Thank you, lhtaylor - your work around is great!! Defining a new print PDF present and selecting hyperlinks and appearance of interactive elements was the cure and I could just update the existing document so the embeds and links don't need to change.

Start by defining a PDF preset (File > Adobe PDF Presets > Define). Select hyperlinks and appearance of interactive elements. I call this preset Publish Online. In your publish online dialogue box, select "allow downloads" then go to your advanced settings. Select the dropdown menu for PDF preset. Choose your preset for ePub. Screenshot of advanced settings dialogue box.

Happy publishing!

I searched on the InDesign help pages and found:

"Where the document will be viewed partly determines the file type to choose. Here we focus on two options: PDF and Publish Online.

The Export dialog offers two options for PDF: print and interactive. The Adobe PDF (Print) format includes minimal interactivity and is intended for printing, while Adobe PDF (Interactive) includes most kinds of interactivity and is intended for onscreen viewing.
Choose File > Publish Online to publish any InDesign document to the web and share it on social networks, over email, or as a standalone URL. The online document supports all of your InDesign document’s interactivity."

So, probably it's not possible to combine the two. I really think that's a huge bug. I'm not a programmer, but this seems to be an easy thing to handle, extra checkbox "Allow viewers to download the document as a pdf file (interactive)" !!!

@Nita... and? Do you have such a dialog box? I don't. During the Publish Online process, I only have a checkbox allowing viewers to download the document as a pdf file (print).

@Boyd Nielsen.... hm interesting. I thought when you publish online, on the dialog box, you have the button to upload your interactive PDF with the links as your version of the downloadable PDF.

@Nita But that means you have to save the InDesign file as an interactive pdf. That's not what I mean. I have a document with links in it that I 'publish online'. When a customer goes to that location and clicks the links, everything works nicely. But, still online, the customer wants to download the file for later use, that downloaded pdf does not have working links anymore. And sure, I can send over the interactive pdf file to that customer I created out of InDesign, but the customer has to contact me first, that's not very user friendly I would say.

@Boyd Nielsen To answer your question.
The published only document is very effective when you want to update the document quickly.
Posting the downloadable PDF with the same interactivity as the online version is a good backup, in case your mobile workforce doesn't have access to the internet when they are on the road. For example a salesperson on the road. Or maybe the client office won't allow internet access.

Although it might be a very old discussion, I'm still encounter the same issue. Is there anyone that can explain in a simple way what to do to have both 'published online' interactive documents, as well as the downloaded pdf version of that same document with the interactivity?

So if you create a preset, and make sure under General > Include, you checkbox "hyperlinks", you can at least allow the PDFs to download with hyperlinks. You just have to select this preset under the Advanced options in Publish Online. It's not full interactivity, but it's something.

So this is a very old discussion. But I would be very happy if my document is published online WITH the possibility to download "as a PDF" WITH at least the buttons and mouse-overs and hyperlinks I created in the ID document. Now all the buttons are GONE. How is this even possible? Thank you.

If Adobe Acrobat could read ePub3 files then this is a viable solution. Thus you would be able to “download” as an ePub3 FXL file and open in Acrobat... Indesign developers need to talk to Acrobat developers ... Even Terry White and the rest are saying don’t use interactive PDF use publish on line...

I really want to be able to make order forms with Interactive fields and use publish online, it would save me so much time and energy! Please consider working on this feature.

Publish online is a great feature but I have the same sort of problem when I make a document in Indesign for 'Publish Online' I'd like viewers being able to download a PDF which can be printed but not being changed. So It is not possible to put a security password in the PDF beforehand.

I saw on the previous InDesign there's an option to download PDF with minimal interactivity (using hyperlinks), but now the option is gone. I understand that we might not be able to use animation or button (for now), but at the very least interactivity using hyperlinks should be allowed. I can see the advantages of publishing a design that works both for online and pdf downloads.

Yes, we might not get the bells and whistle of flying animation, pop up of a table of contents, etc., but being able to update the same document and publish it to the same link is huge for a company that has content that needs updating without keep uploading a new pdf every time. And it would a great option, for example, a salesperson who can't access the internet but they still can download the pdf with the interactivity still intact on their computer to read offline.

What's the point of creating flashy interactivity if the downloadable version strips all the interactivity?

Interactive PDF is very popular among our clients. But the problem is updating it and redistributing it is a cumbersome process. So the content gets obsolete once the PDF is distributed. Publish online provides that workaround solution on the "update content part." But it would be a perfect solution if Adobe also adds downloadable PDF with interactivity intact. I thought this is going to be a game-changer to have the ability to update the document and be able to download the full interactive PDF in case there's no internet connection. You don't know how much this solution is the answer to most of our client who doesn't want to make their content a full-blown microsite or mobile app. Adobe, please consider having an option to download the PDF with full interactivity intact.

Totally agree!!

All PDF Interactivity features should be available in publish online documents.

For example I'm creating a magazine published online and I would like to create a crossword etc with fillable text fields, but this is only available in interactive PDF format.

Totally agree that and we urgently need this feature.

I would also like them to be able to preset the settings for the .pdf download ie choose spread layout (currently the spread layout downloads into a single page, why? ) and choose what interactive elements we include. We should be able to set this and when they press download the settings have been predetermined already by content creator.

This absolutely needs to be addressed and shows how little Adobe understands the use of the end product. Our clients want to have a PDF of the document to print out, but the interactive elements still need to be usable while they view the pdf. You only need a print pdf if you are printing professionally, plus, print pdfs have the transparency lines which are unattractive.