

to select the button you created. See

Create buttons

” on page 545.

2 In the Buttons panel, choose an event, such as On Release, that determines how actions are activated.

3 Click the plus sign button

next to Actions, and choose the action to assign to the event.

4 Specify the settings of the action.

For example, if you choose Go To First Page, specify the zoom. If you choose Go To URL, specify the web page address.
Some actions, such as Go To Next View, do not have additional settings.

5 If necessary, continue to add as many actions as needed to any event.

To test the button, export the document to PDF or SWF, and view the exported file. If you’re exporting to PDF, make
sure that the Interactive Elements option is selected. If you’re exporting to SWF, make sure that Include Buttons is

selected.

Updated 18 June 2009

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