Dynamic PDF documents

Question

This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WS328f5ee33f08f77d1e63e3d120f2667a4c-7ffe.ht ml

Answer 1

Hello Bob,
Sorry for my earlier (still in progress) reply. Was called away from my desk and mistakenly closed my browser window on my return.
If you don't wish to read the rest of my explanation that follows, the takeaway What I have yet to find is a clear, up-to-date roadmap through this maze that will allow me to produce the document I envision. I've found that I can build the document, but attempts at publishing aren't so luck. I need the to have the confidence that our clients, no matter if using a Windows or Mac computer, will see the presentation as I intend when I choose to publish to interactive pdf.
Before I go further, thanks again for your response. First, my system particulars:
Win7
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
InDesign CS6
Adobe Acrobat Reader 11.5
What I'm trying to do based on my past InDesign experience (but with no experience in using interactivity features):
- Build a stand-alone training document that can be distributed by pdf (preferred) or by electronic file transfer (swf + html + asset directory). The document explains the use of our search and rescue airborne imaging technology and covers a variety of issues including theory, constraints, components, installation, and how to conduct a search.
- My idea will see the presentation feature text, photos, and videos. It may also feature short Flash animations, included as swf files. I've built some of these already.
- The user will be able to follow through the presentaion on their own, and replay/revisit content as necessary.
- InDesign's interactive features that I've been learning to use via my subscription to Lynda.com, and other online sources and magazines, include navigation buttons, video, links to other pages within the document, page transitions, scrolling text within a frame, and some form of breadcrumb navigation aid (similar to a website).
  Here's where my trouble comes in. I've proven to myself that I can get all of these features to work within the application itself, yet when I try to publish the document to interactive pdf, I'm seeing more of the limitations than the possibilities. As I tried to say earlier, I don't really understand DPS, and hadn't realized that some features (scrolling text) pertain to this system only and not to pdfs. I have seen that I have access to the lowest tier of DPS through my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, but it's use is fuzzy to me...it seems that I can create all I want, but have to pay to publish a .folio? What is a .folio anyway? Even after googling this, I don't completely understand the process as there doesn't appear to be any software to download. I'll need to spend some time with Lynda's training videos on this system.
Outside of DPS I've learned along the way that things like buttons and their changing states don't translate directly into an interactive pdf, and that you need to first output a swf for each page of your InDesign document and then place these swf files one by one into your pdf from within Acrobat Pro. Or if I ignore the button issue, I've learned that built-in page transitions won't work alongside other interactive features in the output pdf. It may just be me, but there appears to be a lot of, "Yes, you can do that...but...."
Without making my explanation more difficult to follow, I guess that I've been frustrated when it comes time to use features that InDesign now features. The creative process itself is a fun and enabling process within the program, but this comes crashing to the ground as I encounter the nuances and limitations on the publishing end with no clear roadmap around the obstacles. I have a sense of the technical challenges that come from trying to do what I'm hoping to do (Adobe certainly must have put a lot of technical wizardry into the software), but from a user's perspective, I'm only seeing the walls.
When I come across similar experiences of others during my research, it only serves to reinforce my feeling that perhaps I'm in this too deep. What the program makes so relatively easy to create, really isn't that easy to follow through with on the publishing side of things. Lots of landmines in between, and no clear route through.
Are there other learning resources that you might suggest?
Thanking you again,
Dale