How do you create an interactive PDF file?
Written by Cameron James·September 27, 2026Quick answer
To create an interactive PDF file, lay the pages out in InDesign or Canva, then add the interactive parts in Adobe Acrobat: Edit PDF then Link for hyperlinks, and Tools then Prepare Form for buttons, fillable fields and checkboxes. If you are exporting from InDesign, you have to pick Adobe PDF (Interactive), because a Print export strips the buttons and links back out. Video is the one element to leave alone: it only plays properly in desktop Acrobat, so host it and put it beside the document behind a single link instead.
Key facts
- Hyperlinks in Acrobat live under Edit PDF then Link then Add/Edit Web or Document Link. The same panel handles links that jump to another page inside the same file. Buttons are form fields, so they come from Prepare Form instead.
- Buttons, fillable fields, checkboxes and signature fields come from Tools then Prepare Form, which scans the page and suggests fields for you.
- In InDesign, hyperlinks are under Window then Interactive then Hyperlinks, and buttons under Window then Interactive then Buttons and Forms. The export must be Adobe PDF (Interactive), not Print.
- Canva keeps hyperlinks clickable when you download a standard PDF, but not a flattened one. JPG and PNG exports never carry links at all.
- Acrobat can embed video through Tools then Rich Media then Add Video, but playback depends entirely on the viewer. Chrome's built-in PDF viewer typically shows a still frame with nothing to click, and Apple Preview often shows nothing.
- Interactive elements are ignored rather than repaired by viewers that do not support them, so the file still opens, it just quietly does less than you designed.
Pick the interactive bits that survive the trip
Hyperlinks, buttons and fillable fields are the safe three. They work in most mainstream viewers (support varies, so open the file in the one your reader will use), they take about ten minutes to add in Acrobat, and they cover what people actually want from an interactive PDF: jump to a page, open a URL, type a name into a box. If you are laying the document out in InDesign rather than editing a finished PDF, the equivalent panels sit under Window then Interactive, and the one thing that catches everybody is the export step, where Print quietly turns your buttons into pictures of buttons.
Video is the part that breaks
Acrobat will embed an MP4 without complaining, and it will play on your machine, in your copy of Acrobat, which is why so many of these files ship broken. The same file in Chrome's viewer is a still frame with nothing to click. I have sent a deck that looked great on my laptop and arrived as a dead grey rectangle in a prospect's browser, and a frozen thumbnail is a worse impression than no video at all. So if the walkthrough matters, host the video and put it alongside the PDF behind one link, which is the thing I ended up building LiveDocument to do: video walkthrough attached to the document, one link, clickable highlights that jump the video to the section you are pointing at, and page-level analytics so you can see which pages got read. It is not a PDF editor, so for fillable forms, or a self-contained file someone needs to open offline, Acrobat is still the right answer.
The Bottom Line
Links, buttons and form fields are the interactive parts worth building, because they work in most desktop and browser viewers, though support varies. Video is the exception, and it belongs beside the PDF behind a link rather than buried inside it.
Written by Cameron James