3 Replies Latest reply: Mar 21, 2013 6:40 AM by alanomaly RSS

    Make table of contents links keep current zoom level, not zoom out to full page

    alanomaly Community Member
    alanomaly Mar 20, 2013 4:43 AM

      When Indesign creates tables of contents, they automatically link to the paragraphs the links point to, so that in an interactive PDF, clicks and prods take the user to that page. Great.

       

      What's not so great is, that the hyperlinks / cross-references / jump-links / whatever that are created behind the scenes within the table of contents appear to:

      1. ...be automatically set to reset the zoom to full page width
      2. ...not be editable in any way

       

      Normal cross references retain the zoom level that the user has chosen, and normal hyperlinks that point to a page in the document have a range of settings about what zoom level change (if any) should be imposed on the user, which can be set to 'inherit zoom'.

       

      How do I set up a table of contents that doesn't annoy users by resetting their chosen zoom level to an artitrary default when they use the interactive table of contents?

       

      I'm really hoping I don't have to ditch Indesign's table of contents feature and create every cross reference manually.

        • 1. Re: Make table of contents links keep current zoom level, not zoom out to full page
          alanomaly Community Member
          alanomaly Mar 21, 2013 6:04 AM (in response to alanomaly)

          This is strange. It is possible to make all the TOC links appear in the hyperlinks panel, but I have no idea how.

           

          I gave up and made a manually-created table of contents using cross-references, and moved the old table of contents out of its prior position on a master page onto the dead space outside of the document (pasteboard?).

           

          Later, I noticed a load of greyed-out hyperlinks had appeared in the hyperlinks panel with numerical names starting with a dot. These are the links in the table of contents - and it seems to be possible to edit their settings, including changing the setting that makes them reset the zoom to full page.

           

          Screen Shot 2013-03-21 at 12.54.51.png

          I didn't notice them appear, so I have no idea what happened to cause them to become visible. I've tried replicating this in a new document, but nothing I do makes them appear. There's no mouseover text for any of these items.

           

          In the document where these links appeared in the Hyperlinks panel, the sources for these links are still part of a live TOC - it can be updated and the links seem to update.

           

          So it seems this is possible - anyone got any idea how?

          • 2. Re: Make table of contents links keep current zoom level, not zoom out to full page
            Eugene Tyson CommunityMVP
            Eugene Tyson Mar 21, 2013 6:11 AM (in response to alanomaly)

            In Acrobat you can click on the Booklinks tab and you can right click each one.

             

            In the Actions Tab you can Add a Menu Item and set the View.

             

            It's tedious.

            • 3. Re: Make table of contents links keep current zoom level, not zoom out to full page
              alanomaly Community Member
              alanomaly Mar 21, 2013 6:40 AM (in response to alanomaly)

              (editted) So it turns out that you can 'expand' a table of contents by copying and pasting it - this fills the hyperlinks panel with links that can be editted (like above) but breaks the auto-update - they're no longer a TOC, they're just a text frame full of links. (I had got different copies mixed up when I thought the frame holding the editable links was also auto-updating)

               

              The greying out of the links was a red herring, just something to do with the fact they were on a master page.

               

              It does mean that one possible TOC workflow is:

              • Create a TOC on the pasteboard somewhere.
              • Before finalising the document, update this TOC and alt-drag the 'live' TOC creating an editable 'dead' copy in an appropriate place in the document
              • Edit the link properties of the links in the 'dead' copy (don't forget that you can select multiple hyperlinks at once by holding down shift, and edit things like the Zoom Setting all at once with Hyperlink Options in the Hyperlinks flyout menu. )

              Then, if you make other changes to the document later on, delete the dead copy, update and re-copy the live original, and re-do the changes to the new copy

               

              This isn't a bad method - it just adds about a minute's work each time you export a PDF (delete, update TOC, alt-drag, shift-select the new batch of .XXXX links at the bottom of the Hyperlinks panel, > Hyperlink Options, Zoom Setting  > Inherit Zoom, done).

               

              Alternatively, you could manually build a TOC using cross-references if you want links to the exact position on the page, not just the top of the appropriate page.