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• • October 29, 2013 at 5:26 pm #66025
    Elena Petrov

    Member

    I’ve already asked this question before but I’m still looking for a better solution. My thesis is about three hundred pages long. It is full of photos, illustrations, you-tube and self-recorded videos and audios. By the nature of my research, which is about the effects that digital media has on creativity in visual communication, I am compelled to look for the digital and creative ways of presenting my study material. My initial idea was to put it in an interactive PDF, in the way that National Geographic is done. Soon, unfortunately I realised that: a) the whole file was becoming too huge and b) interactive elements were not always working. To solve the first problem, I decided to break the whole document into multiple one-chapter-documents and have one navigator document from which the chapters could be open one by one.

    So, my first question is about this system of organising the thesis: if someone might have a much better solution to create a more effective system?

    My second question is if there is actually a way of making interactive things working in PDFed InDesign? I found the way for buttons to get working. Videos usually work. But things like slideshows, which I need so much and moving things don’t work. I know that sometimes order between the objects blocks thier interactivity. I looked at this and think that it might be something else. But I don’t know what it is.

  • October 30, 2013 at 5:10 pm #66037
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    This is way outside my field so I may be talking through my hat. On the other hand, I may have a dispassionate objective view. :-)

    But have you though of making the whole thing in html? Everything — photos, videos, slideshows, text — would be viewable through a web browser. After all, InDesign does allow (admittedly limited) exporting into html.

  • October 30, 2013 at 6:57 pm #66040
    Elena Petrov

    Member

    Thank you very-very much Furry,

    I thought about making it in HTML, but I’m not an expert in web design.
    It will be a new big learning curve for me which I don’t mind at all, I just wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.

    Sorry for silly questions, but could you please throw a hint to me on how to go about doing this? There is a new software, Adobe Muse that seem to be allowing to create a website without deep professional knowledge of web designing, do you think it would be the right software for me to start leaning about?
    What if I have about 100000 words in my thesis, do you think that a website can facilitate navigation through the chapters with such a big word count?

    Thank heaps for replying and waiting for your advice,
    Elena

  • October 31, 2013 at 5:10 pm #66059
    Tom Pardy

    Member

    Having learnt HTML about 15 years ago (and added CSS to it along the way) it is very difficult for me to “unlearn” it and give you advice on where to start. I have no experience whatever of Muse, though I have watched a couple of videos about it by Terry White. I think I would begin by exploring the Export as HTML option within InDesign and see whether that gives you any satisfaction. Try exporting a few pages, open them in a web browser and see whether you are horrified by the result.

    So far as learning HTML goes, I found Elizabeth Castro’s “HTML for the World Wide Web” (one of the Visual Quickstart series of books) very helpful. I think the latest edition is the 5th.

    I don’t see 100000 words as a barrier since each of your chapters could be a separate page of HTML with links between them. Indeed, there is no limit to how many pages you can have, provided there are links between them. For instance, ask yourself how many words there are in Wikipedia! Each of your chapters might have multiple pages.

    Without actually seeing your thesis, I feel that I am simply tossing ideas at it in the dark without any real knowledge of whether any of them are hitting the mark. Maybe someone else can offer more knowledgeable suggestions?

    • November 1, 2013 at 5:04 pm #66069
      Elena Petrov

      Member

      Thank you very much, Furry. I really appreciate your advice.

      I think you’re directing me to the right track.

      As I’ve mentioned before, being a graphic designer, I don’t know much about HtML. That’s why my first choice was InDesign; that’s where I feel most comfortable. Getting your expert clarifications about a web browser is very important to me because it is a big step to undertake without having too much spare time to spend just for experimenting.

      But I agree, it is a good idea to start experimenting by organising a site and placing some pages in it, which I’ve already started doing in Muse.

      Thank you very much to you, Furry

  • November 1, 2013 at 3:33 pm #66068
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Why don’t you look into exporting the whole thing out through the DPS into an iPad app?

  • November 1, 2013 at 5:12 pm #66070
    Elena Petrov

    Member

    Thank you Salieri,

    It can be a really good idea but because I need to continually show the chapters, as I’m writing them, to my supervisors, (and then get their feedback on them with their comments, I have to stick to a computer screen display. I also have to make my supervisors be able to go from one chapter to another while the whole thing is still in a process.

    Maybe I’m wrong as the whole thing of working with aPad app frightens me as being unknown.

  • May 21, 2014 at 3:39 am #68599
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    That looks to be good idea, I am thinking of using that one too, do you have a guide for it.

    _________________
    regards,
    Dave @ eatmywords.com:

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