Interactive Publications

Dear all,
We are the foremost supplier of printed theatre programmes to the UK; we supply 85% of this market, with some of the most prestigious names under our banner. The model is that the programmes are supplied at a highly discounted rate to theatres in return for the revenues from advertising within the programmes.
I’m looking to provide a scalable solution for digital theatre programmes and other ‘very’ interactive publications (sound/video/animation/Internet content/GPS, etc.) bearing advertising. The advertisements will be a mixture of static and interactive, with the potential for feed-back to advertisers Internet sites, for registration / more details, etc.
We currently have Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams and we’re working with InDesign to create the publications – for now at least. This is fine for low volume work but, if successful, we will end-up with hundreds of publications to manage and, while I do have a number of options, I would very much appreciate a steer from someone who’s been through the ‘pain’.
Best regards,
David Fatkin
Director - Digital and New Media
John Good Limited

You have two main options:
(1) You create an interactive PDF but accept their limitations: (a) You can't do animations, and you accept that not all PDF readers in iPhone/iPad can play video so you use ones like PDF Expert that do.
A lot of the problem is that animation is not possible in PDF (limitation in the PDF specification, didn't exist when it was written), and most tablet/phone PDF readers are immature or poorly written.
(2) You look at solutions for creating tablet/phone apps like Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

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Exporting interactive elements for proofing

I design an interactive publication, so work with many different clients on adverts and editorial. I'm trying to figure out the best way to export an interactive page for them to proof. I've tried exporting to an interactive PDF but this simply does not work or function properly.
At the moment I'm exporting each page as a standard PDF and telling them what's interactive. In an ideal world I'd be able to export all the interactivity so they can open it up on their systems and test it out.
Can anyone suggest the best way to do this?
Thanks so much!

That is not correct. The clients will need a mobile device, preferably an iPad with the free Adobe Content Viewer installed. Android and Windows are getting there, though.
They would have to get an Adobe ID (free) and sign into the viewer that way.
They can download the Adobe Content Viewer here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-content-viewer/id389067418?mt=8
Once you share the folio with their Adobe ID, they’ll be able to download and view it on their device.

Interactive Pen

Hi all.
I now make a DVD with interactive publications with InDesign and Acrobat for a client as follows:
1. I make the layout in InDesign with the interactive part.
2. Generating the PDF file and add the rest of interactivity.
3. I make an ISO image to make a hybrid DVD (Mac and PC).
4. From a Mac with Toast application, generate the DVD platform.
This client is now asking me to do the same for a pen, but reserving a storage portion for reading and writing user pendrive.
The part of reading and writing would be to add and delete files, but part of the application would read only.
I wonder if this is possible and how it might.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my English is not my native language.

I was hoping a regular Mac user would happen along and take a stab at this.
As far as I know flash drives should work cross-platform, so you'll only need one partition for Mac and PC (I said "should" becasue some versions of OS X apparently refuse to read them at all from time to time -- my daghter ran into this on Tiger, but it has cleared itself up, apparently, so I don't know what the actual cause was, just that it wasn't isolated). I don't think, though, that there is any way to effectively make a partition read-only on a flash drive, nor have I ever actually tried to partition one, though I don't have any reason to believe it can't be done. Optical media is read only by its nature, but flash drives are writeable, and a user would be able to change the properties themselves.

Interactive pendrive

Hi all.
I now make a DVD with interactive publications with InDesign and Acrobat for a client as follows:
1. I make the layout in InDesign with the interactive part.
2. Generating the PDF file and add the rest of interactivity.
3. I make an ISO image to make a hybrid DVD (Mac and PC).
4. From a Mac with Toast application, generate the DVD platform.
This client is now asking me to do the same for a pen, but reserving a storage portion for reading and writing user pendrive.
The part of reading and writing would be to add and delete files, but part of the application would read only.
I wonder if this is possible and how it might.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my English is not my native language.

You can't make part-read-only USB flash drives. Some models of flash drive have a hardware switch to lock the entire drive as read-only (which you could flip after writing the data, then seal with glue), but that's it.

Exporting to SWF: embed SWFs on pages?

Hi there
I've been experimenting with the export to SWF option in ID CS4. I was hoping I'd be able to place individual SWFs on each page of my ID document and then export the whole document as a sinlge SWF, giving me a nicely interactive publication. The SWFs that I've placed on the pages don't play in the final document, though.
Any ideas about fixing this?
I've looked at all the Movie Options for the SWFs that I've placed and the options available at export and nothing seems to have helped.
I'd appreciate any thoughts.

I was hoping to take advantage of InDesign's page transitions to present the SWFs, but it looks like I may have to work out how to do it all in Flash instead.
I do a lot of Flash work but have only briefly experimented with the ID exporter, so there could be something I'm missing. I'm guessing to get what you are after to work will be difficult depending on your ActionScript skills. Unfortunately when you export an fla, the fla does not include the transition code—your pages get placed sequentially on the timeline with no transitions. There is the bitmap representation of the swf and it wouldn't take much to load your swfs into position, but you'll have to build your own page flip transitions.

Does DPS support Object States or will it in the future?

Most, if not all of the interactive publications I have designed in ID CS5 use object states to deliver large amounts of content in a cleaner, less-cluttered manner; I find the object states feature of InDesign to be by far the most powerful interactive component. Does DPS have the object states feature or will it in the future?

Yes, object states are supported. Create object states, select object states and then fine tune in the Overlay Creator. You can make buttons to go to next/previous or specific state, you can autoplay swipe through object states etc.

Workflow Question - Creating an iPad App?

I have created my interactive publication InDesign.
I've tested it in Content Viewer on my Mac
I've created a Folio and sent it to my Adobe online account and tried to view it on my iPad (but got the error, waiting for the app update).
How do I go about publish it as its own App and actually get it to users?
Thanks

Answering my own question so it might help others.
As I understand it to get the .folio to the Apple store I then have to use the Viewer Builder application to make it into an app and submit to Apple, but this is only available if I sign up for a Professional account at a huge cost!

Create Digital Brochure (ebrochure)

I would like to create a digital brochure (catalogue with product pictures and contents) to be sent by email or to be shown on a internet page.
The brochure does not have video but needs to have the flipping pages effect, sonething that I have understood needs Flash.
I am not sure what software can be used: Pages or Adobe CS4?
Thank you for your help

Hi jtcreations72
Welcome to the forum.
Pages does not, although you can convert a .pdf output from Pages:
http://www.swftools.org/
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/07/20/javascript-sprite-animation-using-jque ry/
http://www.turn-page.com/online-interactive-publications/
http://page-flip.com/
http://www.pdf2pageturn.com/
http://www.emagcreator.com/?kk=flip%20page&_kt=456e575f-a1cd-490d-b902-5f5f82a6d600&gclid=CMGeiprR_p0CFQEupA odq1tsQ
http://vcab.com/content/vcab-overview.aspx?ref=VCAU-Generic&gclid=CKOol5vR_p0CFc 0vpAodcX4gqA
http://www.wildflip.com/
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/PhotosGraphics/Web_Graphics/Macromedia_Flash/Q23355830.html
http://pageflip.hu/
http://wareseeker.com/free-pdf-page-flip/
http://www.truworthit.com/products/xml-FlashPageFlip.php
Peter

Empowered by Single Edition: Publishing on iPad | MAX 2013 – The Creativity Conference | Adobe TV

Witness the Digital Publishing Suite, Single Edition workflow from beginning to end so that you can easily design and build interactive publications using InDesign. Learn the basics of building interactive features into an InDesign file, the steps for building an app, and how to publish to the iTunes Store. In this session, you'll learn how to:• Add interactive features such as video and slide shows to an InDesign file — no coding required• Acquire an Apple developer certificate and publish to the iTunes Store• Prepare for and build your Digital Publishing Suite app
http://adobe.ly/12ybU2h

Good presentation. I like his calm, patient, cadence.
It's a little ironic that Colin mentions the Step By Step guide many times but doesn't give a link. (Except maybe inside that one DPS screen, I wasn't sure.)
Anyway, here is the link:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ppcompdoc/Step_by_step_guide_to_dps_se.pdf

Which Digital Publishing suite do I need to buy?

Okay simple question I hope. My wife is starting her book publishing biz and will be doing Digial (eBooks) and Print publishing of books. She wants to publish books on multiple platforms including Kindle, iBooks, and Nook which includes Android and iOS devices. She will not be creating book covers herself. Which Digital Publishing Suite should she buy, entire CS or just the Digital Publishing Suite Pro or Single edition? Should do a cloud suscription vs the other method you can buy these Abobe products? She's student so she can get students discount as well.

None of them. DPS is for highly interactive publications. She should be learning all about epub, for what you describe.
That said, as a student she can take advantage of highly discounted rates for Creative Cloud. The first year is only $19.99/month.
Details on this page http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html
Bob

Recommended epublication creation

Hello,
We need to provide a solution to a government institution for:
Distibuting via a website documents for download to be viewed to: computer, iOS devices, Android devices and Windows Phones.
The solution must be applicable to a graphic design application like InDesign.
Questions:
1. How can the client distribute PDFs or epubs created with InDesign? Does he need to use a DPS workflow? What else do the client need in order to distribute these files?
Best regards
Kostas Backas

If the documents will be text-heavy, the best bet is to export to ePub format from InDesign. The ePub format is compatible for most devices. You can even use Amazon's Export for Kindle plugin for InDesign to publish to their Fire device. ePub provides some features that are not available in a DPS app such as searchable text, user-changeable text size, etc. These features are more suitable for books.
The problem with PDFs is that they rescale to fit the device where an ePub reflows to fit the device.
What is produced using the Digital Publishing Suite solution is an app (application), not a document. The DPS app is more for high-design, user-interactive publications. These are more graphic-oriented rather than text and include interactivity not available for ePub (pinch and zoom, 3D image sequence and panorama views, and scrollable frames). Your client will need to use either the Professional or Enterprise edition of DPS to publish to devices other than iPad. I am not sure about compatibility with Windows Phones (no mention in Adobe's documentation). Adobe's documentation states for Professional and Enterprise editions: "includes Content Viewer for iPad, Content Viewer for Android, and Content Viewer for Desktop. This allows readers to consume content on iPad and iPad 2, and all Android based tablet devices."
For distribution, ePubs and PDFs can be emailed as an attachment, they can be download from a website, or shared through an on-line service such as DropBox. DropBox recently announced that files in your DropBox folder can be shared using Facebook Groups. You distribute DPS apps, whether free or paid for, through Apple's iTunes store. Also, the Professional and Enterprise editions support the ability of Amazon and Android subscribers (or members) to download digital issues to their devices through direct entitlement.

Can Abobe viewer be used to bypass the app store?

Given that company A is not readily accepting DPS created interactive publications for the App store. Is there a way to use the Adobe viewer to publish and push content out to say a company sales team?

While Neil is correct, can you define "company sales team?" If that's 10 or 20 people then go right ahead and use the ACV. I've done this for several clients and it's fine. For a very large organization, then yes, you need enterprise.
Enterprise, while allowing private distribution still as restrictions. Enterprise distribution is for private use only. IOW, you can't sell you own apps.
Bob

Adobe Viewer iPad Error - with iPad Screen Grab

I've followed the tutorial to create a interactive publication:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/digitalpubsuite/tutorials/digitalpubsuite_tutorials.pdf
I installed the Adobe Viewer on my iPad and signed in. I can see the "City Guide Monthly" publication as an icon in the viewer but when I then click on the Download button I get an error as shown in the screen grab below. Any ideas why? It all previews fine on my Mac.

The Viewer on iTunes has not been updated yet. This an Apple issue since they take forever to approve everything.
You'll need to wait a bit until they get around to it.
BTW, there's dedicated forum for DPS. Please post follow up messages there.
Bob

Video and .swf embedded in InDesign CS5

Hello,
I am planning on an interactive publication to be exported either as PDF or as .swf (which I plan to import into Flash Projector and group it into an .app and .exe for single-file download).
In the InDesign CS5 file I need to include .swf files (exported from Flash Catalyst) and video (flv or f4v format, encoded with Adobe Media Encoder), as well as various animations made with the Interactive panel tools.
In a previous attempt (exported as PDF), I could not play video and sometimes the .swf were not exported correctly but as an icon which would not play.
So, my questions are:
- Does exporting as .swf embed video and .swf to the final file?
I don't mind about the .swf size, but I want the final file to play correctly.
- Does the final .app or .exe, made by Flash Projector, contain the video files?
I would expect a single file with everything included, hence the use of Projector. If you have another idea, please share
- Does exporting as Interactive PDF embed video and .swf to the final file?
Again, file size is not of importance, playability is.
- Which file should I use if I plan to include animations, video and other .swf files?
I can work around the iPDF inability to display animations, I'm mostly concerned about displaying videos and .swf animations
Thanks,
Konstantinos

I'll answer as an InDesign user who doesn't work with Flash Professional or Flash Projector.
There are two Flash workflows which are possible—but they don't work the same, and you can't change one into the other. You can export as a SWF file to go directly to a browser. This option does NOT embed videos. It stores them in a separate folder called "[filename]_Resources". I don't know if this works with Flash Projector but I doubt it.
The second workflow is to export as a FLA file into Flash Professional from which I expect you could create such a file. I believe you can include your video files when exporting to Flash Professional. There I assume you could embed them or not.
As for exporting an Interactive PDF file in CS5, if you choose File > Export > Adobe PDF (Interactive), it exports as a PDF 1.7 (Extension Level 3) file which supports embedding videos, and it will do so without having to choose a setting. If you choose FLV or F4V files you can set their options for play in the Media panel. Keep in mind, however, that they will only play in Acrobat 9 Pro, Acrobat X Pro, or Adobe Reader 9 and X, not earlier versions.
You can include SWF files in a PDF file and these can include animations. Make sure you upgrade InDesign to the latest version, because they've had to patch some bugs in how the SWF files preview.

How do I make a publication interactive for web use?

I have Design Premium CS5.5. I created a publication in In Design and would like to make it interactive (turn pages and search capability) and place it on my website. What software in my Design Premium package would I use to do this?

There is no such thing. Web design has completely different requirements and fancies like page turns require at least some knowledge of JavaScript programming for instance as a search function would require a dynamic backend infrastructure based on PHP or similar. You basically have to rebuild it from scratch using native web techniques.
Mylenium

Interactive Publications

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