9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation

Page 1 of 6 http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/creating-buttons-pdf-navigation
Creating buttons for PDF navigation
Previous tips related to PDF interactivity dealt with bookmarks and popup menus for page and document navigation. To continue
with page navigation, let's explore how and why to use buttons in a PDF document using Acrobat 8 or 9.
Since the Page Navigation toolbar contains tools for navigating forward and backward in a document, and the tools appear by
default, most of the time you don't need additional navigation items, such as buttons or links. However, if you decide to hide the
Acrobat toolbar or to configure a PDF document to open in full-screen mode, buttons can be helpful for users unfamiliar with
keyboard shortcut-based navigation. Also, it's a must-have feature for certain files you distribute to Adobe Reader users who have
little knowledge of using program tools and shortcuts.
In this first part, I'll talk about creating navigation buttons. In Part 2, I'll discuss both opening files with the toolbars hidden and
opening documents in full-screen mode.
Creating navigation buttons
Navigation buttons have a couple of advantages over using links. First, buttons can be assigned icon appearances. If your
document background design doesn't have an iconsuch as an arrow or some other imagewhere a user intuitively understands
that a mouse click moves forward/back, you can add a button face to Button fields. Second, Button fields can be duplicated across
a range of pages. If you use Acrobat Standard, you're stuck with links where no icons or text can be added to the link appearance,
and the links need to be created (or pasted) on each individual page. That may be quite tedious if your PDF document contains
many pages.
To create buttons for page navigation, follow these steps:
1. Create a Button field. Open the Forms toolbar and select the Button tool. Draw a rectangle around a background
element, such as an arrow or pointer, if you created the PDF with such image elements.
2. Name the Button field in the Button Properties dialog box. I like to use goNext for buttons that advance
forward a page and goPrev that move to previous pages. Try to avoid using the default names for fields that Acrobat
provides, and supply a name that suggests what a button field does.
3. Set the Options. If you don't have a background design on a page that you want to use for page navigation, click
the Options tab and add a button face to the button. Note that you can add a label (text) and image, or both in the
Button Options tab. If using a background element designed in the authoring program before the file was converted
to PDF, skip this step.
4. Add an Action. Click the Actions tab and choose Execute a menu item from the Select Action pull-down menu.
Click Add and the Menu Item dialog box opens. Select View>Go To>Next Page as shown in Figure 1.
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Home > Tutorials > Creating buttons for PDF navigation
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By Ted Padova April 16, 2007

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9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation
Page 2 of 6 http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/creating-buttons-pdf-navigation
Figure 1: To add an action, click Add to open the Menu Item dialog box, then select View>Go To>Next Page.
Note that you can also use JavaScript to move to the next page. Use the Run a JavaScript action and type the
following in the JavaScript Editor:
this.pageNum++;
5. Click OK in the Menu Item dialog box (or JavaScript Editor).
6. Duplicate the button. Assuming you want a button to move forward and a second button to move backward,
press the Control key (Windows) or the Option key (Mackintosh), click and drag the button to duplicate it and move
to the position where you want the second button to appear.
7. Change the button name. Open the Button Properties dialog box and change the button name in the General
tab.
If you used an icon and/or text in the Options tab, make changes that reflect navigating back in your file.
8. Change the button action. Select the action in the Actions tab and click Edit. If using the Execute menu-item
action, change the action to View> Go To> Previous Page. If using JavaScript, edit the script and change to:
this.pageNum--;
9. Duplicate the buttons. Select both buttons using the Select Object tool and open a context menu. From the
menu commands, choose Duplicate as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Select both buttons using the Select Object tool, open a context menu, and then choose Duplicate.
10. Specify the page range. The Duplicate Field dialog box opens. Click the From radio button and type 2 in the
first text box. By default, the last page in your document should appear in the second text box (see Figure 3).
9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation
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Figure 3: When you type a number in the first text box, the last page in your document should appear in the second text
box by default.
11. Delete the unnecessary fields. The goPrev button on page 1 and the goNext button on the last page are dead.
Click each of these buttons with the Select Object tool and delete them.
If you want the user to be able to loop the document, you can change the actions on the first and last buttons to open
the last page and first page respectively. Use the Execute a menu item action or JavaScript for these two buttons. If
using JavaScript, the code to open the first page is:
this.pageNum = 0;
The code for opening the last page in the document would be:
this.pageNum = this.numPages-1;
Add a legend
What may seem to you to be an intuitive icon for page navigation may not be as obvious to the recipients of your files. If using icons
and images to mark areas where buttons are used, provide the user with a legend that clearly denotes the buttons and the actions
performed by each.
Figure 4 is an example of such a document.
Figure 4: : If you use icons and images to mark areas where buttons are used in a document, provide the user with a
legend that clearly denotes the buttons and the actions performed by each.
As previously mentioned, adding buttons for default views in Acrobat viewers is not generally necessary since the built-in tools for
page navigation are displayed by default. These buttons are useful in documents when and where you want to hide toolbars and
open files in full-screen mode, both which I will discuss in Part 2.
Read more Acrobat 8 tips from Ted Padova in the "Adobe Acrobat 8 PDF Bible," available from Amazon.
9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation
Page 4 of 6 http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/creating-buttons-pdf-navigation
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12 comments
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tutorial.
Lori Kassuba
Hi sabahat khan,
Can you clarify what you mean by buttons on the web?
Thanks,
Lori
4 weeks ago
sabahat khan
Guyzzz.. I want to know that how we can make buttons in PDF like button in web .. kindly tell me
1 month ago
Lori Kassuba
Hi Mridul,
Its not clear from your comment whether youre using Acrobat Pro. or the free Reader (you mention
both). Could you clarify this?
Thanks,
Lori
12, 2013-09-24 24, 2013
Mridul
i am using adobe acrobat reader pro X . when i want to add a button, the action menu is empty. for
example, if i want to a save button, there is no option to save. please check out the screenshot
http://prntscr.com/1t18oy
pleae somebodu help me
1, 2013-09-23 23, 2013
Lori Kassuba
Hi L Smith,
If you go into Form Edit mode and look in the Fields panel, youll see all your button fields. You can sort
by alphabetic order and then select them all (select the first then shift click to select the last) and delete
them.
Thanks,
Lori
10, 2013-06-14 14, 2013
L Smith
I added a button to a 1000 docuement and now need to delete it from every page. Am I stuck with
deleting them each individually?
5, 2013-06-11 11, 2013
Lori Kassuba
Hi Larry,
Can you provide us more details on your problem with the buttons and post it here:
http://answers.acrobatusers.com/AskQuestion.aspx
Thanks,
Lori
11, 2013-03-13 13, 2013
9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation
Page 5 of 6 http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/creating-buttons-pdf-navigation
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Lori Kassuba
Hi Yvette,
Try opening the Pages Navigation Pane and selecting all the pages. Then right-click (or ctrl-click on the
mac) and select Page Properties. Under the Actions tab select Go to a page view and set the page view
you would like for all the pages.
Lori
9, 2013-03-11 11, 2013
Larry
Ive created a button and it functions however it doesnt show up. I change the text colors but still
nothing.
10, 2013-03-08 08, 2013
Yvette
Hi, I have created my buttons successfully but when I view the file some of the pages are magnifying so
the document view jumps around, do you know how I can correct this?
7, 2013-03-04 04, 2013
ASLI
Hello,
Thanks for your helps and tips. I try to make a index button but i cant. Can you help me about this.
Thanks,
Hi ASLI,
Can you please post your question here:
http://answers.acrobatusers.com/AskQuestion.aspx
Thanks,
Lori
12, 2013-02-07 07, 2013
sonny cc
Note: the link to Part 2 gives a 404 error.
Hi Sonny,
Heres the link to part 2:
http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/buttons_for_fullscreen
Patty
8, 2012-11-03 03, 2012
sonny cc
This is very usefull. Im making a digital course for students in pdf to use on tablets. Those buttons are
really handy. And its easy explained, even for a noob like me.
8, 2012-11-03 03, 2012
9/4/14 1:17 PM Creating buttons for PDF navigation
Page 6 of 6 http://acrobatusers.com/tutorials/creating-buttons-pdf-navigation
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