Making an Interactive PDF in Adobe Acrobat

You can use Adobe Acrobat to merge multiple PDF files into a single PDF. You can then create links to other
pages within your PDF document, external Web sites, video or audio. Click ViewÆToolbarsÆAdvanced
Editing to see the Advanced Editing toolbar. You will use these buttons to create various types of links.

Merging PDF Files

When you open Adobe Acrobat, you will have the option of merging multiple PDF documents into a single file.
Click FileÆCreate PDFÆFrom Multiple Files. In the new window, browse for the PDF documents that you
want to combine and add them to the list. Click Next. Choose the “Merge Files into a Single PDF” and click
Create.

When prompted, click Save and save the merged PDF file to a location on your computer. Give it a unique file
name, so you know it is the merged PDF document.

Creating Links
Once your PDF has multiple pages, you can create a “hot spot” on one page to link to another page in the
document or an external Web page. You have complete control over what section of the page serves as the link,
how the link appears and where the hot spot will link to, to make the PDF document interactive.

Click ViewÆToolbarsÆAdvanced Editing to open the Advanced Editing toolbar. This toolbar contains tools
that you will be using to create links and insert multimedia into your PDF.

1. Click the Link Tool and your cursor will become cross heirs.

2. Draw a box around the item on your page that will serve as a link. This will open the Create Link
window.

3. Change the settings in this window to determine how the link will look when someone clicks on it.

4. For Link Type, choose Invisible Rectangle,

unless you want your link area to be outlined
by a colored rectangle.

5. For Highlight Style, choose what will happen

when someone clicks on the link.
None: No visible difference to link, but cursor
will change to a pointer when hovering over
link
Invert: Link area will highlight and appear
selected, like highlighted text in MS Word.
Outline: Link area will be outlined by a thin
black line when clicked.
Inset: Link area will appear to actually be
pressed in like a button when clicked.

6. For Link Action, decide what action the link

will perform. The two options you will use
most frequently are “Go to a page view” and
“Open a Web page.”
7. Link Action: Go to a page view
Choose this option and click “Next.” You will see a box around
your link area and a window prompting you to set the page view
destination for your link. As the window states, select your target
view, which can be a full view of another page or a zoomed view of
a particular section of a page.

In this example, I have created a

link hot spot area around “Logging
into the CMS” on my Table of
Contents page. I want this hot spot
to link to the second page of my
PDF document.

Using the scroll bars and zoom

tools, I will go to page two of my
document and set the viewing level
that I want users to see when they
click on the link.

When you have established the

target destination view for your link,
click “Set Link.”

Your hot spot area (Logging into the

CMS) now serves as a link to your
target view (“Logging In” section
on Page 2 of my PDF document).

8. Link Action: Open a Web page

If you want your link to open a Web page when clicked, choose this option in the Create Link window
(in step 6). Click “Next” and enter the full URL (for example, http://www.cubs.com) in the Edit URL
window that opens. Click OK and your link hot spot area will now link to the specified URL.
9. If you want to test your links, click the Hand Tool and click on your link.

10. Save your PDF file.

Embedding Video
If you want to embed multimedia elements into your PDF document, you should plan ahead and leave a space
for the multimedia player on your page when you are working on your project in Photoshop or InDesign.

1. Scroll and zoom to the portion of the page where you

want to insert multimedia. Click the Movie Tool
and draw a square where you want to embed the video
player.

2. This will open the “Add Movie” window, where you

will locate the movie file that you want to include in
your document. Acrobat supports most video types, such
as Quicktime (.mov), Windows Media Video (.wmv),
AVI (.avi) and MPEG (.mpg or .mpeg). When you
browse for your video, the correct file type should
appear in the “Content Type” field. If not, select the
appropriate type.

3. Check the box to Snap to Content Proportions so that your video is not distorted within the player.

4. Poster settings determine what will appear on the video screen when the video is not playing (known as
a splash image). Choose Use no poster if you don’t want a splash image to appear in your player.
Choose Retrieve poster from movie to use the first frame of the video as the splash image. Choose
Create poster from file if you want to upload a custom image to appear in your video player. To fit in
the player correctly, the image should be a JPEG sized at 640x480 pixels.

5. Click OK to add the movie to your document.

6. Move the video player to the appropriate section of your document, if it is not already there. If
necessary, you can resize the video player by holding Shift and manually resizing the shape of your
embedded video player.
7. If you want to test your video, click the Hand Tool and click on the video screen. To control
playback, right click on the screen and use the controls.

8. Save your PDF file. Please note that the size of the PDF will be very large if you have inserted high
quality or lengthy video clips.

1/08 Paolelli