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Display pdf newsletter on web page

Apr 23, 2011 9:35 PM

I'm currently working on a website for an organization that puts out a bi-monthly newsletter as a pdf. What I would like to do is display the current newsletter on the page itself so viewers can flip through it, and have links to the pdf past newsletters. I've found some info on this but the basic premise of it all is that I can convert a pdf to swf in Illustrator and add that to the page. The problem I'm having with that is it seems Illustrator will only load one page at a time and the newsletters are 4-5 pages on average. Is there an easy way that I can do this myself, or would my best bet be to pay for someone else to do it or for more software? I currently have the CS5 Master Collection and would think that something in there is what I'm looking for.

 

This is my first post here but hopefully I explained my issue clear enough that someone can help. Thanks in advance!

1466 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Nancy O., Apr 26, 2011 10:18 AM
 
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  • Nick Entin
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    1. Nick Entin,
    Apr 24, 2011 11:59 AM   in reply to aptcfr
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    Try putting the current PDF in an iFrame.

     

    <iframe src="newsletter/current.pdf" width="100%" height="500"></iframe>

     

    Nick

     
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  • Nancy O.
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    2. Nancy O.,
    Apr 24, 2011 3:28 PM   in reply to aptcfr
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    Embedded PDFs do not always show up.  Much depends on browser, preferences, plug-ins and supporting software used by your site visitors.

     

    For best cross browser results, provide a direct link to your PDF files.  Add a thumbnail image to give users some idea of what the page contains.  This is how Adobe does it:

    http://www.adobe.com/manufacturing/3dpdfsamples/3dsolutions/

     

     

    Nancy O.
    Alt-Web Design & Publishing
    Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
    http://alt-web.com/
    http://twitter.com/altweb

     
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  • aptcfr
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    3. aptcfr,
    Apr 25, 2011 6:03 PM   in reply to Nancy O.
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    Nancy, I think that's what I'm going to do for older newsletters. For the current issue though, I was thinking more along the lines of something like this...

    http://www.axmag.com/gallery/style2/index.html

     

    I would like to be able to do it myself, if possible.

     
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  • Nick Entin
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    4. Nick Entin,
    Apr 25, 2011 6:08 PM   in reply to aptcfr
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    aptcfr,

     

    The viewer on that site is built using Flash.  I don't have much experience with Flash, so not sure how hard it would be, but definitely possible.  I believe that you could also do this using some more advanced JavaScript.

     

    Nick

     
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  • aptcfr
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    5. aptcfr,
    Apr 25, 2011 6:11 PM   in reply to Nick Entin
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    I haven't really worked with either but I'm hoping this can be the project to push me past my comfort zone and learn something new!

     
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  • aptcfr
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    6. aptcfr,
    Apr 25, 2011 7:14 PM   in reply to aptcfr
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    OK, I've looked around a bit more and learned that what I want to do is actually called a flip book or page flip. Even found a tutorial on youtube on how to do this in Flash Catalyst and Builder. Looks like I've got some work to do! (It's so much easier when you know the actual name of what you're looking for!)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFYmbwoMy7Y

     
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  • Nancy O.
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    7. Nancy O.,
    Apr 26, 2011 10:18 AM   in reply to aptcfr
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    If you convert PDF newsletters to Flash, they will  be inaccessible to a large group of people who cannot access Flash content. Flash is not natively supported by iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods, iTouch), web assisting technologies like JAWS,  robot translators, or search engine spiders.  You'll reach more people with PDF alone than you will with Flash.  If you want total saturation, convert your PDF to HTML which everyone can see/search/translate.

     

     

    Nancy O.
    Alt-Web Design & Publishing
    Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists 
    http://alt-web.com/
    http://twitter.com/altweb

     
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