Exporting Interactive Documents From Adobe Indesign Cs5

As we move away from the days when the printed version of a document was always seen

as the definitive one, Adobe's PDF format becomes more and more important. InDesign itself allows you to create PDF documents; you don't need a separate copy of Acrobat for this purpose. In addition to creating the PDF, InDesign allows you to make it interactive, thus enhancing the user experience of anyone who browses it. To ensure that these various commands are included in the PDF, you must activate the "Interactive Elements" option in the Export PDF dialog box.

There are five main types of interactivity which InDesign allows you to add to your PDFs: bookmarks, links, buttons, video and transitions. When viewing a PDF file in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, bookmarks are normally displayed in a panel on the left of your screen; clicking a bookmark takes you to the page to which the bookmark relates. Links and buttons are hotspots which, when clicked, instigate an action of some sort, such as opening a web URL. QuickTime video can now be embedded in a PDF file and transitions are useful when you want to create PDFs that can be viewed in a similar way to PowerPoint presentations.

Bookmarks are typically generated automatically in InDesign and are tied to the table of contents feature. The table of contents definition window contains an option for the automatic creation of bookmarks. If this option is activated, InDesign will generate a bookmark corresponding to each item in the table of contents pointing to the appropriate page.

Links can also be generated from the table of contents. Each table of contents entry will automatically become a clickable link which will take the user to the corresponding page. In addition, InDesign has a button tool which allows you to create a button on any part of a page. Using the Button Options command, you can then specify what happens when the button is clicked. Thus, for example, you could create a button hotspot over your logo and specify that, when clicked, it will take the user to the home page of your company website.

Video is imported into InDesign using the Place command in the File menu. The only recognised format is QuickTime. Once the video clip has been placed, you can right-click it and choose Movie Options. Here, you can choose when the movie plays, whether it is embedded in the PDF file or referenced externally and whether the QuickTime controller will be visible.

The Transitions panel was new to InDesign CS4 and allows you to associate transitions with all pages or selected pages within the document. Simply highlight a selection of pages and then choose the desired transition. To apply the selected transition to all pages, choose the option Apply To All Spreads.

by: Simon Grant.

POST COMMENT

Flash Games That Engage As Well As Entertain While They Are More Independent Of Adults, They Are More Anxious To Play The Game Antonym To Their P Luxor Games And Many Other Online Games Car Racing Games That Have The Ability To Improve Dexterity Download Hints Hunter Nintendo Dsi Game For Free Chicago Chevy Silverado Drivers Will Have The Chance To Drive The Chevy Volt In New Videogame Online Bmx Games For Younger Audiences Get To Know More About Car Games Ipad Game Development To Enhance Your Ipad Game Application For Best Performance Learning Your Way Around Bmx Games Online Benefits Of Playing Bmx Games Online Searching For Fun Bmx Games Online Having Fun With Bmx Games Online