![]() PDF files offer three kinds of links: hyperlinks, bookmarks, and buttons. ![]() You can also add links to files that your readers can download, and you can add links for sending email. What is an interactive page without links? Links help your readers explore your file, jumping between pages, to other documents, or even to Web sites. But again, there are caveats: the XFL format strips out all the interactivity you’ve added in InDesign-so if you’re heading for XFL, you might as well skip making hyperlinks, buttons, movies, and page transitions. If you know ActionScript, or you’re working with a Flash developer, you’re going to want to export your InDesign document in the XFL format, which is an interchange format that Flash CS4 Professional can read. InDesign’s SWF export is cool for simple projects, but limited to a few simple effects. And, in fact, buttons that interact with transparency effects, and some button actions themselves (such as Go to Next View) are also not honored. We’ll discuss this in more detail later in this chapter, but it’s important to note that only buttons, hyperlinks, and page transitions are honored in your final SWF file-imported sounds and movies are stripped out. InDesign can export one or more pages from your document directly to the SWF (Shockwave Flash) format. epub documents from InDesign in Chapter 7, “Importing and Exporting.” SWF. However, hyperlinks that you create in InDesign are exported properly. InDesign has very limited support for XHTML and ePub documents. We cover how to export PDF files in Chapter 7, “Importing and Exporting.” XHTML and ePub. We hope that this will be fixed before too long. ![]() Unfortunately, although you can import most flavors of SWF into InDesign (we’ll explain how later in this chapter), when you export a PDF file, Acrobat has significant problems displaying the SWF-even Acrobat 9, which has the Flash Player built in! Therefore, if you want to add SWF files to your interactive PDF files, we suggest adding them manually in Acrobat Pro, after you have exported the PDF from InDesign. Also note that you should use Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro to view interactive PDF files-while other PDF readers (such as Preview in Mac OS X) can open them, most of the media features won’t work. For example, there are still a limited number of page turn transitions, and MP3 sound files don’t work. That said, even Acrobat 6, 7, and 8 files don’t support all the rich-media tools you might want. The earlier Acrobat 4 or 5 (that’s PDF version 1.3 and 1.4) formats don’t support some file formats, embedding movies in the PDF, CMYK or non-rectangular posters (more on what posters are later in this chapter), or support for interactive objects on the same page as transparency effects (such as feathering and opacity). However, you should plan on using the Acrobat 6 format (or later). You may not expect that the PDF format has the most wide range of support for interactive media-at least in terms of what you can export from InDesign. And, different formats support different features. The key thing to understand about InDesign’s interactive features is that they only work when you export the file to a format that can support them, such as PDF, SWF, or XHTML. Many of these tools don’t produce any visible effect on your InDesign pages, but change the behavior of PDF or Flash SWF files that you export. Fortunately, InDesign offers a number of features for the “rich media” producer. Today’s communicators have to be adept at creating both print and interactive documents-files that include buttons, sounds, and movies. Today, a school report printed on a color laser or inkjet printer is de rigueur, and teachers may question a student’s work ethic if they don’t have a corresponding Web site and public relations team.Ĭommunication of data has come a long way, and while print is far from dead, you can bet that the future of publishing isn’t solely a matter of throwing more ink at paper. His teacher was so impressed that she wrote her copious corrections on a separate page, so as not to spoil the appearance of David’s “professionally published” work. A hundred years ago, when David was a young pup, he turned in a school essay he had typed using an amazing new device called a personal computer and printed on that technological marvel, the dot-matrix printer.
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