My web host will not let me FTP MP3s. So my page-turning sound effect is silent?? Workaround"

Question

To enhance an on-line life-style magazine compiled with InDesign CS5, I convertered a page-turning sound effect from a WAV file I found on-line for free to an MP3 in Audacity (a free, Open Source audio recording and processing program). I pasted in the resulting short MP3 onto each spread using Filie - Place as directed by the InDesign documentation. The sound effect works just fine when i open the HTML file in my browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefor) locally from my hard disk. But when I FTP the SWF and updated index.html to my web host, it is silent. Is this because the MP3's are "linkeded" and not "embedded" and hence have to be FTP'd along with the edited index.html and the SWF? If so, does anyone know a workaround?

Answer 1

Bob,
Thank you so much! My suspicions were correct in that the MP3 indeed was "linked" and not "embedded" and therefore the MP3 had to be physically uploaded, in some fashion, along with the SWF and index.html. I did search the HTML and found no reference to the MP3 in the HTML text so I guessed that the reference was somewhere in the SWF. Rather stupidly i did not look for a subfolder with the MP3 in it on my hard drive. I am brand new to InDesign but, having worked on complex projects for a long time, I set up a folder for the project and a subfoder for each element so that i could bring each element up to a certain level of development (with Photshop and Photoscape and etc) before pasting them into InDesign. Consequently, I have a LOT of subfolders. When you asked about the "resource" folder, I said to myself, "Self, duh?" and when I looked closely, sure enought there was a very clearly marked "resources" (that I did not create...duh! again!) folder with the MP3 in it. But alas, as before, the particular web hosting site I chose would not let me upload a file with a .mp3 extension. I assume that's because they don't want to take the chance of being sued by the RIAA for hosting pirated copyrighted material. Can't say that I blame them, frankly. So i tried a rather simple-minded dodge: I renamed the MP3 with a .txt extension whereupon it (and the resources folder) FTP'd just fine. But when I tried to re-name them to MP3s on the site, no joy. Now I had scoured the InDesign documenation and found a lot stuff relating to MP3s in InDesign PDF save as's but not anything at all about SWF save as's. But after experimenting with the menu command for a while with other audio formats, I strongly suspect that the only sound file you can link into an InDesign project destined to be saved-as a SWF are MP3s. Is that true or will InDesign link some other audio format that may or may not get by my web site? (I have already tried a FLV with just the MP3 but no video and all I got for my troubles was a black video popping up when pages are turned. UGH!) If the MP3 thing is hopeless and there is no work-around that will get past my site's blocking, then I will simply hunt around until I find another site that will allow me to FTP MP3s. So should I give up on my present site and try others? Thanking you in advacne...
Chuck