Expert: Candice Anderson - 8/6/2010

Question
Hi,
I have a document in InDesign CS4, where I have used drop shadow on
objects and where I also want to include Clickable hyperlinks in the finished
PDF. How do I do that for the result to be OK? If I use the default high quality
print preset for exporting the PDF, I get light gray boxes around the objects
with the shadow. I can omit this by exporting a PDF with Acrobat 4
compatibility and choose "Simulate Overprint". But Hyperlinks only work in
PDF versions compatibility 5 or higher. How to I flatten my document or how
should I make the export settings to get this right?

Answer
don't use drop shadows in Indesign. It's a layout program and is not the best at effects. One day it might be, but not now.

Make the shadow on the object in Photoshop, save the object as either a .psd or .pdf, to avoid the annoying white box, then bring it in.

To be honest, I don't know how to make the effects work in Indesign, besides simulate overprint...which I used to do before I just gave up and used Photoshop.