Creating Telephone Hyperlinks in InDesign
You probably know that you can make several different kinds of hyperlinks in InDesign, including links to URLs, pages, other documents, and even links that will create new email messages.
But what’s not obvious from the choices in the dialog box is that you can also make hyperlinks that will make phone calls. So, for example, you can make the phone number in your contact info clickable/tappable so folks don’t have to dial it.
Here’s how.
Select the object or text you want to apply the phone hyperlink to, and click the New button on the Hyperlinks panel.
Choose Link To: URL
In the Destination URL field type tel: followed by the phone number.
For example, to call the White House, you’d set the destination to: tel:12024561111 or to call the U.S. Naval Observatory to get the current time you’d enter tel:12027621401 or to reach the CreativePro voice message line you’d enter tel:13122521292
Then just export to PDF or Publish Online. When someone clicks or taps on the hyperlink, their computer or mobile device will try to dial the number in the default application for voice calls. On a mobile phone it should use the Phone app.
On a desktop computer it could launch programs like FaceTime or Skype. On the Mac, you can choose which app will launch by going to FaceTime Preferences and picking from the Default For Calls menu.
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Hi all, and thanks for the tip. The feature would be be great should it work always: When I click created hyperlink in Preview (default app for opening PDF on Mac) the app makes warning sound and that’s all.
After clicking the same link in Acrobat Reader the app asks for permission and dials the phone number upon its approval.
But the default app for opening PDF on Mac is Preview which seems that doesn’t support this feature. Do you others have the same experience? And how about the Windows, do these links work in your apps?
Right-clicking on the link in Preview will give the option to open the hyperlink in FaceTime, Skype, etc.
Great tip! I immediately put this to use. :-)
Is there a way to do this as a large batch, like the “convert all urls to hyperlinks” options? I have a large informational booklet (131 pages) with a ton of different phone numbers in it. It’s not required that I do it but I figured it would be a nice feature.
There’s nothing built into InDesign that would do that, but I bet you could hire someone to write a script that would.
Is there a way to hyperlink telephone numbers with extensions?
Thanks for all the amazing tips. I’m constantly blown away at how I can increase efficiency at work!
Thanks, Jen. I’ve had success with adding a comma, then the extension. Like this: tel:17815551212,1
do you have a way of adding foreign numbers? does it only work for american nos?
Thank you!! very helpful!
The ability to link phone numbers is well established now…is there some sort of preference or other setting that needs to be changed so InDesign will recognize a phone number pattern and set the link syntax correctly? Currently, unless you’re using a script, the “new hyperlink” and “new hyperlink from URL” options in the hyperlinks window add “http://” before a phone number, so having a key command still requires you go in and edit the hyperlink to “tel:1234567890”. Seems like it should be smart enough to recognize patterns like (123) 456-7890 and 123-456-7890, etc., and then use “tel:” rather than “http://” (and for that matter, nowadyas, it should be “https://”. Anyone have thoughts?