InDesign for Interactive Web

[wutbkk]

Hi all,

Is InDesign capable of publishing interactive web like this National Geographic one?
A Bear's-Eye View of Yellowstone

From your view, what Adobe softwares are required to create something like that? I have a client who requests similar interactive presentation to pitch their company's to their potential clients. I'm interested to develop my skill in this area, but am not sure where to start.

[Derek Cross]

If you have InDesign CC2017/2018 (and you know how to create documents with it) you could use the Publish Online facility to produce this kind of thing. The disadvantage is it has to be hosted by Adobe and you can't monetise it. An alternative might be InDesign and in5: Export HTML5 from InDesign with in5 - Home

[wutbkk]

Thank you very much Derek. I do have InDesign CC and can learn Publish Online / Muse, but I will need to focus my time investment in learning the right program or just simply outsourcing to a web developer who can work with me.

By looking at the National Geographic's article, can you tell how (which programs) did they make it? Or this Huffington's article:

Millennials Are Screwed - The Huffington Post

[BobLevine]

Forget InDesign for something like that.

You want to look at a full web authoring system like WordPress.

[wutbkk]

Hi Bob, thank you for your reply. Yeah I might have to collaborate with a web dev on this it seems. But I guess InDesign's digital publishing can still work if client doesn't need a web article, just an interactive pdf as part of a pitch presentation for their own potential clients.

[BobLevine]

Forget Interactive PDF, too.

If what you showed us is what they want, InDesign is not something to even bring into the equation. If it's just a one pager, you could look at Adobe Spark. It's part of your CC subscription.

[Derek Cross]

An alternative to consider might be Adobe Muse, if you know InDesign it's easy to use it to create simple websites with this application that's included in the Creative Cloud Suite. It that can include some of these effects you want. Obviously National Graphic can afford sophisticated (and expensive) development, which presumably you can't match, but my suggestions are realistic for simpler offerings.

Here's a couple of online video tutorials from Lynda.com which will show you whether one of them might suit your purposes (you can get a 30-day free trial):

InDesign: Publish Online

Designing a Portfolio Website with Muse