Create a click dummy (clickable prototype)

A click dummy is a clickable prototype made of screenshots: you upload screens – of an app, a website or a machine display – and draw hotspots that open another screen. Placed on a page of your PDF, it lets readers click through the screens right in the document, as if they were using the real thing.

Create the click dummy

1. In the Workspace, go to Your dynamic content → Click Dummies and click the plus button (Create click dummy). From the editor you get there with Create in New Tab on the Click Dummies tab.
2. Click Add screens or drop your screenshots onto the page – JPG or PNG, several at once.
3. Select a screen and click Add hotspot. Drag the clickable area on the screen, choose under Opens screen which screen it opens and click Save hotspot.
4. Add hotspots to the other screens the same way. In the Preview, click a hotspot to test it – just like your readers will.
5. Click Save click dummy, enter a Name and confirm with Save click dummy. You return to the Workspace.

A click dummy needs at least two screens and one hotspot. Until you save it, it is a draft that is kept automatically – Continue unfinished click dummy in the Click Dummies panel takes you back to it.

Place it in your PDF

1. Open your PDF in the editor (see Editor basics), click Add area and draw a rectangle in the shape of your screens. Click Save.
2. Click the area, open the Click Dummies tab and choose your click dummy.
3. In the window Select start screenshot, click the screen readers see first and click Confirm.
4. Click the pencil icon next to the area, choose the Content fit and click Save. To change the start screen later, open the same edit window, click Change next to Initial Image and click another screen – it applies when you save.
5. Publish with Save or Replace.

Create the click dummy before you open the editor – then it is ready in the library when you need it. If you create it with Create in New Tab, it appears in the library as soon as you have saved it and come back to the editor.

What readers see

A hand icon on the area. A click opens the start screen, and each hotspot opens its screen. A bar at the bottom of the area has icon buttons for Back (once a hotspot has been used), Go to Initial Image and Close Click Dummy. In Presentation, click dummies are not shown (Present a PDF).

Change a click dummy later

In the Workspace, open the ⋯ menu of the click dummy and choose Edit. You work on a copy: click Save changes and confirm the name with Save changes. This replaces the current version, and every PDF that uses the click dummy stays connected and shows the new version. Each PDF keeps the start screen chosen for it; if you removed that screen, readers start with the first screen.

Accessibility

The button Edit accessibility information on a click dummy in the Workspace lets you describe its purpose (Purpose and process description), give each screen a title and description (Screenshot descriptions) and give each hotspot a label such as “Continue to checkout” (Hotspot labels). Keyboard and screen reader users get these labels on the hotspots; the descriptions also appear under Accessibility information in the viewer and in the Reading Mode.

Each area with a click dummy counts toward your plan’s total of interactive content. The Publisher plan doesn’t include click dummies. See Pricing.