Create interactive show/hide captions in indesign

[@shaped-by-design]

Have you used the show/hide buttons feature yet?

[@floppa1433]

Pie

[@floppa1433]

No

[@floppa1433]

Hj

[@abdulabbasi1109]

You Sir just saved my Day!

[@shaped-by-design]

Glad I could help Abdul!

[@meisterleise]

Thank you so much!!! I've been searching for hours for a solution on how to implement something like this.

[@shaped-by-design]

Hey Meisterleise, glad the video helped. I have a couple of other videos on similar interactive topics that you might find helpful too. Have a good day! Rollover buttons: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6uoh4uofMlljas Animation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYbLialvpayAftk Slideshows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGiUZqaao6yfj5I Animated menus: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4OaeaGmgZ2cmqc

[@yurisavopulo1150]

Can I do it in existing pdf? because it seems in "InDesign" you cannot open a pdf file and edit it to make it interactive.

[@KhalilCh]

Thank you very much, Can I use the same on dropdown list, so each item on the list will show object on the page and hides other and so on?

[@shaped-by-design]

Hey Khalil, potentially yes, I've never tried it from a dropdown menu/list. Could be worth trying at least one to start with and see how it responds. 👍

[@willsmith7561]

Hi Gary - I'm working with a vertical timeline and this solution has proven to be helpful for me to create an interactive PDF which show the timeline points when a user selects a year. Preferably, I'd like the length of the document to respond to the current visible timeline section so as the user scrolls down and clicks my "year buttons" the length of the document grows or shrinks depending on what layers are active vs hidden. Any idea how I can pull this off?

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Will, sorry for the very slow response, we've been away from YouTUBE for a while during lockdown. Altering the size of the document is not something that I have heard you can do I'm afraid. . Without seeing a concept its a little hard to gauge exactly what your wanting to achieve, however in InDesign, I think that as long as your timeline "artwork" isn't longer than the pasteboard you could create animation triggers that would animate the timeline onto screen to a certain point. This would take a lot of work and perhaps need you to break your timeline into sections and you can only assign one animation per object/trigger. As much as I hate to suggest a different format, this sounds ideal for html, and I've seen some really great examples of animated timelines. Solar system example - joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

[@willsmith7561]

@@shaped-by-design Thanks for getting back to me and for your great response!

[@noelespiritu8774]

Hi. Love your tutorials. Very clear and engaging. I have a question in regard to a nav bar I created in Indesign to be exported as an interactive pdf. I have it set up where once you click on one of the nav bar titles, it takes you to a different page within the document. My problem is, once I click the nav bar and it takes me to the destination page, the nav bar title shows up as the normal state. I would like the click state to appear and remain on each destination page that the user is currently on, but am unable to do so. I understand that click state only applies on click and does not remain on mouse release. I tried creating an invisible toggle box over the nav bar button and played with the visibility layers, but what then happens is the click state remains on the original page I clicked on, not the destination page. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

[@shaped-by-design]

Hey Noel, thanks so much for your kind words I'm really pleased you like the tutorials. Would it be possible to share a copy of your indesign file so I can see the navbar and how it works currently? I'll be able to take a look at it and see if I can figure out the best way to solve it. You can remove all other content from the file except the navbar as I'd only need to work with the navbar elements. 🙂

[@noelespiritu8774]

@@shaped-by-designThat would be great! Here is the file: www.dropbox.com/s/66v7rd11nqnmvl4/NAVBAR_test%20Folder.zip?dl=0 Thank you!

[@catarinadiniz4588]

Amazing video! Thank you very much

[@shaped-by-design]

You’re welcome Catarina, thanks for watching! 👍

[@fireflysean]

Hi. Loving looking through your videos. Really clear and concise, thankyou! I'm trying to learn how to create interactive / animated documents. I'm confused as to the differences and limitations between an interactive pdf file, or an online Epub? Am I right in thinking the animations won't work on a pdf? Can you clarify when you might use either of these options. Thank you!

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Fireflysean, thanks for your kind comments, glad you're finding the videos helpful. Interactive PDF is a little misleading as it can include things like form fields, video and audio, but not animations. Epub (reflowable) would be your typical Kindle novel, made for text but not a great option for image-heavy publications. That's where ePub (fixed-layout) comes in, it can include animations, video, audio and is brilliant for brochures or say cookery books that need lots of images and diagrams. Epub is a good method for selling your content on places like Amazon, but not as easy to share with others as you may run into problems when the end-user wants to read it (software), some browsers will open an ePub. But if you want to create documents that are easy to share and not monetize/sell, then Publish Online is a great choice as it allows you to include all interactive content except form fields and can be shared via a URL. Hope that helps!😎 this article is also really helpful! justinputney.medium.com/your-interactive-pdf-is-not-interactive-but-this-is-2ed624dd3b33

[@fireflysean]

@@shaped-by-design Hi there. Thanks for your reply, that's really useful :) Seems there are still quite a lot of limitations - and with the Publish Online tool, you're stuck with the Adobe url link. If I wanted to make simple animated videos / social graphics - I like the tools in InDesign, but it seems I wouldn't be able to export the final animated graphics into a format for Facebook / Insta. After Effects is a beast - are there any other quick and easy options / software you could recommend to create these? I was looking at Bannersnack, which will create an HTML5, which you can then convert to video?

[@jhall2281]

Hi! Is there a way to hide/show a group of text + editable fields? Seems that you can't group live fields together to create a button...

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi J Hall. As far as I know its not possible convert grouped form fields into a button as they've already been converted into interactive elements. It's a bit of a pain, but you could show/hide the original, separate form fields.

[@jhall2281]

@@shaped-by-design Thanks much!

[@EnolaHenderson]

Hello I did the exact same thing I’m trying to create a digital planner where the tabs change color when you click them so that you know what month you are on I followed your instructions clearly and when I export to use in Noteshelf or even Adobe acrobat pro on my iPad it doesn’t work please help

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Enola, hope I can help. If you've gotten all the steps right, which it sounds like you have it could be down to the PDF reader. Interactive PDfs are great, but they do lack, well some forms of interactivity, especially on iPad. If you create an interactive PDF and view it on the desktop the show/hide button function should work fine providing you are using Acrobat, but 3rd party PDF readers are not likely to give you the same functionality. On the iPad I'm afraid even using Acrobat can be a little hit and miss. If you're using a newer version of InDesign 2015 onwards you can publish online. Within InDesign go to File> Publish Online. This is a hybrid doc, somewhere between a PDF and an Epub. Such a better method for creating interactive docs and end user only needs a web browser. Probably not the answer you were hoping for, sorry. An example publish online file I've published: indd.adobe.com/view/7315882a-1f7d-4d69-a877-23222a340ee6 Article about PDF limitations: ajarproductions.com/blog/2018/03/26/interactive-pdf-is-dead-heres-what-you-can-create-from-indesign-thats-even-better/

[@madness69420]

can we get the files for this project?

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Madess, I'm planning on running these as live sessions in the near future on the channel with files.

[@giuseppesardone482]

Hi. Using InDesign CC2019 and I am creating a document for interactive PDF. I've added two simple "On roll On/On roll Off" circle buttons, which will respectively "hide/show" titles of the shown pictures in the page; so, I've changed the texts into buttons too, within the "hidden untill activation" option selected; then, as regular, I've set these texts up as visible and/or hidden, based on my "On Roll On/Off" mouse desired action. Now, the exported .EPUB doc works well; the interactive PDF instead do not: it seems to recognize the "trigger buttons" - on "On Roll On/Off" action, mouse turns into a white hand - but unlikely nothing appears to the button-texts referred to them. Now, I have also tried to move all the interactions to a different layer, upon the remaining text-and-images parts of the documents, but the problem still remains. Do you have any suggestion about it? Thanks.

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Guiseppe, hope I can help! If I've understood you correctly you have created two separate text frames that have been converted into buttons, one will show an image on the same page when you roll-over it, hide itself and show the other button (used t hide the picture when you roll off it) which should be in the exact location as the original button? Odd that it works in ePub and not the PDF. When you went to File> Export and chose Adobe PDF (Interactive) did you have the Include All radio button option active at the bottom of the dialogue?

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Giuseppe, I've created a test of what I think you are trying you can download here and see how I created it if you like? www.creativefrontiers.co.uk/downloads/Rollover.zip

[@giuseppesardone482]

@@shaped-by-design Thanks for your answer. As I guessed, you did everything correctly in your InDesign file, but when I open the interactive PDF file, it really does not work, at all. My work was as simple as yours: to activate a text by On Rolling On/Off mouse actions on an other related sided button; that works well on my InDesign preview though. I found out that macbookpro - what I am actually using - does not work well with all-these-kind of interactive buttons, specially with the Hide/Show ones while you open interactive PDF files normally, and this is just senseless. A tutorial I saw shows that a same interactive PDF file works perfectly if you open it by Adobe Acrobat pro. I am going to do this double check, since I have no Adobe Acrobat pro yet, but it seems all weird.

[@shaped-by-design]

Ah yes. Unfortunately it really does need to be opened in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to have the best chance of working, sometimes the mac will open the PDF in Preview which will not honour many of the interactive elements. Have you tried Publish Online to deliver the document to other people, this only needs a web browser to show your interactive content. Info on publish online if it helps: helpx.adobe.com/uk/indesign/using/publish-online.html I hope your project works out for you Giuseppe! Gary

[@johnmilovic8693]

please help. Im pressin button with text, on rollover it becomes red, but after clicking i want that it should be kept green. Rollover red, but after clicking remains green?

[@shaped-by-design]

You can use the Show/Hide button feature for this, create the first button with Black with Red roll-over (Black/red), create second button with a Green normal state and red rollover. Then use the show/hide feature to hide the Black/Red button once clicked on and show the Green/Red button. This should solve the problem. Hope that helps Leoika!

[@michelletirado3671]

So useful!!! Thank you, but I have in that order my layers but I can´t hide the caption for some reason :C anyway I will surprise my teacher with this

[@shaped-by-design]

Hi Michelle, did you have the 'Hidden until Triggered" checkbox turned on in the buttons and forms panel for your caption, it's very easy to miss. You will find that this show/hide technique takes a little testing. Best of luck. Thanks for watching! 😀