Adobe Community: PDF for iPad

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1. markerline,

Jul 4, 2012 3:51 PM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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It has been my experience that creating PDFs from InDesign with interactivity such as multimedia (sounds, movies, etc) does not work on iPads, iphones, or Android devices. You need stock Desktop Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat for interactivity. Someone correct me if they know otherwise though because my experience with this is limited to my own experiments with supposedly interactive files that I have created from ID.

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2. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 4, 2012 11:19 PM in reply to markerline

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Thanks 1.markerline for your reply to my inquiry.

Not sure what you mean by saying you need Reader or Acrobat for interactivity. Do you mean I can take an InDesign file without interactivity, export a PDF file from it, then add the interactivity over it from within Acrobat Pro? Can I create buttons in Pro to make the captions appear upon mouse over, then disappear upon mouse out? If so, could I design the caption buttons in Acrobat Pro to be any way as elegant as the InDesign objects? From what I've learned about Acrobat Pro, it's a very robust program, and it probably CAN produce that kind of interactivity.

If the PDF file does work as I've described above, will it indeed work on an iPad, even if the caption boxes end up looking no more elegant than the typical comment boxes you can produce in Acrobat Pro?

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3. markerline,

Jul 5, 2012 4:32 AM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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I am simply saying that whatever interactivity you create and can view on your Desktop version of Adobe Reader (PDF viewer) you will NOT be able to see on the iPad. I don't know about hyperlinks but I do know about the other types of multimedia inserts that I mentioned--you cannot see them on the iPad.

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4. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 5, 2012 7:52 AM in reply to markerline

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You're right.

So I did some tests in Acrobat Pro last night, placing some buttons over images in a flattened, InDesign-generated PDF file, to make the visibility of text fields react to mouse states on the buttons, and that worked quite well. I believe I'll even be able to design the text fields in Acrobat Pro so that the client will be satisfied with how they look.

Thanks again!

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5. markerline,

Jul 5, 2012 9:01 AM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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But did you test it on the ipad and iphone? It may work in acrobat pro but not in adobe reader for ios

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6. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 5, 2012 9:28 AM in reply to markerline

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I sent a test PDF to them this morning, so I'll know soon enough. I don't have an iPad myself, so I'm working blind. One unexpected behavior happened: in Acrobat Pro I assigned a white fill to the caption/text fields and when I opened the file in Acrobat Reader the color changed to a light blue fill. That wasn't a good sign.

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7. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 5, 2012 12:22 PM in reply to markerline

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The art director for the project said the PDF didn't work on her iPad after all. I believe it was because I used mouse events to trigger the actions, and they needed toe be touch events, which Acrobat Pro doesn't support. I sent her one last revised PDF file that included FOCUS and BLUR events, but I'm not hopeful they'll work either.

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8. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 5, 2012 4:00 PM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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Latest update on this project: Using DW, I placed a jpg on a web page, created some mapped buttons on the images within the jpeg, then used javascript to show/hide divs containing the captions for mouse events, in the hope that the iPad associates mouse events with touch events. Assuming the iPad can browse the web just like on a desktop, then I can't see how this won't work.

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9. markerline,

Jul 5, 2012 4:41 PM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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so then what you're essentially saying is you will have a javascripted html page for the interactivity with a button to download a static PDF. Does that sound like basically what you want to accomplish? JQuery makes javascript much easier fyi.

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10. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 5, 2012 4:51 PM in reply to markerline

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The button just shows an invisible div with the caption text inside. No PDF involved. Here's some of the code:

function MM_showHideLayers() { //v9.0

var i,p,v,obj,args=MM_showHideLayers.arguments;

for (i=0; i<(args.length-2); i+=3)

with (document) if (getElementById && ((obj=getElementById(args[i]))!=null)) { v=args[i+2];

if (obj.style) { obj=obj.style; v=(v=='show')?'visible':(v=='hide')?'hidden':v; }

obj.visibility=v; }

}

</script>

</head>

<body>

This is a description of the first stain sample. This is a description of the first stain sample.

This is a description of the first stain sample.

</div>

This is a description of the second stain sample. This is a description of the second stain sample.

This is a description of the second stain sample.

</div>

This is a description of the third stain sample. This is a description of the third stain sample.

This is a description of the third stain sample.

</div>

</map>

</div>

</body>

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

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11. Pat Wibbeler,

Jul 9, 2012 8:46 AM in reply to Ut8l8t85s

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The Mobile Reader (ios, Android) does not support inline media or flash content. It DOES, however support link annotations that go to external http urls. We've heard a number of requests to support some inline media, though there is nothing we'll be able to do about flash support (at least on ios) since Apple does not allow it. We're considering adding some JavaScript capabilities, though that will initially be focused on supporting calculation, validation and formatting for form fields. The interactivity with buttons described here would have to come later. The mobile readers do support adding some media types as attachments or in a portfolio. If the media type is supported for playback by the iPad (e.g. a properly encoded quicktime file), then we will launch the built-in player.

I hope this helps clarify what the Mobile Reader can and cannot do. I'm sorry that much of what you've asked for is "cannot" for the moment =).

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12. Ut8l8t85s,

Jul 9, 2012 9:00 AM in reply to Pat Wibbeler

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Thanks Pat. At least I was armed with the facts when I last discussed the issues with my liaison with the client. It would perhaps been unwise to take on a design project for an ios when I don't even own own. Turns out the client wasn't even set on having popup captions after all, and may be looking to just reveal everything in a table, so I'm looking into perhaps creating an email blast campaign for them.

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13. Folobo,

Jan 26, 2013 8:13 AM in reply to Pat Wibbeler

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Sorry Pat - the last release of iOS reader mobile support button in pdf interactive?

I understand that the rollover do not work (as in DPS) but the 2 state of button work.

Please can you clarify this? Ok no-swf but button are very important.

Many thanks.

F

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PDF for iPad

Jul 4, 2012 3:19 PM

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