Programs like QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign have been traditionally thought of as a DTP (desktop publishing) software, used for producing publications which are destined for print and, only as an afterthought for PDF distribution. However, as more of our information becomes electronically distributed, so the focus of InDesign is shifting and each release brings more features relating to the creation of online documents. The use of hyperlinks is one of the key elements in InDesign’s electronic armoury. Interestingly enough, this functionality is not new; it was present in InDesign’s predecessor, Adobe PageMaker.
The first step in creating hyperlinks in InDesign is to choose Window – Interactive – Hyperlinks to display the Hyperlinks panel. Creating hyperlinks in InDesign is a bit like using named anchors on a web page: first you create a Hyperlink Destination and then you can create one or more links to this destination. To create a destination, choose New Hyperlink Destination from the Hyperlinks panel menu. Enter a name for the destination and then specify the type of link you wish to create: URL, Page or Text Anchor.
The URL option is used to create a link to a web page. The Page option is used to create a link to a page in the current document. This option also allows you to choose the zoom level at which to display the page: Fit View, Fit in Window, Fit Width, Fit Height, Fit Visible or Inherit Zoom. The Text Anchor option is very similar to the aforementioned named anchor used in HTML and makes the selected text the destination.
InDesign document refers to links to the destinations you have created as hyperlink sources. To create a hyperlink source, either highlight some text with the text tool or click on a frame with the pointer tool to select it; then choose New Hyperlink from the Hyperlink panel menu. The New Hyperlink dialog box appears. The pop-up menu labelled “Link To” allows you to specify the type of destination. As well as the three options that are present when you create a destination (URL, Page and Text Anchor), you can also choose Email, File and Shared Destination.
The Email option allows you to enter both an email address and a subject. If you choose File, a dialog box appears allowing you to browse for the file you wish to link to. The Shared Destination option allows you to choose a destination in any InDesign document.
To customize the appearance of you link text, use the Character Style area of the New Hyperlink dialog. This allows you, for example, to create a character style featuring bold blue, underlined text to make your text resemble a regular HTML hyperlink.
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