Publishing Interactive Magazine

[keylah_3541]

Hi,

I want to publish an interactive magazine online for a final year college project. Im under a big time crunch so if anyone could get back to me asap it would be very appreciated. It has a lot of interactive elements eg videos, popups, clickable linkts etc so I dont think that the interactive pdf will work. 

I would love for the pages to "flip" and also be responsive so that a two page spread is shown on a desktop, but only one page is shown on a mobile screen/ tablet screen. Is there a way for me to do this easily?

I also would love to host it on my own website or have its own domain eg "magazinename.com", is this possible too?

I have heard of using in5 but unfortunately the cost is an isssue for me. Is there any free or cheap places i can do all these things??

Please let me know!

-Keylah 

[Randy Hagan]

If you're looking for animated effects like page flips and different views between desktop and mobile layouts, you're looking at some type of dedicated ePublishing tool that can take InDesign/Acrobat output and translate it in HTML5/CSS3 digital publishing terms.

Two I would recommend you look at are in5, and FlippingBook. You can click on the links and see which one, or if you want to explore other options they're available too. But no matter what option you choose, you're definitely looking at an add-on product to get the results you're looking for.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[keylah_3541]

Thank you for your response Randy, i went ahead and puchased in5. I'm having issues with publishing online still, what is the best way for me to get my magazine online but also the cheapest. Since i only need it online for one month i dont want to purchase a year long subscription for a web server.

Do you have any advice for me on this?

Keylah

[Randy Hagan]

I would go to GoDaddy. Figure $10-15 to register a URL (if you don't already have one) and like $20-30 to host a website for a couple of months (don't choose the annual price discount) and let it lapse when you're done. Shut down the site hosting when you're done, and you'll have a year to decide whether to renew and keep the URL if you choose to do it.

[BobLevine]

In addition to Randy's pointers, there is no way to produce genuinely responsive content from InDesign. 

I'm not sure what your overall goal is here, but you also need to consider how this content will be viewed.

Finally, I don't mean to throw cold water on this but there is no free or cheap way you're going to get this done. You get what you pay for.

[keylah_3541]

Hi Bob,

I apologise for publishing my seonc question on the wrong page, i am new to this and just looking for some answers. I followed your advice and bought the subscription service for in5. It is working really well for everything i need. However, i have a second question and was wondering if you could help me.

Do you have any advice for publishing the magazine online with in5? What is the easiest and cheapest way for me to do this. As this is a college project funds are very limited. I only need the magazine to be online for 1 month.

Let me know if you have any suggestions,

Many Thanks

Keylah 

[BobLevine]

You're still going to have to pay. You'll need a domain and web host. Neither one of them is free. 

There's nothing magic about this, unfortunately. Most of the work I do these days centers on websites built with WordPress. I've been at it for years and I'm still learning.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@keylah_3541

If you don't need your own domain - like something.com - then most of the hosting services will give you a subdomain for free.

And if that's OK - then I could probably host your website on my server 😉 

[rayek.elfin]

Since your IN5 html project will be a static one, even Github or GitLab could work. Another free option is Altervista (Italian free hosting). You get a free subdomain yourname.altervista.org and free hosting.

Make sure to register for the filemanager option, and avoid the WordPress hosting. Then you can upload your files to your hosting space.

Just make sure the first file (home page / start page) is named index.html. Anyone browsing to your yourname.altervista.org will then see your publication.

https://en.altervista.org/create-free-site.php

Or GitLab: https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/pages/

[Derek Cross]

Check with your tutor that it's acceptable, I would suggest you use InDesign's Publish Online facility. If you know InDesign, it's relatively easy to create reliable interactive documents that can be read on PCs, Macs, Tablets and Smart Phones. And it's free with InDesign and you can include a link on your website. You can even include a facility to enable users to download a (static) PDF version.