I Want to Create an Interactive Text

[mattspence]

Hello,

I created several interactive texts for my classes using Apple's iBook Author, but the company stopped supporting it years ago, and it has not produced a capable replacement. So, I would like to recreate the texts using Adobe apps. The problem is that I don't know which ones to use, which is why I am going to post this request for help on several different support forums. I have never used InDesign, but I know it is a premiere page layout application. However, will it allow me to embed explanatory videos, web links, and HTML widgets? Can I format the text of my eBook so that a student could hover her or his pointer over some text to reveal explanatory notes? Lastly, would InDesign allow me to produce a text that could be experienced on Macs, PCs, phones, and tablets?

Thank you so much in advance for any help you can give me!

[Derek Cross]

Have a look at InDesign's Publish Online facility which offers the kind of interactivity you want.

But InDesign is a professional industry standard publishing application with a steep learning curve. If you want to put the effort into learning it have a look at some of the LinkedInLearning step-by-step video tutorials. (You can get 30-days free access.)

Return to this forum with specific questions when you get stuck.

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-2023-essential-training?trk=learning-serp_learning-search...

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/indesign-publish-online-2?trk=learning-serp_learning-search-card_s...

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

InDesign, exporting through Publish Online, is one solution, as Derek notes. The only minor caveat is that by using PO, you are entirely bound to the supporting Adobe service — there is no way to take the material on to your own server (or a school's). Adobe's record with supporting such services over the long run is... spotty. You also have to maintain your Adobe subscription for those documents to remain available. And there are changes from time to time that cause some working presentations to need updates.

A parallel solution would be InDesign plus the In5 plug-in, which produces web and other output presentions of exceptional quality and ease, and which will run on any web server you care to provide. It is, however, rather expensive, about the same subscription cost as the Adobe tools themselves. Its productions are "permanent," though and will work forever on a web host of your choosing, even if you let the subscription(s) lapse.

That is the end of "page authoring to web/online" options that I know of. However, the very straightforward, if not simple method would be to build these documents as web pages to begin with. The skill and knowledge levels required would be quite high, though, higher than InDesign with either of its online support options, and would not build as much on experience with a similar tool. (Web design and development is many things, most better than ten years ago, but fully visual design is still not really a thing. You have to manage code to get any but simple results.)

[Derek Cross]

In5 would be a good solution but at up to nearly $1000 a year for a subscription it would possibly be beyond the budget for this kind of thing. And there's the additional learning issue for someone who doesn't know how to use InDesign.