How to Hyperlink to an Adobe InDesign File

The best way to link to an InDesign file is first convert it to a PDF.

While you can create hyperlinks to InDesign INDD files, Web browsers can't display them. All the hyperlink does is allow the user to download the InDesign file, which, unless she has the same (or a more recent version) of InDesign, isn't really very useful. Most visitors to your site can't open the file. However, converting the document to a PDF will ensure that everybody visiting your site can see the document.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe InDesign CS1 or later
• Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Word, or another program that can save documents as HTML Web pages

Instructions

Converting InDesign Documents to PDFs

1. Open the InDesign document you want to create a hyperlink to in InDesign. Click "File" on the menu bar and choose "Export." This opens the Export dialog box.

2. Click the "Save as type" drop-down at the bottom of the dialog box and choose "Adobe PDF."

3. Navigate to the directory where you want to save the file and click the "Save" button. It's best to save the PDF in the same (or a sub-directory of the) directory where you saved the Web page in which you want to hyperlink to this file.

Creating the Hyperlink in Your Web Page

1. Open the Web page where you want to create the hyperlink in the program you use to create Web pages.

2. Select (or create and select) the text for your hyperlink. For example, the text might say: "Click Here to View Brochure."

3. Create the hyperlink as you normally would in your Web design program. For example, in Dreamweaver, type the URL to the PDF file in the "Link" field in the Properties panel. In Word, right-click the selected text and choose "Hyperlink" from the fly-out menu. This opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. Type the URL to the PDF file in the "Address" field at the bottom of the dialog box (or navigate to the file and select it), and then click "OK." If you're using a standard text editor, such as Notepad, to create your page, your HTML hyperlink code should look like this:

   "<a href=http://www.mydomain.com/mypdf.pdf></a>

   If your PDF is in the same directory as your Web page, use: <a href="mypdf.pdf"></a>

4. Save the Web page as an HTML file.

5. Upload the Web page and PDF files to your Web server. When you click the hyperlink, the InDesign file opens as a PDF in your browser.

Tips & Warnings

• If all you want is to provide a hyperlink to allow users to download the InDesign INDD file, simply create the hyperlink to that file, such as: "http://www.mydomain.com/mydocument.indd" (without the quotes, unless you're working in a standard text editor).

• If the InDesign document was originally designed for printing, you can use the program's Adobe PDF Presets option to create a smaller PDF file size for the Internet. In InDesign, click "File" on the menu bar and choose "Adobe PDF Presets," and then select "[Smallest File Size]" from the fly-out menu.

• When you upload the files, keep the paths and file names intact. Otherwise, your hyperlinks won't work.

References

• Adobe: Export to PDF
• Internet4Classrooms: Creating Hyperlinks in Microsoft Word
• Iron Spider: Creating Hyperlinks