10. Adding Simple Navigation Features

If your PDF document is intended to be read onscreen, you’ll make life much easier for your reader if you provide some minimal tools for navigating the document. The easiest—and most consistently useful—navigation tools you can add to your document are bookmarks, links, and articles. These are the topics of this chapter.

Adding Bookmarks to a Document

Bookmarks constitute a clickable table of contents that reside in the Bookmarks navigation pane (Figure 10.1). Clicking a bookmark takes you to the corresponding view within the document.

Figure 10.1. Bookmarks make up a clickable table of contents that resides in the Bookmarks pane.

A view in Acrobat terminology is a combination of a page, a position on that page, and a zoom value (Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2. A bookmark’s destination is a view: a combination of page, location on the page, and zoom level.

To add a bookmark to a document, you set the document window to reflect the page, position, and zoom you want for that bookmark, and then you create the bookmark, which records that view as its destination.

To create a bookmark in a document

1. Using the normal Acrobat navigation tools, set the document window to display the view you want as the bookmark’s target.
2. Open the Bookmark pane by clicking the Bookmark icon.
3. Click the New Bookmark icon at the top of the bookmark list (Figure 10.3).

   Figure 10.3. Clicking the New Bookmark icon creates a new bookmark named Untitled.

   

   Acrobat inserts a new bookmark named Untitled into the Bookmarks pane. The name is already selected so you can type over it.

4. Type the name you want for the new bookmark.
5. Click outside the Bookmarks pane or press Enter/Return to make the new name permanent.

To change a bookmark’s color and text style

1. Open the Bookmarks pane, if necessary.
2. Right-click the bookmark whose properties you want to change.
3. In the resulting contextual menu, choose Properties.

   The Bookmark Properties dialog box opens (Figure 10.6).

   Figure 10.6. The Bookmark Properties dialog box lets you change the style and color of your bookmark’s text in the list.

   

4. Choose a text style from the drop-down menu.

   You can choose from among the standard styles: bold, italic, and bold-italic.

5. Click the color well, and choose a color from the resulting palette.
6. Click OK.

To change an existing bookmark’s destination

1. Using the standard Acrobat navigation and zoom tools, set the document window so it displays the new destination you want for the bookmark.
2. Open the Bookmarks pane, if necessary.
3. Right-click the bookmark whose destination you want to change.
4. Choose Set Destination in the contextual menu.

   Acrobat opens a dialog box asking if you’re sure you want to change the bookmark’s destination (Figure 10.7).

   Figure 10.7. When you change the destination of a bookmark, Acrobat gives you a chance to change your mind.

   

5. Click Yes.

Creating Links

Links are the easiest way to make a PDF file a dynamic online document. They are, in effect, bookmarks that reside on your document page, rather than in a navigation pane. They behave exactly like the links familiar to you on Web sites: You click the “hot” area of the link, and something happens; usually, the link sends you to another view in the document.

Links can have a visible border, but otherwise no icons or labels are associated with them. If you want such artwork, it must already be part of the contents of the PDF page; you lay the link on top of the existing graphics or text on the page.

You create links with the Link tool in the Advanced Editing toolbar (Figure 10.8).

Figure 10.8. The Advanced Editing toolbar contains three tools you use in this chapter

To create a link on a page

1. In the Advanced Editing toolbar, click the Link tool.

   The mouse pointer changes to a crosshairs.

2. Click and drag a rectangle on the PDF page where you want the link to be.

   Acrobat displays the Create Link dialog box (Figure 10.9).

   Figure 10.9. The Create Link dialog box lets you specify the appearance and behavior of a link.

   

3. Using the standard navigation and zoom tools, set the view in the document window to the destination of the new link.
4. If you want a visible rectangle around the link, choose Visible Rectangle in the Link Type drop-down menu; otherwise, choose Invisible Rectangle.
5. If you chose a visible rectangle for your link, specify the thickness, style, and color you want for the rectangle.
6. Choose a highlight style for the link (Figure 10.10).

   Figure 10.10. The highlight style specifies how a link changes when you click it. From top to bottom, they are None (boring), Invert, Outline, and Inset.

   

7. In the Link Action radio buttons, choose “Go to a page view.”

   See the sidebar “Link Actions” for a discussion of the other actions.

8. Click Next.

   The Create Go to View dialog box opens (Figure 10.11). This dialog box behaves like a palette, in that your Acrobat document is still active in the background; the navigation and zoom tools still function to move you around in the document.

   Figure 10.11. While the Create Go to View dialog box is open, the document window is active in the background; you can use the arrow keys and other navigation tools to move around the document.

   

9. Use the navigation and zoom tools to set the document view to the link’s destination.
10. Click Set Link.

    Acrobat returns your document window to the link’s page. Your new link is visible as a bounding rectangle (Figure 10.12); when the mouse pointer rolls over this rectangle, handles appear at its sides and corners, as in the figure.

    Figure 10.12. A link can be resized and repositioned by dragging the bounding rectangle or its handles with the Link tool.

    

11. Adjust the position of the link by dragging its bounding rectangle.
12. Adjust the size of the link by dragging the handles at the sides and corners of its bounding rectangle.
13. To make another link, repeat steps 2–12.
14. When you’re finished making links, click the Acrobat Hand tool.

Modifying Existing Links

Whenever the Link tool is selected, all the links in your document appear as black bounding rectangles on the page. Clicking one of these rectangles selects that link; the bounding rectangle changes color, and handles appear whenever the mouse pointer moves over the rectangle (Figure 10.12).

You can make a number of changes to a link when it’s selected with the Link tool.

To modify an existing link

1. Click the Link tool in the Advanced Editing toolbar.
2. Click the link you want to modify.
3. To change the position of the link, drag its bounding rectangle to the new location.
4. To change the size of the link, drag the handles at the sides and corners of the rectangle.
5. To change the appearance of the link, right-click the link and choose Properties from the contextual menu.

   Acrobat displays the Appearance controls of the Link Properties dialog box (Figure 10.15), allowing you to reset the visibility, thickness, color, and other visual properties of the link.

   Figure 10.15. The Appearance tab of the Link Properties dialog box lets you specify the visual characteristics of a link.

   

6. To delete the link, press the Delete key.

   On Macintosh laptops, you need to hold the fn key and press the Delete key.

Making Automatic Web Links

The “Link Actions” sidebar discusses making a link to a Web page; when the reader clicks on this link, Acrobat launches the default Web browser and opens the Web page tied to that link. Acrobat sensibly refers to such links as Web links.

Acrobat can automatically make Web links throughout your document. The Create Web Links command searches the text in your PDF file and places links over any Web or email addresses it finds. Web addresses in the text receive links to that URL; email addresses get links that open the default mail client with a blank message addressed to the target email address.

To add Web links to your document

1. With the document open to any page, choose Advanced > Document Processing > Create Links from URLs.

   Acrobat will present you with the Create Web Links dialog box (Figure 10.16).

   Figure 10.16. The Create Web Links dialog box lets you specify the pages that should be searched for URLs.

   

2. Enter the beginning and ending page numbers of the range that should be scanned for URLs, or click All to select all pages.
3. Click OK.

   Acrobat scans your PDF file, adding links to all the URLs it finds. When it’s finished, Acrobat reports on the number of links it added (Figure 10.17).

   Figure 10.17. Acrobat tells you how many Web links it added to your file.

   

Creating Articles

An article is a set of rectangular regions scattered throughout your document that, taken together, represent a single thread of text. It’s similar to an article in a newspaper, which may start on the front page, continue on pages 13 and 14, and finish up on page 27.

Articles are extremely useful for taking documents that were originally laid out for print—usually with small point sizes, often with multiple columns—and making them readable online. I’ve used articles a lot in my documents and tend to get unreasonably enthusiastic about them!

When your mouse pointer moves over an article on a page, the pointer turns into a hand with a downward-pointing arrow (Figure 10.18). When you click the article, Acrobat zooms in until the article exactly fits across the width of the document window (Figure 10.19). This makes the text easy to read.

Figure 10.18. When the mouse pointer moves over an article, it turns into a hand with a downward arrow.

Figure 10.19. When you click an article (top), Acrobat zooms in until the article fills the width of the document window (bottom).

While you’re reading an article, each click of the mouse button takes you down one screen within the article, changing from one column to another as needed. No scrolling, dragging, or fussing with navigation buttons is required.

When you reach the end of the article, a final click reverts the view to what it was before you entered the article.

To create an article in a document

1. In the Advanced Editing toolbar, click the Article tool.

   The mouse pointer turns into the wavy arrow shape (Figure 10.20).

   Figure 10.20. When you click the Article tool, the mouse pointer becomes a wavy arrow.

   

2. Click-and-drag a rectangle, indicating the first area in the article (Figure 10.21).

   Figure 10.21. With the Article tool, you drag out a series of rectangles that will be the sections of your article text.

   

   While you’re dragging out the rectangle, the mouse pointer is a crosshair.

3. Continue to click and drag additional rectangles in the order that a reader should see them.

   When you are finished, each of your article segments is surrounded by a black rectangle labeled with an article number and a segment number (Figure 10.22). Note that if you click a segment with the Article tool, Acrobat provides you with the handles visible in Figure 10.22, which allow you to resize the article.

   Figure 10.22. Each section of your article is identified by an article number and a section number within that article.

   

4. When you’ve dragged out all the article segments, click the Article tool again (or any other tool, for that matter) to indicate you’re finished constructing your article.

   Acrobat will present you with the Article Properties dialog box (Figure 10.23). The information this dialog box requests is all optional, but it will make your article more useful to the reader.

   Figure 10.23. When you’ve defined all of the sections of your article, you can specify a title, subject, author, and searchable keywords for the article.

   

5. Type in some combination of title, subject, author, and searchable keywords.
6. Click OK.

   You’ve now created your article, which will behave properly as soon as you click the Hand tool.