Create an Interactive PDF with Rollover Pop-ups

(SKIP AHEAD to 5:26 to quickly see the crucial settings)
In this tutorial we create an interactive PDF with mouse rollovers or popups using Adobe Illustrator and buttons in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
View Text Version of the Tutorial here: angusashtonfil...
Chapters:
Intro and Basic Example Scene Setup - 0:11
Create Rollover Popup Layers (Text, Lines and Text Background Boxes) - 1:15
Preparing the Rollovers for Export to Acrobat - 3:59
Save PDF for Export - 5:26
Opening the PDF in Acrobat - 6:20
Creating the Rollover/Hover Zones in Acrobat - 6:49
Preview the Finished Product - 9:34

[@note17note]

I love the very humble "Thank you" at the end. This video was super helpful!

[@ATGBrewing]

This is an absolutely superb vdeo tutorial Angus - thank you! It baffles me as to quite why Adobe have to make it such a convoluted and general pain in the arse process to achieve something that should be a click of a button to add in.

[@jackshappy2148]

You're amazing for this. Thank you!

[@LanceMillerPhD]

A great start-to-finish explanation. Exactly what I needed.

[@danielpeak750]

Excellent video. Great pace! Lots of steps. I need to make a job aid for this to remember the steps!

[@apriledwards1843]

Thank you so much! Even though Acrobat has been updated and the tools are in different locations, this was easy enough to figure out thanks to your tutorial.

[@KwikVideoMaker]

REALLY FANTASTIC TUTORIAL!! Simple, easy to follow and was able to create an interactive pdf for the first time and it looks great. THANK YOU SO MUCH

[@awa303]

Hi, thanks, glad it helped.

[@eddybygum]

What a great video, so easy to follow. Many thanks.

[@steveg5566]

This is a great tutorial, but I notice everytime i have to make a change on AI, I have to startover. Works great for small interactive maps, but not on a large scale. Either way thank you!

[@noushywoushywoo]

This was prefect, thank you! :D

[@hareshart]

Very intresting video. Can you do more video like this it will great help. Thank you.

[@Davidmoyaz]

Is a really nice work dude, same adobe indesign, but more sample, congrats!

[@MissLondonMania]

Hi there! Great video, really easy to follow along! I was wondering if there is a way to make these settings 'locked', i.e. if someone else opens it in Adobe Acrobat Pro, they can't see or change the layers and attached settings. Thank you very much!!

[@yogeshdoddamani888]

Too good. I was looking for this.... Thanks a lot...

[@CN-ye8hi]

Thanks so much for this!

[@stevenkmckendallsr1169]

Can you do a video on creating custom popup tooltips, for segments of specific / selected text (with hover over effect), within a PDF, and controlling where the tooltip pops up (i.e., relative to trigger field / button location), using Adobe Acrobat Pro ? ?

[@rikkitimana6108]

would the interactive image work on a website? really helpful video btw!

[@southpaww]

Yes I'd be interested to know if it works in browser. I'd like to set up something similar for a financial document that can be shared online with stakeholders.

[@robinhere]

Hey, amazing video! Just wondering if you can say why it doesn't show the interactivities when saved and opened with another pdf- reader?

[@michaelmusson1730]

depends on the reader... SumatraPDF doesn't support interactivity but PDFxchange does (4 example)

[@awa303]

In Foxit and Nitro it should work.

[@peggyhuang4534]

Love it! One urgent question - how does that work on the mobile and email review? The function doesn't seem to work.

[@marianacalvo9267]

Hello!~ Thank you so much for your video. But I have a problem, I can see without problem the information on the other layers, but when I shared, other people couldn't see it

[@katiewhite320]

Hi, does this work if you create the layers in InDesign rather than Illustrator? Thanks.

[@rikjesendezahuber4742]

Perfect !

[@khordzmugs748]

Do you need acrobat to view the roll over features? What other applications might this be used with?

[@awa303]

Hi Khordz, the rollovers are most stable in Acrobat however I just tested them with some other PDF apps and they also work in Foxit and Nitro, with Foxit more Stable. They dont work in Javelin.

[@TealBeretta]

Can you do toggle boxes instead of hover states?

[@staryznowugra]

Thanks a lot, would you kindly tell me how to make it also clickable link to i.e. different page or a website?

[@1charlesallnut]

This is fantastic, but the interactivity doesn’t appear to work in Acrobat on an iPhone or iPad. Haven’t tried it on other mobile or tablet devices/OS.

[@brookdancer]

Fabulous video! It solves a big problem for us. However, has anyone figured out how to update the connection between the pdf and the AI doc? I've got about 25 fields I'm doing this with and don't relish having to redo them all in the .pdf when there's a change. Also, for some reason I don't understand I have one layer that came over without content, even though it is there in the Illustrator file. Everything else is working perfectly but that one layer.

[@Jacobs74]

That layer is probably on 'visible' instead on 'not visible'? Check if the content layer is on 'not visible'... Same problem here with updates. No solution yet...

[@hupfk37]

Does it make the final PDF huge in file size? Is there a way to make it small?

[@IMYTnNERDEE2]

awsm

[@awa303]

For those wanting to get interactivity in a browser, try making it in Adobe InDesign - www.montilladesign.com/post/learn-how-to-create-interactive-rollover-buttons-in-adobe-indesign

[@alicevolpi3435]

Would this work for browser and Acrobat PDF reader?

[@SnyderPablo]

Can you explain to do it with Nitro Pro? tks

[@yikaiteo5365]

It's working fine in Adobe Acrobat, but when you try to view the pdf on chrome the rollover just fails

[@jorgemedina2982]

Hello! I want to make an interactive document (buttons, mainly) but they doesn't work in whatsapp, is there anyway to make it work without open it in other app? Thanks for the vid btw :)

[@zuneeliaquat7000]

I have a confusion when i export as pdf it is not react as it is reacting in acrobot, kindly help me.

[@goodbyer8174]

Hi! I'm having a small problem - I added 4 buttons to my pdf using this method, and the interactivity all works fine. However, when I go to test out the document by opening it in Acrobat, all the buttons are automatically "on" and the layers are all visible at the same time, until I hover over any random button and everything goes to its proper starting position, instead of all being "on" and visible. How do I make sure when I open the pdf in a reader it starts all the buttons at their correct visibility settings, instead of all being "on" right away?

[@melandmicah]

Right click the layer in the layers tab, go to layer properties, change default state to off

[@insanedb]

thanks bro