Is it possible to publish to a file rather than adobe's online link

[bekahneal]

When publishing online in Indesign, the exported online link is only active for the time that the designer has a valid Adobe membership. I am a freelance eLearning designer, I want to create interactive PDF eLearning for education companies. But I can't guarantee I will continue my membership indefinitely. I currently have a monthly subscription, I may go on holiday for 2+ months and not renew the subscription for that time, so during that period learners wouldn't be able to access the eLearning I created for them.

There’s another confidentiality issue, where I don’t want learners to be able to copy and share the interactive pdf link with people who aren’t enrolled on to the paid course.

It’d be great if I could export to a file/SCORM package instead of to an online adobe link, so we could host this file on our private learning management system and so the digital learning would be accessible always, and unrelated to my personal adobe subscription.

But from what I can see and have read online, this isn’t possible yet. Is this something Adobe is looking into for the future for Indesign? Or are they leaving this sort of capacity for Adobe Captivate. If that's the case it’d be great if Adobe could spend some more time bringing Captivate up to speed with the other amazing Adobe products.

[Derek Cross · Accepted solution]

The Publish Online document can only be hosted on Adobe's Servers. I would have thought it would still be hosted for say at least year after you stopped your CC membership (this is my guess). It is not an interactive PDF, is is similar to a FXL ePub, you can include interactivity and animations etc and the user can download a PDF version of the document (if you allow this) but it will be a plain PDF (no animations etc). You can't stop anyone copying the link and passing it on, and you can't monetise the content. Hopefully the facility will be developed in the future but Adobe don't announce their forthcoming plans.

[Diane Burns]

I have a client who uses Publish Online in just this way, for interactive educational documents that are behind a paid firewall (an orthopedic college program). Technically, yes, the URLs can be shared, but this has not been an issue for them thus far.

At one time Adobe said the URL would be good indefinitely, regardless of the subscription status. But I later saw this was limited to 90 days. Best to tie the publication of such documents to a solid subscription, which may not work in this case.

[BobLevine]

To add to Diane’s “solid subscription” advice, keep in mind that you cannot transfer Publish Online links to another subscription.

[Derek Cross]

Diane has produced a brilliant online training tutorial on using Publish Online: InDesign: Publish Online

(You can get a 30-day free trial).

[amaarora]

Hi,

Read this: Publish Online FAQ

What happens to my published documents if I cancel my membership?

Your documents will continue to be hosted on Adobe servers for at least 90 days after your membership expires. Adobe may choose to stop hosting after the 90-day period.

-Aman