Hide an Acrobat button except during rollover

In some cases, you may want the button area to be invisible until the pointer moves over it. By alternately showing and hiding a button, you can create interesting visual effects in a document. For example, when you move a pointer over a city on a map, a detail map of the city could be displayed, and the detail map could disappear when the pointer moves away from the city.

graphic
Showing and hiding icons


A.
Pointer not over button area
B.
Pointer enters button area
C.
Pointer exits button area
  1. Using the Button tool , drag across the area where you want the pop-up button to appear. For example, if the PDF file contains a map of France, drag across the area where you want a detailed map of Paris to pop up.
  2. Double-click the button.
  3. Click the Options tab, and choose Icon Only from the Layout menu.
  4. Choose Push from the Behavior menu, and then choose Rollover from the State list.
  5. Click Choose Icon, and then click Browse. Select the file type from the File Of Type (Windows) or Show (Mac OS) menu, navigate to the location of the image file, and then double-click the file. In this example, you would select a map of Paris. Click OK to accept the previewed image as the button.
  6. Click the Appearance tab. If needed, deselect Border Color and Fill Color, and then click Close.
  7. Select the Hand tool , and move the pointer across the button. The image field you defined appears as the pointer rolls over the button area and disappears when it exits.
    If you want the image to be larger than the rollover area, or if you want the image to be in a different location than the image button that pops up, use the Show/Hide A Field action. First, you specify an icon for the button that will be shown and hidden. Next, you create a second button that acts as a hot spot when the mouse rolls over it. You do not assign an icon for the appearance of the second button. Instead, you use the Actions tab to show the first button when the pointer enters the second button, and hide the first button when the pointer exits.