How to make an interactive PDF with buttons and forms
Build an interactive PDF in Layout by Zaweba: add buttons, links and form fields such as text boxes and check boxes, then export with the Interactive preset.
To make an interactive PDF in Layout by Zaweba, add your buttons and form fields to the pages, then export the PDF with the Interactive preset. Buttons can go to a page or a web address, and form fields cover text, check boxes, radio buttons, lists, combo boxes and a signature placeholder. The result is a PDF that people can click through and fill in on screen.
Fillable forms, digital brochures and clickable reports all start this way. You design the pages with the same care as a print job, and the interactive parts sit on top as objects in the layout.
What you can add
Hyperlinks are the simplest. A link can point to a web address, another page, an email address, a file or a text anchor, so a contents page can jump straight to each article and an email address in the footer opens a new message.
Buttons go a step further. A button is a designed object that takes the reader to a page or a URL when clicked, so a "Next" arrow drawn in your own style, or a "Book now" panel, does the job of a link while looking like part of the design. Bookmarks and cross-references are carried into the PDF too, which helps readers find their way through a long document.
Form fields turn a page into something people fill in. Text fields take typed answers, check boxes and radio buttons handle yes or no and pick one choices, list and combo boxes offer set options, and a signature placeholder marks where a signature should go.
Building it, step by step
Lay out the page as you would for print: headings, instructions, boxes and spacing. Then add the interactive objects. Draw a button where the reader should click and set its action. Add form fields over the spaces where answers go, sized to fit the answers you expect. Give every field a clear label in the page design so people know what to type.
Work through the document in the order a reader would, checking that each link and button leads where it should. Layout's presentation mode also shows page transitions, which carry into the interactive PDF.
When everything is in place, export the PDF and choose the Interactive preset. That keeps the links, buttons and fields working, whereas a press preset is aimed at printing and is the wrong choice here.
Making a form people can actually use
Make fields big enough. A cramped text box for an address is frustrating to fill in. Keep related questions together and line fields up on a grid, using Layout's smart guides and Align panel, so the eye can run down the page.
Think about the order of questions as a reader meets them, and test the form yourself by filling it in on screen in a PDF reader. Click every button. Try every radio group to make sure only one choice can be picked at a time.
Accessibility matters for forms
Forms are often filled in by people using assistive technology. Layout has accessibility tools, including alt text, a Reading order panel and an Accessible preflight profile, and File > Check a PDF can test the finished file against PDF/UA-1 rules. It isn't a certified validator, but it catches a lot before you publish.
Other routes for interactive documents
If the document needs to be read on phones and tablets as much as on a computer, Layout's EPUB and HTML exports can carry interactivity too, including object states switched by buttons and animation in fixed layout EPUB and HTML. A plain PDF from a press preset is still the right file for printing the same pages.
Layout by Zaweba lets one document serve both: the print PDF for the printer and the interactive PDF for email and the website, made from the same pages with no second copy to keep in step.
