Adding Executable Buttons to PDFs

You can use Adobe Acrobat 8 or 9 to work with buttons. I have used images related to Adobe Acrobat 8 in this post.

Initially you need to complete your document in MS Word and convert it to a PDF. If you are facing problems in converting your word document with Adobe Acrobat, then simply use the pdf converter plugin downloaded from Microsoft site to complete this task.

Open your pdf document and follow the steps below.

Go to Tools--> Forms --> Button Tool

Draw a rectangle or square at the place where you need to have the button on pdf document.

The Button property box will appear when the drawing is finished.

Properties in General tab

Give a unique name to button Name, which is going to be the identifier for the button. Remember that this is not going to be the button label. 

Tooltip can be used to add a caption to the button. So that, the Tooltip will be displayed when the mouse is pointed to the created button. 

In Form Field there are options to select, for visibility (Visible, Hidden, Hidden but printable, visible but doesn't print options are available) of the created button. 

In Orientation you can change the point of reference of the button.  

Properties in Appearance tab

Border Color, Line Thickness, Fill Color and Line Style properties can be modified using the Borders and Colors panel. 

Text panel can be used to adjust the Font Size, Text Color and Font type of the text appear in the label.

You can use non for Border Color and Fill Color and proceed without other modifications, if you are willing to use a text field or image available in the pdf document itself.

Properties in Options tab

In Options tab, we can set the Layout of the button. The selections available for Layout are as follows.

Label Only, Icon Only, Icon top label bottom, Label top icon bottom, Icon left label right, Label left icon right, Label over icon.

• Use Icon Only, and proceed to Actions, if you need to use the already available text in the document. 
• Use Label Only if you are not using the available text, but creating a text for the button using Label field.
• Use Label Over Icon, if you are planning to add an Icon image to your button and a Label description as well. 
• Other available selections can be used according to the preferences as well.

Behavior of the button can be selected from the Behavior drop down. Different States will be available under State for different behaviors.

Edit the label field available at Label to set text to the button.  Use Choose Icon button to browse and add a button image.

The button icon will display inside the field for icon as below.

Properties in Actions tab

Actions tab can be used to add actions for each and every mouse trigger.

Use Select Trigger to choose a trigger and Select Action to set a suitable action. Add button can be used to add required actions after selecting an action.

For an example choose Mouse Down as the Select Trigger and Go to a page view as the Select action. Click on Add button so that a window giving instructions to set the link will appear. Use scroll, zoom or select tools to select the target. So that when you click on the created button, you’ll be directed to the target.

Following is a simple button created in the pdf document.