Adding interactivity in PDFs using ‘hyperlinks’ in Affinity Publisher
Do you want to help readers navigate your digital publications easily? These tips create simple interactive features that will improve readers’ experience.
Adding ‘hyperlinks’ that can be click on and lead people to a specific area or a page enable easy navigation in a digital publication (especially, those long repetitive themes in a report).This feature is like having a simple website with minimal flow of interactivity for the reader to go back and forth without scrolling up and down. It is somewhat similar to having PDF bookmarks but it is embedded and visualize in the document.
To do add this feature, you need a source and a target. Basically, the ‘source’ is a point where the reader can click and then to go the the ‘target’.
Creating the ‘source’ point
In Publisher (1.9.2), both ‘object’ and ‘text’ can be selected as a ‘source’ to insert hyperlinks.
Selecting ‘object’ as a ‘source → right-click on the selected object → select ‘Interactive’ → select ‘Insert Hyperlink’
Selecting text as a source → click and drag your cursor to select the text → right-click on the text→select ‘Interactive’ → select ‘Insert Hyperlink’
Creating the ‘target’ point
Inserting hyperlinks is the way to create a target point in Publisher.
After selecting ‘Insert Hyperlink’ (see the two previous images), the ‘Hyperlink Properties’ window will pop up with five different types of hyperlinks to select (see image below). I used two types of ‘hyperlinks’ to add this interactivity feature in my document: Anchor or Page.
Creating a hyperlink using ‘Page’ is basically taking your reader from the source point to a specific page in your document. In the ‘Hyperlink Properties’ box, you can type the page number as your target point.
Creating a hyperlink using ‘Anchor’ required an additional step prior to ‘inserting hyperlinks’. In this step, you need to select an object or text and assigned it as an anchor. This anchor serves as the target point. This enable you to link a ‘source’ to an ‘anchor’ as the target point.
The nice thing about anchor is you can re-position it anywhere in your document and any existing link will follows and new link can easily be created. If you are still in the early design stage, this feature gives some flexibility in the process.
To create an ‘anchor’ select an object or text → right-click → select ‘Interactive’ → select ‘Insert Anchor’
After selecting ‘Insert Anchor’, a window box will pop up and you can name the Anchor freely (see image below).
These anchors can also be exported as PDF bookmarks which means readers can access them like the typical Table of Content (TOC). You can also choose not to turn these anchors into PDF bookmarks by unticking the box.
Once you’ve named the ‘anchor’ → click ok.
Follow the steps to ‘Insert Hyperlink’ (see ‘ Creating the source point’ ) and select Hyperlink type → Anchor. Click the Anchor panel and select an ‘anchor’ as a ‘target’. (I’ve created two anchor points as an example, Anchor Sample 1 and Anchor Sample 2 shown in the image below).
Checking the interactivity
To check the interactivity feature
Right-click on the source → select Interactive → select Go to Hyperlink Target.
This command will take you from the source point to the target point.
You can also edit and delete hyperlinks using this command.
Finally, you can export your file into PDF format. Hyperlinks feature is turned on in Publishers via PDF (for print), PDF (digital — small size), PDF (digital — high-quality), PDF (for export), and PDF (flatten).
You can check how these features work with a basic sample that I made below:
http://bit.ly/Sample_Interactivity_Publisher
