After generating a table of contents for a multi-document InDesign book, I tried to export the book to PDF. Adobe InDesign CS3 fell right over, presenting me with the friendly “please tell our developers what the hell you were doing that crashed our fine software” dialog.
When generating the table of contents (Layout > Table of Contents), I selected the Create PDF Bookmarks option. If I omitted the bookmarks, InDesign was able to export a PDF without any trouble, but of course, the PDF was missing the bookmarks. Because the book is nearing 100 pages, having functional bookmarks in the sidebar of Adobe Reader, as well as working hyperlinks in the table of contents, is a necessity for navigating this beast.
After trying every combination I could think of in the Table of Contents dialog, I turned to the Export Adobe PDF dialog (Book panel menu > Export Book to PDF) and started flipping switches there. I discovered that the Bookmarks option in the Include section of the dialog didn’t make any difference; whether on or off, InDesign still crashed when producing a PDF.
I turned off the Hyperlinks checkbox, and lo and behold, InDesign continued chugging away and gave me a PDF. None of the bookmark sidebar links worked, nor any table of contents links, nor any other hyperlinks anywhere in the book, but at least InDesign decided to stay with me this time instead of unceremoniously quitting.
On the theory that a logical approach wasn’t working, I started poking at random settings. I got lucky with the first one I tried; turning off Create Tagged PDF not only prevented InDesign from crashing, it produced a fully functional PDF with working bookmarks and hyperlinks. Mission accomplished!
I’m a bit frustrated that InDesign refuses to make a tagged PDF with working hyperlinks. The whole point to tagged PDFs is that they define document structure, which makes them accessible to assistive reading technologies and lets mobile devices reflow the content to better fit tiny screens. This book isn’t likely to reach a huge audience to begin with, but it hurts to think that InDesign might be shrinking that audience even further. Given a bit of googling, it appears I’m not the only one to find problems with tagging in InDesign CS3.
