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• • September 3, 2014 at 9:14 pm #70409
    Robert Whitney

    Participant

    I’m in the process of converting a file we completed as an offset print job to a PDF to be viewed on iPads. I’ve done simple things like adding links out to the URLs, emails, and making the ToC point to the correct pages (and links back to the ToC too) but I’m stumped on one thing.

    There’s a short list of Upcoming Event Dates at the front of the piece, and I want them to be iCal items, so that the viewer can tap them & add to their local Calendar. Can not for the life of me find anything built into the InDesign Hyperlinks or DPS functions to accomplish this though.

    I generated a few Events on my Mac, then Exported the .ics files and tried to link to those in a Dropbox folder, hoping the iPad would recognize the file type & prompt me to add them to my Calendar but no dice. Is this possible, through Javascript, a plug-in or script perhaps?

  • September 4, 2014 at 8:46 am #70424
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Interesting idea. But you can only link to URLs. Can you put the ics file on a server, then get the url of the file and link to it?

  • September 4, 2014 at 8:35 pm #70431
    Robert Whitney

    Participant

    Maybe, that’s what I tried doing by placing the link to an individual .ics file into a Shared/Public folder on Dropbox but it wasn’t recognized. The literal error shown is:

    “Cannot Subscribe.
    Could not subscribe to the calendar “Event Name” from http://www.dropbox.com”

    I’ll try it on a “real” server and see if that’s successful. Kind of surprised this isn’t more common.

    More testing to follow!!

  • September 9, 2014 at 9:31 pm #70494
    Robert Whitney

    Participant

    Got it! I made a few individual Events in the desktop App, added them to a New Calendar & Exported that as an .ics file and that linked file works as expected. Prompts the user to Subscribe to the Calendar. I’d like the option to create each date as a separate link within the PDF so users can add individual Events, but we’ll see if that’s worth the effort.

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