InDesign Buttons

[leah.brutz]

I am trying to create an interactive document to preload onto USB drives. I want the document to be an SWF file, as opposed to an Interactive PDF, so I can control page navigation. When I export my document from InDesign to the SWF file the page navigation buttons work fine, however, the buttons that are supposed to take you to URL's will not work. I don't want to use the HTML file that is also exported with the SWF, so I'm not sure where to go from here?

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

Can you confirm the version of InDesign and

Can you indicate where is the html file (target) stored? and what URLs you want to open?

[leah.brutz]

Hi,

I have a subscription to the creative cloud so all of my programs are up to date. The HTML file is stored on my desktop and the URL I am trying to open is our company website.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

How are you determining the URLs do not work? If you export swf from Indesign and view, this opens your default browser to view the swf. The Flash plugin for this browser may not be up to date.

If you want/need to use swf, here are your options and caveats:

• A swf file by itself (without html) requires the visitor to have Flash Player installed.

• An html wrapper for the swf can be opened in various browsers by visitor, but requires Flash plugin to be installed and up to date to function.

• A projector of swf can be created, does not require Flash Player or up to date Flash plugin, but is platform specific.

[leah.brutz]

Jeff,

My flash player is up to date because I have the creative cloud subscription. When I open the HTML file in a browser nothing is displayed.

Would have any recommendations on a different file format to use that allows me to control the page navigation and can be easily accessed from a USB drive?

[Eric Dumas]

Hi,

I would consider to have all the files on the USB, have an autorun to start your html that wraps your main swf. Each link point to resources (other .html) located in folders on the USB and other links to online pages (http://company.com/pages.html) to ensure the stability.

You need to be careful how you treat your links, depending on how a computer maps the drive, the link might not work.

When exporting the files, location references are created so if you copy-paste the files somewhere else, the links are broken, resources are not found and web pages are blank.

You need to export to the USB instead of copying files across so the links include the USB location.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

Flash Player and Flash plugins are completely different. Having an up-to-date Flash player with a CC subscription does not mean your browser Flash plugins are updated as well. Are you using Chrome to view html with swf? Have you tried a different browser? Can your share the swf?

Usually, an errant click in Acrobat/Reader is the reason a visitor gets off track (and the reason I assume you would want to control page navigation). But for the most part, a visitor will follow the desired path. A PDF in my opinion would out weigh any issues that you will have with a swf/flash presentation.