Interactive PDFs and e-pub resources

[mccoole-creative]

Hello all,

I have been working on a fairly complex interactive PDF report created in InDesign and was surprised to learn in road-testing that a few 'everyday' functions - like 'go to previous' and 'go to next' actions - weren't supported on IOS devices. I have since found a slightly cumbersome work-around to this, but it's done the job and the client is happy.

My question is what other alternative deliverables would you consider for a lengthy report that doesn't strictly have a linear start-to-end but could be viewed cross platform and give the user an option to print-out? A bit ambiguous I know, but am interested to see what gets considered... (create as a e-pub, web page, an app, maybe Abobe's publish online?)

Also - does anyone have any good go-to resources - websites, courses for improving e-pub skills, software- for improving the end product and understanding the full capabilities?

Thanks in advance

Mike

[Derek Cross · Accepted solution]

Try out Publish Online – you can include interactions (and more), you can easily produce it from your existing InDesign document, it can be viewed on any device with a browser that renders HTML5 and you can set it so that the user can download a PDF version. The disadvantages are that it doesn't reflow to suit the device, it's hosted on Adobe's servers, you can't password protect or monetise the documents.

There are excellent online video tutorial for producing all kinds of digital formats on Puralsite.com and Lynda.com (you can get a free 30-day trial on these).

[mccoole-creative]

Thank you Derek. Lynda.com sprang to mind - but not heard of Puralsite. Will check out.

[Derek Cross]

Have a look at this: https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/indesign-cc-publish-online/table-of-contents