how do I create an interactive/animated chart?

[nswism46783257]

I'm designing an organisational chart for my company in InDesign, is there a way that I can make the chart interactive/animated?

For example if I click on the CEO box the manager boxes will be appearing.

Thanks in advance

[Michael Bullo]

You can definitely add interactivity and animation within InDesign.

This is a rather large topic. You might want to have a look at this page to get started…

Animate InDesign objects in your documents

You should also give some thought to how you might publish and view this material. A few starting points…

• Traditionally such content would be exported out as an interactive PDF. However, the ability to display the different forms of interactive content by various PDF viewers is getting worse, not better, and that includes Adobe Acrobat and the free Reader.
• ePub is an option but you will need to look at software options for displaying them. There are good free options.
• Publish Online is a service offered for free by Adobe and built into InDesign. It's HTML based and does a great job of displaying interactivity/animation in a browser on all devices. The biggest criticism I see for this is that the content is hosted on Adobe servers and can't be moved elsewhere.

[nswism46783257]

Hi Mike, thanks for your quick reply
I need to prepare this presentation to be displayed on a screen during meetings, but I also need to send it by email to the staff and having the possibility to print it.

Is that possible with the option that you listed before?

Thanks

[Michael Bullo]

You might want to decide whether your focus here is digital presentation or print. This is not concrete but rather a guideline. I mention this as for example you can build lots of great buttons with all kind of content that appears and disappears but such material would likely be a shambles to print.

While it might not be the optimal choice you might also want to consider creating two options.

• A highly animated and interactive presentation with content appearing and disappearing as needed. AND
• A well designed but simple static PDF for printing.

[Derek Cross]

If you’re prepared to put in the time to learn it, and you have the budget, you could create a web app with in5: Digital Magazines, Mobile Apps, Web Banner, Microsites, & more from InDesign with in5 - Home

[BobLevine]

What you describe would best be done using Powerpoint.

[Diane Burns]

Powerpoint is ok, but if you want to do it in InDesign, it's not difficult. You might check out my course on animations on LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com): InDesign: Creating Animations | LinkedIn Learning, formerly Lynda.com

Also, you can publish to the web easily right from InDesign using Publish Online. Here are some examples of work done using InDesign (only) and Publish Online: http://bit.ly/PubOnCollection

Hope that helps.